Uncategorized

Report: Celtic 1 Rangers 3

|
Image for Report: Celtic 1 Rangers 3

Kenny Miller scored another double against his old club today to help Rangers seal a 3-1 old firm victory at Parkhead. Miller struck twice, one of them from the spot after a Glenn Loovens own goal squared things for Rangers.

Rangers went into this game with confidence after a great performance against Valencia in midweek. Both teams went into this game with a 100% SPL record this season, Neil Lennon in fact had not lost an SPL game since he took over as Celtic manager towards the end of last season.

So how fitting it was that he finally lost his first once against his old foes Rangers. Rangers yet again came from behind to win this game, showing just why they are champions. This team really have a never say die attitude and are showing there IS no surrender.

Rangers manager Walter Smith made two changes to the team that drew with Valencia. Lee McCulloch and Kyle Lafferty came in for Ricky Foster and Vladimir Weiss. Rangers lined up in a 4-1-4-1 formation with Kenny Miller playing the lone striker role.

The game got off to a flyer. Celtic striker Anthony Stokes got booked for a horrific tackle on Sasa Papac which ultimately led to Bosnian being subbed at half-time, and Rangers came close to scoring when Steven Whittaker’s long range effort cracked off the post.

It was proving to be a fiery encounter as ever and referee Willie Collum had to show a yellow card to Lee McCulloch early on as well. Steven Davis had a decent effort saved by Foster but there wasn’t too many chances in the first half.

Celtic midfielder Ki Sung-Yeung came close from a free-kick which Allan McGregor had to get down quickly to his left hand post to save. Celtic were ending the first half strongly and found themselves in front with almost the last kick of the first-half. Gary Hooper fired in from close range after he found himself in space inside the box from a corner. Steven Davis came off the line to try and block him but it was to no avail.

Rangers were on level terms inside the first five minutes of the second half after a Steven Davis free-kick was knocked goalwards by Kyle Lafferty and the ball then came off Loovens and into the net. Lafferty took all the credit but it was clearly an own goal by the Dutchman.

Six minutes later Rangers were in the lead and it was that man Kenny Miller again who made the home supporter sick. It all started from a poor clearance from Celtic goalkeeper Forster. Steven Naismith received his poor kick-out and found Edu with a lobbed pass, Edu in turn found Kenny Miller who lethally fired the ball in to the net.

Rangers put the final nail in the coffin from the penalty spot in the 67th minute. I have to be honest here and say the referee got the penalty decision wrong as Broadfoot appeared to go down easily. The ref was only yards from the incident but was looking the wrong way, yet he still decided to award Rangers a penalty. Not a great decision but who cares.

Kenny Miller took the resulting spot-kick and fired in an unstoppable kick which went in off the post. The Celtic goalkeeper had guessed the right way but still had no chance from a brilliantly taken spot-kick.

There was no way back for Celtic after that as Rangers closed the game out comfortably. Rangers are now three points clear of Celtic and have won every single SPL game they’ve played this season.

Share this article