Celtic 0-1 Rangers result, stats and report

Celtic 0-1 Rangers. Write it down. Rangers came to Celtic Park, did what was needed, and left with three points. That is the basics of football. You compete, you execute, you win. Rangers did all three. Celtic did not.

The Goal That Decided It

Ryan Naderi put Rangers ahead on 33 minutes with a right-foot shot, and that was your match. One goal. One moment of quality in the final third. Rangers made it count. Celtic, for all their possession and their 29 crossing attempts, could not find an answer. That is not bad luck. That is a lack of desire in the moments that matter.

The thing is, Celtic had the ball. They had 55 per cent possession. They completed 321 passes to Rangers' 250. They won eight corners to Rangers' four. And they finished the match with one shot on target. One. Celtic had the territory. Rangers had the attitude. There is your game, right there.

Rangers Were Better in Every Meaningful Area

Listen, I do not care about how many passes you complete if you cannot score. Celtic's numbers look tidy on paper. In reality they were toothless. Rangers had 15 shots in total to Celtic's five. They put eight shots on target. Celtic put one on target. The Rangers goalkeeper made one save. The Celtic goalkeeper made six. That tells you everything about how this match actually played out.

Rangers also created more big chances. Two to Celtic's one. They had 11 key passes to Celtic's four. They had more dangerous attacks. They had more shots inside the box, ten to Celtic's four. Celtic had the ball and went nowhere with it. Rangers did not have the ball as much and still dominated the goalscoring areas. That is a mentality difference. End of.

The Early Cards Set the Tone

Emmanuel Fernandez was booked for Rangers inside four minutes for a foul. Then Rangers manager Derek McInnes received a card for arguing on the touchline at minute five. Two cards in five minutes on the away side. Most teams lose the plot after that. Rangers did not. That tells you something about the character in that dressing room. They kept their shape, kept their organisation, and went on to score before half-time.

Celtic were awarded two yellows of their own. Callum McGregor was booked for a foul on 73 minutes, and Sebastian Tounekti, who had only just come on as a substitute, picked up a card for arguing at minute 74. A man who had been on the pitch for three minutes. Unacceptable. You come on in a derby when your side is losing and you pick up a booking for an argument before you have touched the ball twice. There is no accountability in that.

Celtic's Attacking Output Was Simply Not Good Enough

Celtic went into this match having won their previous five Scottish Premiership matches. Thirteen goals scored in those five games. They were in form. They had momentum. None of that showed up today.

Celtic tried 29 crosses and only four were accurate. That is a conversion rate that does not compete at this level. They made ten dribble attempts and succeeded with three. Their big chance count was one, and they missed it. That is a team that had the tools and could not use them when it mattered most. Celtic also had a player hit the woodwork, as did Rangers, so the fortune was even enough. The difference was Rangers converted their opportunity. Celtic did not convert theirs.

Celtic Made Substitutions But Could Not Change the Game

Celtic made five changes across the match. Kasper Høgh came on at the start of the second half for Luke McCowan. James Forrest replaced Benjamin Nygren on 63 minutes. Then on 71 minutes Celtic brought on Haissem Hassan for Kieran Tierney and Sebastian Tounekti for Camilo Durán. Shumaira Mheuka replaced Liam Scales late on. Five changes and still one shot on target across the whole match. That is not a substitution problem. That is a performance problem.

Rangers also made their changes. Min-su Kim had been booked on 57 minutes and was replaced by Findlay Curtis on 71. Badredine Bouanani came on for Djeidi Gassama at 72, and Ben Godfrey replaced James Penrice at 76. Bouanani then had the brass neck to pick up a yellow card for time wasting on 88 minutes, which sums up Rangers' afternoon perfectly. They scored, they defended, they ran the clock down. Job done.

A VAR Check Could Not Save Celtic

There was a VAR check involving Rangers' Olwethu Makhanya on 75 minutes. Nothing came of it. Celtic got no reprieve from technology. They needed to find it themselves and they could not.

What This Result Means

Celtic had won their last ten Scottish Premiership matches going into today. Ten wins. No draws. No defeats. Rangers came to Celtic Park and stopped that run cold. In those same ten matches, Celtic had scored 25 goals. Today they scored none. Rangers, for their part, had won four of their last five Scottish Premiership matches before today, and their one defeat in that run came against Hibernian. They came here with form and with belief and it showed.

The head-to-head record across the three most recent meetings between these sides in this competition shows Celtic with two wins and Rangers with none, plus one draw. Rangers have now taken a result in this fixture that the records said they were not going to get. That is what desire and a clear gameplan can do against a side that is technically superior but mentally unprepared on the day.

Celtic's standards have been high all year. Today those standards fell well short. Rangers deserved this. No caveats. No excuses. Celtic were outcompeted by a team that wanted it more on the afternoon. The basics won this match for Rangers, and the basics lost it for Celtic.