Ange Postecoglou made a terrific point in the build-up to Sunday’s Scottish Cup Glasgow derby defeat to Rangers.
He stated that Rangers’ run to the Europa League semi-finals only went to highlight just how well the Hoops had done domestically [Scottish Sun]. After all, as they continue to receive plaudits for their Euro exertions, Celtic continue to be 6 points clear in the league after winning the last 2 Premiership matches between the sides.
But that’s not the only thing our rivals have done recently that highlighted Ange’s work this season. Their wild post-match celebrations and over-excitement at potentially winning the Scottish Cup is yet further evidence of our dominance this season.
Celtic had already secured the Premier Sports Cup heading into Sunday, and nobody realistically believes Rangers will tie up the Europa League. In addition to that, our spot in the league championship highlights just how dominant a position we’re in. That’s effectively left Rangers chasing only one trophy.
Their jumping around at Hampden at full-time made it look as though they had already won the cup. It felt similar to league title celebrations. A team who was supposed to run us over in all competitions this season with minimal fuss remember.
At the start of the season, we had journalists predicting domestic trebles and UCL qualification for Rangers [BBC]. We had former Ibrox players coming out and stating that Celtic would be playing second fiddle to them for years [The Times]. Yet fast forward to April and we’ve left them starving for any success and overjoyed at the prospect of winning one cup and nothing else.
Celtic have removed Rangers’ expectation and replaced it with desperation
Now, however, we’ve to believe that them making the cup final at our expense is some sort of major achievement. Celtic have successfully managed to replace their expectation with desperation, and it’s shown after that cup clash in how it’s been covered.
We won’t degrade the Scottish Cup by any stretch. It’s a competition that Celtic have an emotional attachment to and will have been bursting a gut to win this season. However, it’s nowhere near the main prize.
If you’d have told Celtic fans at the start of the season that all they would win is the Scottish Cup, it wouldn’t have overly excited us. A sign of improvement given our trophyless campaign, but nothing to get too buzzing over. If you’d have asked Rangers fans? They’d have seen it as a total disaster as proven by the pre-season commentary above.
Nothing highlights the job Ange Postecoglou has done in Glasgow more than that. He’s produced an absolute miracle here and has left Rangers resorting to any piece of potential trophy success they can scrap. No longer are they Scottish football’s dominant force.
It’s now all set up for Celtic to prove their superiority over the next 5 games. Victories against Ross County and Rangers would cement our spot as the best team in the country. It would see us end the season having won more derby games than our rivals too.
If we do that, whatever happens in the Scottish Cup final will be irrelevant. Celtic will have won the season and reduced our rivals to minimal success.
In other news, SPFL explain Celtic VAR timeline; some clubs reportedly wanted it in earlier
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
