Rangers denied third straight Old Firm win as Idah's equaliser secures Celtic draw

The spoils were shared as Rangers held Scottish Premiership champions Celtic to a 1-1 draw in the final Old Firm clash of the season at Ibrox.

Celtic striker Adam Idah scored a second-half equaliser to deny Rangers a third successive Old Firm derby triumph.

Rangers had looked well placed to follow up their victories from January and March over Brendan Rodgers’ newly-crowned champions when Cyriel Dessers struck just before the break.

But Idah hit back to make it six games in a row without a victory in all competitions for Rangers, who have now won just four of their 12 games under interim boss Barry Ferguson and none at home since February 2.

The goals…

Celtic battle back to end Old Firm losing run

As had been indicated by the hosts in the build-up, there was no guard of honour from the Rangers players for their triumphant Celtic counterparts, but the title winners were roared on to the pitch by around 2,100 of their own supporters – the first time away fans were in attendance at a derby at Ibrox since the 2-2 draw in January 2023.

Rangers made a strong start and almost opened the scoring in the first minute when Balogun headed James Tavernier’s corner off the top of the bar. Cerny then saw a powerful deflected strike tipped over by Viljami Sinisalo before the Celtic keeper got down to block a Raskin header from another Tavernier delivery.

Rangers thought they had gone ahead in the 24th minute when Raskin again got his head to a Tavernier free-kick from the right and nodded beyond Sinisalo, but after some jubilant celebrations, the Belgian was eventually ruled to have strayed offside following a VAR check.

Celtic started to grow into the game as the half wore on and Cameron Carter-Vickers saw a header from Arne Engels’ corner pushed over by Liam Kelly in the 33rd minute. The Rangers goalkeeper had to make another save to deny Idah in the 43rd minute after the striker ran on to Reo Hatate’s pass and got himself clean through on goal.

It proved a pivotal moment as the home side took the lead a minute later. Mohamed Diomande drove forward and his pass into the box was dummied by Cerny for Dessers, who held off Liam Scales and slotted a low finish past Sinisalo from just outside the six-yard box.

Celtic got themselves level in the 56th minute. Daizen Maeda skinned Tavernier on the left and as Souttar came across to deal with the danger his clearance ricocheted off the Japanese and broke to Idah, who spun and fired home – with the aid of a deflection off Souttar – from just inside the box.

The goal was swiftly ruled out for offside against Maeda but eventually allowed to stand following a lengthy VAR check.

Celtic had a chance to win it at the death when Maeda seized on slackness from Tavernier to burst clear but Kelly did enough to ensure the final derby of the season ended in stalemate.

‘The mentality is there’

Rangers interim manager Barry Ferguson:

“A bit disappointed we didn’t come away with three points. The commitment from my players was what I asked for, really good.

“Scored a good goal, went in at half-time deserving of the lead. We know Celtic are going to come out second half, but we weathered the storm really well.

“I just spoke to the players that we countered really well, it was just that bit of quality in the end that we need to be better at. The boys hold their hands up, they know that. Next week in training, it’s something we have to work on.

“The mentality is there, it’s just making sure you bring that sort of mentality on a consistent basis. It’s something we’ve not been able to do this season, I’m on at them every day in the training centre. It’s something we know we need to get better at.”

Rodgers: We never really felt the Ibrox pressure

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers:

“The performance level was a good one. Rangers changed their structure, we were playing against a diamond, so once we figured that out, we had lots of moments where we played through that pressure well.

“There weren’t too many chances either side. We had to be strong in some set-piece moments in the first half. At half-time, I still felt we were at a good place in the game.

“Second half, we controlled the game. When you come to Ibrox, you sometimes have 10-15 minutes where you’re under real pressure, backs to the wall, but I never really felt that.

“If I was to criticise, maybe our final third play didn’t lend us to creating opportunities. But our build-up was composed. We got the goal, we deserved it.”

Both sides ‘disappointed’ with draw

Both Rangers midfielder Nicolas Raskin and Celtic captain Callum McGregor said after the game that there was disappointment at failing to win.

Raskin told Sky Sports: “Disappointed a little, we can be cleaner in the last pass or shot to punish them.

“We showed we more than compete against them, which is something we can take over to next season.”

Reflecting on the season, and Rangers’ struggles to beat teams other than Celtic, he added: “For me it’s totally different [playing Celtic], there is less pace in the other games, we need to break the wall.

“This season, scoring goals early in games to give ourselves more space and chance to attack, we have missed chances too many times, then conceded a bad goal and struggled to come back.

“We want to make it much better next season, so we are not winning twice, drawing once, and being so far from them.”

Meanwhile, McGregor said to Sky Sports: “Happy with the point but we’ve got enough of the game to win it. A wee bit of disappointment coming out of it. It’s always tough coming here. We take our point, we’re happy with the performance.

“It wasn’t a great time to concede the opening goal but we were well in the game. As soon as you start moving the ball, we were getting massive spaces and more than we thought we would. Stay calm, get your opportunities.. and we took it.”

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