Rangers 2 - 2 Celtic (Rangers win 5-4 after penalties)

[Frankie 8,562]

May as well get this fine preview from Germinal up and running with lots to talk about ahead of the game.

 

http://www.gersnet.co.uk/index.php/news-category/match-analysis/613-rangers-v-celtic-stop-making-sense

 

Rangers v Celtic in a cup semi.

 

For anyone aged over 18 there's nothing especially unusual about such a scenario. Finals, quarter finals, regular games against the old rival were so much part of the course that it was hard to get massively worked up about them, exciting yes but certainly not something out of the ordinary.

 

Our of the ordinary, though, is exactly what this weekend's game will be.

 

Not just because there's been a long, long hiatus in games between the clubs. Granted, we clashed last year, but from a blue perspective, if the history books moved quickly past last season's horrific mismatch and pretended it never happened I would be quite happy. This is a whole new scenario, as two teams which maybe felt they knew each other inside out meet with all the uncertainties of a blind date. Much awkward fumbling may ensue...or it may be beautiful.

 

It's impossible to tell because the clubs are pale shadows of what they were before our dungeon days. For us, this is a positive, as we change from a footballing car crash to a team developing youngsters, creating a spirit and playing progressive football. For Celtic...

 

Like most Bluenoses I don't watch Celtic's games so I can't really comment on their abilities, but the fact that Aberdeen have pushed them hard for the league title suggests they're not a vintage Parkhead outfit. Leigh Griffiths is certainly banging goals in, but for someone of my age - 45 - he's not Celtic standard, let alone Scotland class. Any Bear who watched Dalglish, Nicholas, or Larsson - or even Andy Walker, for goodness' sake - won't be intimidated by Griffiths. Brown, the midfield throwback, clearly had his best days at Easter Road and is seeing out the Götterdämmerung of his career, raging against the dying of the light amid a welter of rash tackles, torn coupons and ill advised haircuts. It may be a team in green and white we play, but it's not a Celtic as we knew it.

 

Nor is it a Rangers as we knew it. The rules don't apply anymore. Iron Curtain defence? It's maybe as well that team is currently playing in the afterlife, for who knows what they would make of Warburton's Rangers. In last weekend's Petrofac Final, right back James Tavernier popped up on the left wing...and this in the first half, not some last minute charge. Players meld and shift their positions, as hard for opponents to grasp as mercury . The first touch has been mastered, allowing time to look up and find passes which redefine mathematical angles. It doesn't always come off: I imagine it's a tiny percentage of moves which do work. But when they do....oh, man.

 

Having suffered the bleeding eye syndrome of the Ally teams, perhaps I was overly ready to worship at the shrine of your actual, passing football that Mark Warburton has brought. So he may go a little further than my stern, Scottish personality would like, and throw defending not so much to the wind as onto the rubbish heap of history. I struggle with this, but like a late life convert I also embrace it enthusiastically. From time to time, this absolute focus on attacking will cost us, but until the tension between playing beautiful, expressive football and conceding loads of goals reaches a critical mass, I'm happy to jump in, fully clothed, into this wonderful sea of total football and ride whatever waves come along.

 

That downside will doubtless arrive soon enough to kick us in the balls. Let's enjoy it while we can, for it's not every day that you see something you are interested in redefined. This Rangers doesn't so much have unpredictable defenders as no defenders at all - the sight of Danny Wilson running the length of the pitch against Peterhead before firing in a blocked shot pretty much sums up the attitude to the back four - athletic, quick, mobile, adventurous. the Row Z clearance is, for better or worse, a relic which we see only very rarely, like a decent Graham Spiers article or a factual report on Rangers out of Pacific Quay. This Rangers doesn't have hard working, back tracking wingers - well it does, but they can also attack, which is where the similarity with such previous incarnations of this idea, such as Hamed Namouchi, end.

 

When Talking Heads toured their Speaking in Tongues record in 1983, few at the time realised they were redefining what a rock show could be. When the Bauhaus redefined the everyday utensil to blend form and function in clean, efficient lines, only the cognoscenti recognised the cultural paradigm shift which was occurring. The fans in the stands at Ibrox this season, unless unusually blinkered even for a Bluenose, cannot fail to have realised they are witness to an experiment in our club's history which, successful or otherwise, we're unlikely to see repeated for a long time.

