Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist agree on what was ‘diabolical’ about Celtic v Rangers final

Add as preferred source on Google

Celtic and Rangers’ League Cup final showdown at Hampden was a great advert for Scottish football.

Not only did you get the drama of penalties, but six goals were scored in normal time, including six different scorers.

But, at the end of it all, Callum McGregor was lifting the trophy and Celtic were proving once again why they are the top dogs of Scotland.

That’s two finals Brendan Rodgers has now won against Rangers in 2024 – Adam Idah’s late winner in the Scottish Cup and Daizen Maeda’s winning penalty in the League Cup.

A lot has been said about the game, from Rangers’ penalty cries, to Celtic winning trophy number 119 and how nobody in Scottish football has won more.

But, days after the event, Celtic-mad Alan Brazil and former Rangers striker Ally McCoist were in agreement on one thing.

Alan Brazil and Ally McCoist say defending was ‘diabolical’ as Celtic beat Rangers

Greg Taylor’s error led to Rangers’ opening goal and Rodgers made a change at the break when he hooked off Auston Trusty.

Six goals were scored, and in truth, it could and probably should have been more.

Whilst Brazil and McCoist lauded the game, they agreed that the defending on show was nothing short of ‘diabolical’ from both sides, as they told talkSPORT (18/12/24 at 6:10 am).

“Some game, wasn’t it?!” said Brazil. “The defending was diabolical. But Hampden was some game.”

McCoist then stated: “Al, do you know what it was? I have got to say. If there ever was an advert to get the fans back into stadiums. It was brilliant. 50-50. Of course, there were one or two issues with defending. But what an exciting game.”

Brazil added: “By the way, the pitch was murder.” And McCoist agreed: “It didn’t look good. I thought that. Looking at it, it didn’t look good.”

Brazil admits to ‘nearly walking away’ before Celtic’s penalty shootout win

It’s hard to remember when Celtic and Rangers were last involved in a penalty shootout in a final itself.

But you could sense in extra time that both teams were making sure not to make any more mistakes and a shootout was likely.

Watching on from home, Brazil admitted that he ‘nearly walked away’, as he felt that the ‘urgency’ and ‘pressing’ was missing from the champions.

“I watched it at home,” said Brazil. “It went to penalties. I will be honest, I nearly walked away. It’s a shame it’s going to penalties – Celtic have won it, but I just thought that urgency and that pressing wasn’t there. Rangers were pressing.”

McCoist added: “It was strange, wasn’t it?!” to which Brazil responded: “I don’t know if that was a tactic. Okay, ‘let them come at us and we will hit them on the break’, but it was a surprise to me.”