The two Celtic wins vs Rangers Gordon Strachan says were better than beating Man United in Champions League

Add as preferred source on Google

Gordon Strachan has been opening up about his time as the Celtic manager.

Strachan had a trophy-laden spell at Celtic over the four years he was at the club winning three league titles, one Scottish Cup and two League Cups.

The former Manchester United hero was also the first Celtic manager to take the club out of the Champions League group stages.

The iconic 1-0 win over Manchester United at Celtic Park is a memory ingrained in all Hoops supporters but Strachan says that there are two wins against Rangers that trump that huge European night.

• READ MORE: ‘There is one reason’ – Daizen Maeda’s cryptic explanation of his superb Celtic goalscoring form

Gordon Strachan hails ‘phenomenal’ Celtic wins vs Rangers

The 2007/08 season was unique in terms of the Glasgow Derby. A fixture pile-up meant Celtic had to play Rangers twice at home and had to win both ties to win the league and Strachan recalls those memories vividly.

Strachan told PLZ Soccer, “I think when we talk about football, there was the Man United and beating AC Milan and all that kind of thing and when you’re talking about character and really having to do it because when you beat Man United or whatever, you can say, ‘That’s right, okay, you’ve done it’, but we had to beat Rangers twice at home in the last two games.

“So we had to play them twice in two weeks at home at night, and we won those two games, and the one in particular, with Gary Caldwell, who was so brave on the ball and coming out from the back and he’s picked this pass.

“I think it was Jan Vennegoor with his head, and he hit the back of the net. So to beat Rangers 2-1, and the we beat them 3-2, then we went on to win the league.

“Because if Rangers got a draw in any of these, we were beaten. So in terms of how we played, the character and the drive and the belief of these players was phenomenal.”

The Celtic 3-2 win vs Rangers that will always be iconic

The second game of the derby double-header was the 3-2 win at Celtic Park. It was a match that swung back and forth and almost saw the Hoops lose not just the fixture but also the league title.

Scott McDonald opened the scoring early on the 4th minute and it seemed like Celtic were going to canter it, until David Weir and Daniel Cousin but Rangers 2-1 with McDonald scoring his second and the equaliser just before the break.

It took until the 70th minute for Celtic to retake the lead with a Barry Robson penalty sealing the three points to set the Parkhead club on the way to another iconic title.