A victory over Old Firm rivals Celtic as Rangers’ B Team secured the Glasgow Cup on Tuesday night was not the only reason to celebrate on the blue side of the city.
In the space of only two days, Rangers and Celtic have played out a pair of truly sensational cup finals.
But while Kasper Schmeichel’s penalty heroics broke Rangers hearts at Hampden Park following a six-goal thriller on Sunday, it was Celtic who found themselves on the wrong end of a dramatic conclusion just over 48 hours later.
Zak Lovelace stepped off the bench to score the decisive goal in five, David McCallum’s youngsters triumphing in the rescheduled Glasgow Cup decider.
Another plus, from those of a blue persuasion, was the long-awaited return of Oscar Cortes.
- READ MORE: Rangers Transfer History 2016-Present
Oscar Cortes praised as Rangers winger makes return vs Celtic B
At just 21, the Colombian winger is not much older than the baby-faced youngsters in McCallum’s squad. But he took on the role of an experienced campaigner on the night, featuring for the B team as Cortes looks to build up his fitness following an injury which has kept him out of action since September.
There was nothing too spectacular on the night from Cortes, returning to Rangers on a £4 million loan-to-buy deal after a brief spell at Ibrox in the second half of 2023/24.
What McCallum did enjoy, however, was the dogged determination Cortes showed when forcing The Gers’ early opener. He pressed the Celtic goalkeeper into giving the ball away inside his own penalty area before squaring for Paul Nsio to make it 1-0.
A combination of clarity and ferocity.
“We had to do that at times tonight, and it’s important that their heads retain a certain level of calmness but also energetic and aggressive,” McCallum told the club’s official website at full-time with the trophy in his hands.
“I thought we done that at times, although I thought we could do it more frequently. We have played games where we have been better for longer but not necessarily won those games.
“I thought at the start of the game we took a little bit to get to our rhythm. We scored our goal probably when we weren’t at our best, but it came off the back of pressing from Oscar and we managed to get ourselves into a position where Paul scores.”
Philippe Clement hopes Cortes and Rabbi Matondo will be back soon
Cortes has only featured three times since returning for a second spell in Scotland. In fact, he’s featured only three times since February. Rangers took a risk when deciding to bring Cortes back despite his injury-hit first stint, and it’s fair to say that risk is yet to be rewarded.
Though, clearly, Cortes still possesses the dogged determination and the out-of-possession hunger – not to mention the creative qualities – that caught Rangers’ eye in the first place.
Philippe Clement confirmed nearly a fortnight ago that both Cortes and fellow wideman Rabbi Matondo had returned to first-team training ahead of a long-awaited comeback, probably in early 2025.
“Rabbi and Oscar were today, for the first time, in full training,” Clement said on September 7th, one day before Rangers cruised past Ross County in Dingwall.
“They’ve been a long time out but it’s very positive news that they can do everything again. It was an intense training session with the guys who didn’t play [for a while] so that’s very positive news.”
