Tom English: Derek McInnes Delivers Togetherhood & Intensity in Old Firm Gobsmacker – BBC Sport
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McInnes delivers togetherness & intensity in Old Firm gobsmacker
Image source: SNS
By Tom English, BBC Scotland’s chief sports writer at Ibrox
Published 3 hours ago
Fifty-five minutes into this Rangers romp at Ibrox, Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney stood beside each other in the Celtic technical area, chin-stroking, head-scratching, pointing, waving, drowning.
To them, in this moment, this Premier Sports Cup quarter-final must have felt like a surreal and nightmarish occasion – and it was only 1-0 at the time. Rangers had really only started to wreak their havoc.
Such was Rangers’ dominance, their complete owning of their visitors in every conceivable category, the Celtic managerial brains trust seemed just as lost as every one of their players on the field. Man for man, Rangers won every battle, not for 45 minutes but for the full ninety.
Rangers overwhelm meek Celtic to clinch semi-final spot
The simplicity of their progression to the semi-final was a touch surreal. Neither of these were in particularly good form coming into this. They were both winning, yes, but they haven’t been all that convincing.
This season, in their last eight domestic features combined – all won, in fairness – there was only a goal in it at the end in seven of them. Both sides had got themselves into a cycle of missed chances and, at times, uncomfortable days.
So the smart money was on a tight contest. Extra-time, maybe. Penalties? You wouldn’t have ruled that out either. O’Neill is such a winning machine that many would have expected Celtic to find a way, somehow. So much for that.
Few Old Firm games surprise you anymore, but this one was a gobsmacker. Rangers had all the intensity and all the togetherness. They had six players making their Old Firm debut from the start but if inexperience can be a challenge in this fixture then it was a challenge they met with gusto.
McInnes and his driven and vastly superior players neutralised Celtic, shut them down, rendered them impotent. Celtic captain Callum McGregor lords it over days like this, but the supreme central midfielder was Dan Neil, not just in his outstanding goals but in the control and the leadership he exerted.
With Nico Raskin beside him it was a no-contest in the middle of the pitch. James Penrice did a power of really good work in there, too.
Camilo Duran, playing wide again instead of through the middle, has been one of the players of the season so far, but he hardly existed, totally bossed by Olwethu Makhanya – calm in the maelstrom, classy in nearly everything he did.
Kasper Hogh needed a goal having scored in just one game this season, but even his absence didn’t matter in a performance that was nothing short of spectacular.
