Celtic beat bitter rivals Rangers 3-1 to reach the Scottish League Cup final on Sunday and maintain Martin O’Neill’s perfect start since returning as interim manager. O’Neill was taking charge for just the second game of his second spell after Brendan Rodgers resigned on Monday amid acrimonious relations with the club’s board. Celtic were on course to cruise towards the final against St. Mirren next month when Jonny Kenny opened the scoring and Thelo Aasgaard was sent-off before half-time. But Rangers rallied to send the game to extra-time through James Tavernier’s penalty.
Callum McGregor’s long-range strike restored Celtic’s advantage before teenager Callum Osmand steered in his first goal for the club.
Both sides of the Glasgow divide are under new management after poor starts to the season that has allowed Hearts to open up a nine-point lead in the Scottish Premiership.
Rangers boss Danny Rohl is also less than two weeks into his role and was given another example of the job he has to turn around a side that is 14 points behind Hearts in the league and bottom of the Europa League table.
The struggles of both teams showed in a tepid 0-0 draw in August, but the fire often associated with this fixture was back in abundance at Hampden.
Rangers escaped conceding a calamitous opener when Nasser Djiga blasted a clearance off team-mate Nico Raskin and the ball rebounded into the net.
However, a VAR review spotted an offside against Daizen Maeda in the build-up.
Celtic did take the lead midway through the first half when Kenny headed in Arne Engels’ corner.
The holders appeared on course for a comfortable passage to the final when Aasgaard was then shown a straight red card for a wild studs-up challenge on Anthony Ralston.
Celtic were lucky not to also be reduced to 10 men before half-time when Auston Trusty caught Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland on the head.
The unhappy final days of Rodgers’ reign were beset by his frustration at Celtic’s failure to add more quality in the final third during the transfer window.
That flaw remains very much an issue despite the departure of the former Liverpool boss as O’Neill could not contain his frustration at Celtic’s inability to put the game beyond the 10 men in the second period.
A lack of killer instinct came back to haunt the Scottish champions when Ralston was penalised for handball 10 minutes from time.
Tavernier fired home the resulting penalty to send the game to extra-time.
However, Celtic finally made the man advantage count against a tiring Rangers in the extra 30 minutes.
Butland should have done better when McGregor blasted in from outside the area.
Osmand, who only made his debut off the bench in Wednesday’s 4-0 win over Falkirk, then made sure of Celtic’s place in the final when he slid in to meet Kieran Tierney’s cross.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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