 

No doubt some aspects of this clash will remain the same - there seems no way for us, at least, to scrape the less savoury aspect of the clash off our collective shoes. Last Sunday, the only thing anyone could have objected to about our songbook was that singing 'The Blue Sea of Ibrox' at Hampden has a faintly surreal aspect to it, but it sounded great just the same. Fingers crossed no one gives haters more ammo to fire at us.

 

That aside, it's a great time to be a Bear. Having lived through the Souness Revolution as a teenager, I can say I haven't been so interested in watching our team for a long, long time. The Scott Brown rule book of Scottish football is torn up when we play, and, unlike the brief Le Guen interregnum, this time the whole club appears to have bought into the revolutionary ethos. Heady days, then, as the New Model Rangers confronts the oldest monolith of them all, an Old Firm game.

 

We have a chance, and that's more than we could say last year. Our team is attractive all over the park. Tavernier and Wallace have redefined the full back slot, and while they may have their bohemian wings clipped a little next year, let's savour their soaring, free play this season.

 

Halliday is still, for me, trying too hard - I think when he gets comfortable with (i.e. forgets about) being a fan in a strip and focuses 100% on his game he'll be a class higher than the already quality player we've seen. But who can criticize him for being excited at donning a Blue Strip! Andy Halliday - he's one of our own.

 

Barrie McKay, who glides smoothly over the pitch as though powered by hybrid technology and who caresses the ball as if he has feathers in his boots, will trouble any defence, lightweight physique or not. Miller is rejuvenated, a David Weir for the 2010's and someone who is clearly set for a career in the Ibrox boot room Warburton is creating. Yesterday's news of Harry Forrester's belated injury is disappointing but we're still in better shape than before last year's League Cup semi.

 

We may not win, but - we have a chance. Not exactly the battle fever, but in the one step at at time, carefully constructed revolution we are at last on, that'll do for me. Come on The Bears!

Edited April 14, 2016 by Frankie

[JohnMc 2,750]

I'm not sure what I was looking forward to more, the match on Sunday or Germinal's preview. I hope the match is as enjoyable as this was.

[Frankie 8,562]

I'm not sure what I was looking forward to more, the match on Sunday or Germinal's preview. I hope the match is as enjoyable as this was.

 

We're certainly lucky to have so many contributors that write so well.

 

I don't see any other unofficial Rangers site or forum providing such quality analysis as regularly as we do. Our main site really is as close to a online magazine as you'll get. Not bad for free!

 

If anyone has any ideas or feedback for improvement, please get in touch.

[BEARGER 1,830]

Prediction thread started.

[ian1964 10,724]

[Zappa 0]

Quality match preview, thanks a lot Germinal!

 

For anyone (IN THE UK) who isn't lucky enough to be going to the game, also isn't a Sky subscriber (or going to the pub) and are wondering about online broadcasting of the game it's worth considering www.nowtv.com. It was recommended from the Sky website.....

 

We've just set it up here tonight and the quality is top class. £10.99 for 7 days of Sky Sports gets you this Semi Final plus our game at Easter Road on Wednesday, all the Sports Channels and more!! There's also a whole bunch of platforms supported including mobile ones, smart tvs, chromecast & loads more!

Edited April 15, 2016 by Zappa

[pete 2,499]

We're certainly lucky to have so many contributors that write so well.

 

I don't see any other unofficial Rangers site or forum providing such quality analysis as regularly as we do. Our main site really is as close to a online magazine as you'll get. Not bad for free!

 

If anyone has any ideas or feedback for improvement, please get in touch.

 

I don't see any professional journalists writing such quality previews. We really have a number of top notch writers.

[pete 2,499]

 

I loved the way Warburton very quickly said the Police visited both camps when asked if the police had a meeting with Rangers. I think he knows the situation of the media trying to make Rangers look bad.

