It wasn’t just the scoreline which caught the eye – Rangers 3-0 Celtic in their first outing of 2025 – but the nature of the way Philippe Clement’s team cut through Brendan Rodgers’ outfit.
24 shots to four, the most attempts conceded on the Celtic goal since records began over a decade ago. Three unanswered goals, and a scoreline which flattered the visitors far more than it did the dominant hosts.
A victory secured in the absence of Jack Butland, James Tavernier, John Souttar and Leon Balogun. Three, maybe even four, of Rangers’ first-choice back five.
And if you had told the Ibrox faithful a few months ago that Rangers would pummel Celtic into submission with Ridvan Yilmaz at right-back, Dujon Sterling and Robin Propper in the centre, Nico Raskin wearing the captain’s armband, Hamza Igamane leading the line and Ianis Hagi featuring in any capacity, they’d have been forgiven for checking the contents of your glass.
Yilmaz is a left-back by trade, after all, while Sterling is most comfortable on the right. Raskin was the Old firm derby’s ‘outstanding’ performer – to quote Chris Sutton – but it wasn’t long ago that injuries appeared to be casting doubt on his Gers career.
Igamane and Propper both endured sluggish starts to life in Scotland, meanwhile, and Hagi looked destined never to wear that iconic blue shirt again following a contract wrangle which left him collecting dust in the reserves.
Of the eleven players who started Rangers’ 3-0 defeat by Celtic at Parkhead in September, only five were included in Clement’s XI as that scoreline was flipped on it’s head four months later.
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Ianis Hagi ‘sensational’ as Rangers revival continues against Celtic
Ianis Hagi opened the scoring at Ibrox under the watchful eye of his legendary father Gheorghe with just seven minutes on the clock.
Hagi Sr was a man renowned for the spectacular. And the manner in which his son caught out Kasper Schmeichel with a pinpoint, laser-guided drive from the edge of the penalty area in the seventh minute was reminiscent of the former Barcelona star at his peak.
Understandably, given his importance to the national team’s hopes of success in the coming years, the manner in which Hagi’s career drifted after suffering that serious knee injury a few years back was becoming a cause for serious concern.
And his subsequent revival in late-2024 and during the first few days of 2025 – from out of the picture to front and centre – is eliciting quite the sigh of relief back home in Romania.
“He had a sensational match,” Ilie Dumitrescu, the former Tottenham Hotspur, Sevilla and West Ham United attacker, tells Digi Sport.
Hagi survives ‘terrible moments’ to shine under Philippe Clement
Dumitrescu credits Hagi’s return to prominence partly with the faith shown in him by ex-Romania Edi Iordanescu boss and his eventual successor Mircea Lucescu.
Even when Hagi was being distanced from the rest of the Rangers squad, even after he lost his number ten shirt to Mo Diomande, there was always refuge available to him in the Romania roster.
“Mentally, he seemed to me to be at the highest level. To get through the terrible moments, to have no chance to play…” Dumitrescu adds. “It’s also thanks to Edi Iordanescu and Mircea Lucescu for inviting him. It mattered a lot.
“He shoots very well. A well-placed shot, he surprised the goalkeeper. I think he’s an excellent goalkeeper, Schmeichel. [Hagi] did very well.”
Hagi now has four goals or assists in just six Scottish Premiership starts this season. Only James Tavernier has more assists than him, despite the fact that the £3 million signing from KRC Genk returned to Clement’s plans months after the 2024/25 campaign kicked off.
