Celtic and Rangers fans will always be confident about their team’s chances against each other regardless of whether the game is a cup final or not.
Celtic and Rangers both faced off in the League Cup final on Sunday and, rightly, both sets of supporters will always back their team to get a result no matter how they are playing or what their form is like.
However, the majority of Celtic and Rangers fans rarely get carried away about predictions, especially if their team’s form hasn’t been the greatest heading into a big Glasgow Derby game.
Unfortunately, Barry Ferguson did and what he said about his club heading into the Celtic vs Rangers final now looks daft after Brendan Rodgers steered the Bhoys to a big Hampden penalty win.
Celtic put Barry Ferguson’s Rangers claim firmly in it’s place after League Cup win
Writing in his Daily Record column the day before the League Cup final Ferguson said, “I can already hear Celtic fans saying I’ve lost the plot but I’m telling you Rangers are back.”
That was the headline that opened up the former Rangers man’s preview of the big game the day before the Hampden final.
Ferguson then goes on to say after Rangers drew with Spurs, “It comes as a very pleasant surprise to confess that my mindset has changed completely now that the latest O-d F-rm scrap is just about upon us. Now, before we go any further, I can hear the Celtic fans sighing already. ‘Oh aye, here we go, Barry’s lost the plot again’.
“But it’s not like that. I don’t believe for a single second that everything is rosy in the Rangers garden again. Far from it. There’s still a load of improving for them to do after what has been a thoroughly disappointing start to the season.
“But at least now there’s serious reason to believe they can make themselves competitive in a cup final which most Rangers fans had already written off just a few games ago. And, yes, the nature of Thursday night’s performance against Tottenham has made absolutely sure of it.”
He then goes on to say that the connection with the Rangers fans was back, the players believe in themselves, Celtic fans were worried after the Spurs performance and then pretty much put all his faith in that one performance against Ange Postecoglou’s Tottenham as the game that means ‘Rangers are back’.
Sadly for Barry, the reality of Celtic’s win proves that Rangers are far from ‘back’.
Celtic’s League Cup stats show Rangers still have a bit to go to catch the Parkhead club
If every Celtic fan is honest with themselves, every one of them will admit that the Bhoys’ performance against Rangers was probably one of the most disjointed of the season.
Slack passing, poor ball retention and rare lapses in concentration meant that Celtic allowed Rangers to get a foothold in the game and to fight back twice to force extra time and penalties.
But what cannot be denied is that despite that, Celtic were still the dominant side and still lifted the trophy even though Rangers played out of their skins and threw everything they had at Brendan Rodgers’ team.
And the match stats from the BBC back that up:
- Possession: Celtic 66.4% – Rangers 33.6%
- Shots: Celtic 10 – Rangers 19
- Shots on target: Celtic 7 – Rangers 8
- Tackles won: Celtic 19 – Rangers 18
- Passes: Celtic 768 – Rangers 369
- Accurate passes: Celtic 641 – Rangers 247
- Total long balls: Celtic 70 – Rangers 77
- Touches: Celtic 1065 – Rangers 649
- Forward passes: Celtic 261 – Rangers 170
- Successful final third passes: Celtic 102 – Rangers 89
- Touches in box: Celtic 32 – Rangers 29
More possession, more touches, more attacking intent in Rangers’ final third, more forward passes and fewer long balls.
I bet Barry now wishes he kept this one to himself.
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