[ian1964 10,724]

Tom English: celtic hold the aces

 

If the world is watching, as the hype assures us, then the world had better get ready for a piece of footballing theatre that wouldn't be out of place as some kind of warm-up act for the Jim Rose Circus.

 

Rangers v Celtic (or Celtic v Rangers as one incensed character on Twitter demanded it be called - among other things) is a show, no doubt about it.

 

At times, it can be a production that you end up watching between the cracks in your fingers - painful to witness but compelling all the same.

 

It's not necessarily the football that draws people in - too often the stuff that happens on the pitch is a 100mph demolition derby. It's the whole bizarre scene that lends this affair its appeal.

 

Look one way and you could be at Wembley in 1966 with all the Union flags waving. Look the other, with all the Tricolours, and you could be at Croke Park on All-Ireland hurling final day.

 

One thing you will struggle to see is a flag of the nation from which these teams hail. So many symbols of identity and yet barely a Saltire to be seen.

 

The hope for Sunday is for unpolluted airwaves, untroubled streets - and on-field drama. The last time these sides met, the occasion fell in a heap.

 

It got the big build-up back then as well - the League Cup semi-final of last February - but it was a non-event. Rangers were still a basket case, a wounded and almost pitiful animal.

 

The people who ran the club could not have been any more unpopular with the fans had they gone about Glasgow in Celtic strips while singing Paddy McGinty's Goat.

 

They had a caretaker manager, Kenny McDowall, who took to the role like a rabbit takes to oncoming traffic. They had a team whose collective heart could have been comfortably placed inside a peapod.

 

Before they played Celtic, they had already lost to Hibernian (twice), Hearts (twice), Alloa Athletic and Queen of the South on a cumulative score of 16-4. Immediately after their 2-0 defeat by Celtic, they won just one of their next six games in a doomed Championship campaign that was brought to an ignominious end when they got hammered 6-1 on aggregate in the play-off final against Motherwell.

 

That was then, but it's different now. Rangers' landscape is no longer blurred.

 

They have a new team, a new manager, a new board and an infinitely brighter outlook on life. They're champions of their league and now they have a shot at the reigning champions of the Premiership.

 

Rangers are underdogs, but their biggest job of all this season - promotion - has been achieved. It doesn't make Sunday stress-free, but it's not far off.

 

Under pressure

 

The only pressure on Rangers is to be competitive, to rattle Celtic's cage and give them a scare. If that brings them a victory then that's a seismic day out, but there's not a great burden of expectation on Mark Warburton's team.

 

They had one task to perform this season - getting out of the Championship - and they've done it well. Anything else is a cherry on top.

 

Rangers have an in-built rationale for defeat, if it comes. Everybody at Ibrox knows that the team that won the Championship is not going to be the same team that competes next season for the Premiership. They need to strengthen. Warburton has made no secret of it.

 

In Hearts' story, we can see the proof that a landslide winning of the Championship doesn't equip you for life in the top tier. Robbie Nielson took a scalpel to his title-winning team of 2014-15.

 

He has signed nearly a dozen players since lifting the trophy. He has let players who performed admirably for him last season leave the club because he knew he needed better. That's the road Warburton is surely going to go down now.

 

If Rangers lose, you can already hear Warburton's reaction: "We weren't ready today, but we will be come August."

 

It's different for Celtic. Everybody expects them to win. Manager Ronny Deila's job might well depend on it.

 

There is no parachute, no safety net. That's pressure. And pressure is something that has troubled them at Hampden in the recent past.

 

Celtic have been frustrated at times this season and have relied heavily on Leigh Griffiths

 

In their last two visits there - the Scottish Cup semi-final last season and the League Cup semi-final this campaign - they have lost an early lead, lost a man to a red card and lost the match, against Inverness Caledonian Thistle and Ross County.

 

Celtic's mindset can be frail. Not always, but on certain days. Perhaps the losing of leads and the dropping of points in European games against Ajax and Fenerbahce is understandable, but doing the same against Kilmarnock, Aberdeen, Motherwell, Hearts and Hamilton Accies raises doubts.

 

When you add in their inability to deal with Inverness and Ross County then there is a vulnerability there that could be exploited if the stars are aligned for Rangers.

