Rangers boss Philippe Clement’s Celtic recognition after watching Aberdeen mauling at Hampden

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Celtic booked their place in the League Cup final in December after trouncing Aberdeen at Hampden on Saturday.

24 hours later, Rangers joined Celtic after struggling to beat Motherwell after going behind halfway through the first half in their semi-final eventually seeing off Stuart Kettlewell’s side 2-1.

In stark contrast to Celtic’s performance, Rangers once again huffed and puffed and while they eventually blew Motherwell down, it was far from the breathless performance Brendan Rodgers’ Bhoys put in against Jimmy Thelin’s Dons.

Speaking after Rangers’ win, Philippe Clement was asked about Celtic’s win over Aberdeen and the Ibrox boss sounded worried about facing the Hoops in just over a month’s time.

Philippe Clement admits Rangers face a ‘really big’ Celtic challenge

Clement told BBC Sportsound [35m 01s], “Yeah, you see that Aberdeen also lost a lot of power against us a few days ago and that it’s more difficult to perform in that way every three days.

“And Celtic played a really good game, so we know they’re a really good side. They’re showing that domestically and in Europe.

“So it’s a really big challenge, and we’re going to go for the challenge.”

• READ NEXT: Celtic’s All-Time Biggest Wins Over Rangers

Celtic’s record over Philippe Clement’s Rangers

Celtic have enjoyed near-total domination over Rangers since Philippe Clement was appointed as the Ibrox boss in October 2023.

Since then, Celtic has faced Clement five times in total winning four and drawing once. Here are the details of those games:

• 30.12.2023 Celtic 2 v 1 Rangers. Paulo Bernardo and Kyogo Furuhashi sealed the three points with James Tavernier netting an 88th-minute consolation goal.
• 07.04.2023 Rangers 3 v Celtic 3: The famous bizarre Philippe Clement ‘moral victory’ saw Rangers claw back from 2-0 down to earn a point after goals from Daizen Maeda and Matt O’Riley were clawed back by a James Tavernier penalty and Abdallah Sima. Adam Idah struck late on but Rangers equalised in the dying minutes through Rabbi Matondo to share the spoils.

• 11.05.2024: Celtic 2 v 1 Rangers: Celtic ended Rangers’ title challenge after Matt O’Riley opened the scoring and a John Lundstram own goal put the Brendan Rodgers’ team 2-0 up. Cyriel Dessers with Rangers’ goal.
• 25.05.2024: Celtic 1 v 0 Rangers: The Scottish Cup final win put Philippe Clement’s Rangers revival to bed after Adam Idah scored late on to secure a double for Brendan Rodgers in his first season back at Celtic.
• 01.09.2024: Celtic 3 v 0 Rangers: Celtic stamp their authority over Rangers once again as the first Glasgow Derby of this season as Daizen Maeda, Kyogo Furuhashi and Callum McGregor set an early season marker on the Ibrox club.