(Football news) It took just five minutes for Celtic to take the lead through Daizen Maeda, capitalising on a poor pass by Rangers striker Alfredo Morelos. The hosts managed to score the equaliser two minutes after the break through Ryan Kent and James Tavernier converted a penalty in the 53rd minute to give Rangers the lead after Carl Starfelt fouled Fashion Sakala. However, Celtic’s Kyogo Furuhashi found the back of the net with just two minutes of normal time left to play, taking advantage of Jota’s deflected cross.
“The two goals [conceded] from us are poor goals to give away, certainly early in the game. We actually started well and gave away a goal. It then took us ten to 15 minutes to find ourselves again. “I thought we did, I didn’t really want the half-time whistle. We had two big chances with Alfredo from headers, Ryan Kent hitting the post and you’re thinking at half-time that we need to show a little bit more belief because I didn’t think there was much in the game other than that.
“In the second half, we showed that. We got ourselves 2-1 up and we controlled the game, they’ve not been near Allan. We have a big chance to go 3-1 up and we don’t take it. There were certainly more answers and I’ve given them some things in there that we need to do moving forward. We’ve certainly got players in our squad that will come back and help, we’ll get fitter and stronger as we go.
“The big thing for us is we’ve only been back together for a few weeks and we’re already at a level where we can compete with the team we need to compete with. Now, we need to show consistency in all the other games. We’re no further away than what we were four or five weeks ago. We’d like to be two points closer, but there’s 18 games to go and we need to keep improving here.” – Rangers manager Michael Beale
“It was a great game of football. All eyes are on this game, not just in Scotland, but around the world. I thought both teams were at it today, it was a real proper derby. It was a cracking game. We started really well and then we just lost control, mainly self-inflicted because of our passing. We made mistakes in areas of our passing that we don’t usually do and it allowed them into it and they got a bit of momentum, particularly with the crowd behind them.
“At the start of the second half, they took a football hold for 15 or 20 minutes. Again, a great spirit shown by the lads. It’s very easy on a day like this to resign yourself to a failure, but we haven’t done that all year or last year and we found a way.It’s a difficult place to come to. They threw everything at us, they knew how important the game was in the context of the league.
“For the most part, I thought we handled it OK. They’re human beings, not robots. It’s a big occasion, big game and I thought we tightened up in areas where our football is a lot more free-flowing and we didn’t do that today.” – Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou
Rangers will visit Dundee United in their next game in the Scottish Premiership and will then take on Aberdeen in the Scottish League Cup semi-final at Hampden Park. Celtic on the other hand will face Kilmarnock at the Ibrox Stadium and will take them on again in the Scottish League Cup semi-final on January 14th.
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