Brendan Rodgers knew that Celtic got away with one as the Glasgow giants needed a penalty shoot-out to see off Old Firm rivals Rangers in the Scottish League Cup final.
Speaking in the build up to Thursday’s reunion between the two arch rivals, Rodgers admits Celtic struggled with Rangers’ aggression, their off-the-ball work, and both the organisation and the ferocity of their pressing.
Two weeks after Kasper Schmeichel denied Ridvan Yilmaz from 12 yards to turn the ribbons from blue to green, it was clear from minute on that the Celtic boss had not found an answer to the questions Rangers would ask of his side once again, this time amongst the home comforts of Ibrox.
Watching on from the gantry, ex-Rangers winger Neil McCann concluded that it was Nedim Bajrami who set the tone as he knocked Celtic metronome Callum McGregor off his rhythm.
Sitting alongside McCann, however, Chris Sutton felt that another in blue was comfortably the best player on the pitch. The indefatigable Nico Raskin was ‘excellent’ at Hampden Park – to quote former Celtic boss Neil Lennon – and he was even better here.
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Chris Sutton raves about Nico Raskin as Rangers smash Celtic
Raskin mustered three tackles, four interceptions, an assist for Ianis Hagi’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it opener, as well as avoiding the sort of error which gifted Daizen Maeda an equaliser in December’s cup final.
“I think Raskin has been the outstanding player on the pitch,” Sutton, a four-time Premiership champion on the other side of the city, told Sky Sports as the battling Belgian made way in stoppage time to a standing ovation.
“There has been a lot of good players in blue but he has been the one. And Hagi’s goal to get Rangers ahead, vitally important.”
“It goes through Cameron Carter-Vickers’ legs but the shot is so accurate.”
While Raskin’s start to the season was disrupted due to injury, a contract wrangle left Ianis Hagi twiddling his thumbs in the reserves before a much-needed breakthrough was reached back in October.
To say the Romanian has been ‘like a new signing’, as they say, would still only serve to downplay his impact.
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“We know this boy has got talent both [on his] left and right,” McCann said after watching Hagi fizz past Kasper Schmeichel and celebrate the sort of finish his legendary father – watching on from the Ibrox terraces – would have been proud of.
“He has no hesitation taking that on. It’s low, strong and it finds the bottom corner. [Gheorghe Hagi’s] son has just come up with a piece of brilliance.
“For me, he was too talented to leave out. His attitude is brilliant, his addition to the frontline has been so important for his energy, and for Bajrami [to be able to move from the left to] that ten position
“Celtic have been so careless but you have to credit Rangers.”
Rangers remain 11 points behind Celtic at the top of the table, of course. And while this will likely change nothing in the title race – if you can really call it a ‘title race’ – such a one-sided, commanding victory over a club who have spent the last decade haunting Gers nightmares still feels like a massive, maybe even coming-of-age statement from a team very much in transition.
There may be doubts over some members of Clement’s squad, not to mention the manager himself.
But with a foundation of Raskin, Bajrami, Hamza Igamane and co, and Rangers certainly have a pretty solid spine to build around.