 

Griffiths the key

 

Rangers have not come up against a striker of Leigh Griffiths' quality this season. Not even close.

 

Griffiths has scored against every opponent in the Premiership and ended his three-match 'drought' with the two goals that beat the country's form team, Motherwell, last weekend. That brought his total for the season to 37.

 

In Martyn Waghorn's likely absence, Kenny Miller is Rangers' top scorer with 17, but 13 of those came against sides outside of the top-four in the Championship.

 

That's the unknown with Rangers. They have, in Andy Halliday, Jason Holt, James Tavernier and Lee Wallace, players who have scored a combined 40 goals this season, but what value would you put on those goals in the context of this semi-final?

 

Most were against substandard Championship teams. Can they do it against the best in Scotland?

 

James Keatings was Hearts' second-top scorer in the Championship last season and they let him go. Billy King, now at Rangers on loan, scored eight from midfield and was allowed to exit in the short-term.

 

Genero Zeefuik was the size of a house, but he still scored 12 times in 13 starts in Hearts' Championship-winning campaign. Scoring freely in the second tier is one thing. Doing similar against the top of the top tier is an altogether different proposition.

 

Griffiths is one of the keys to this match because he operates in the precise area where Rangers are at their weakest.

 

Rangers are available at odd of almost 3-1 with the bookmakers for a reason. They have already conceded 27 goals in the Championship this season and they still have four games to play.

 

Hearts conceded a total of 26 in that division last season. In the Premiership, Celtic have conceded 25.

 

Hibs (twice), Falkirk (twice), Queen of the South and Raith Rovers have all scored two or more in league games against Rangers. Rovers scored three in one match, Queen of the South have scored five in four games against Warburton's side, Falkirk have got six in four.

 

Bring Hearts back into the debate. Only 26 goals conceded in the entire Championship last season, but they strengthened at the back in the summer none the less.

 

Blazej Augustyn and Igor Rossi - solid defenders both - were signed and yet still Celtic have scored seven times in four games against Hearts this season.

 

Danny Wilson and Rob Kiernan lack pace and could be easy prey for Griffiths. Tavernier scores goals from full-back, but he lacks discipline as a defender.

 

Patrick Roberts, a terrific young player with incredibly quick feet, plays on the right wing for Celtic, but it wouldn't be a surprise to see him pop up on the left at times in an attempt to expose Tavernier's defensive shortcomings.

 

Celtic hold aces

 

The question is: can Rangers hold Celtic out? Do they have the concentration and discipline to defend properly against Griffiths and Roberts, in particular?

 

Do they have the steel in the middle of the park to contend with Scott Brown and Nir Bitton?

 

They might argue that there is an encouraging form-line. In three recent cup ties with Premiership opposition - Kilmarnock (twice) and Dundee - Rangers only conceded one goal while scoring six.

 

Kilmarnock are, currently, the 11th best team in the Premiership and Dundee are the seventh. Celtic are clearly first, but Rangers people will point out that Dundee held Celtic scoreless twice in recent months and Killie denied them for 90 minutes until Tom Rogic rescued his team with a thumping hit from a mile out.

 

It can be done, no question. Celtic are going to win the Premiership title, but they have put in a string of poor performances along the way.

 

Nir Bitton, Leigh Griffiths and Kris Commons are all vying to face Rangers again

 

Griffiths has been like a human sticking plaster at times, holding the whole thing together. If Rangers bring defensive stability, fire in the midfield and ruthlessness up front then they can scare Celtic, but that's a lot to ask.

 

Their job would be made easier, of course, if Deila's team press the self-destruct button again at Hampden. Celtic deserve to be warm favourites - and, in quality terms, should win by a couple of goals - but given the recent evidence, you cannot discount another mental implosion.

 

It depends which version of themselves they bring to Hampden on Sunday. They hold most of the aces, but they carry all of the pressure too.

[ian1964 10,724]

''Look one way and you could be at Wembley in 1966 with all the Union flags waving. Look the other, with all the Tricolours, and you could be at Croke Park on All-Ireland hurling final day.''

 

I think Mr English is confused about the union flag?,much the same as the BHEASTS!