Rangers Vs Celtic: Chermiti brace undone as Hoops fight back to earn damaging 2-2 Old Firm stalemate

In a bruising rangers vs celtic at Ibrox, Rangers surrendered a 2-0 half-time lead and the match finished 2-2, a result that leaves Hearts and Motherwell better placed after the weekend. The draw carried immediate consequences for the title race and provoked a raw reaction on the pitch at full-time.

Rangers Vs Celtic: Chermiti brace and early Rangers dominance

Rangers appeared on course for a huge win after leading 2-0 at the break thanks to a brace from Youssef Chermiti. The opening goal began when Tuur Rommens and Youssef Chermiti dispossessed Julian Araujo in the corner, the move ending with Andreas Skov Olsen floating in a cross and Chermiti hurling himself into the air to head the ball past Viljami Sinisalo. The connection was described as a spectacular opener, and the finish drew an immediate comparison with Scott McTominay’s effort at Hampden — McTominay’s boot was measured at 2. 53m off the ground when he scored there, a new world record, and Chermiti’s strike was put in the same breath.

Through the first half Rangers had wiped the floor with their city rivals: out-scoring, out-playing, out-fighting on the floor and in the air, and they looked the team that truly thought no side in the country could touch them — a view Luke McCowan had expressed on Thursday. Ibrox was in thrall; Rangers had aggression, urgency, speed, accuracy, appetite for work, menace and confidence.

Celtic fightback and late drama in a game of shifting momentum

Celtic mounted a great fightback to turn the game on its head, with Kieran Tierney and Reo Hatate scoring in the second half to level the match at 2-2. Body language at the end was instructive: Celtic sprightly, Rangers stunned. The aftermath became aggressive — pushing and shoving and pointing on the pitch — and the stalemate was an infinitely better result for Celtic than for Rangers, though not much good to either side overall.

Mikey Moore’s keepy-uppy, Julian Araujo and an early Ibrox moment

Around the half-hour mark 18-year-old Mikey Moore juggled the ball near the halfway line, an exciting and dangerous performance that made him the calmest person in the cauldron for a spell. In his keepy-uppy moment Moore looked like a kid in a playground; Julian Araujo, described as a frustrated full-back for Celtic, ran over and wrestled the ball off him — one of the only one-on-one battles Celtic won that afternoon. That sequence came during the period when Rangers were so good for the entirety of the first half that you could scarcely see a way back for Celtic.

Danny Rohl defends mentality, pinpoints problems and backs Skov Olsen

After the match Danny Rohl hit back at detractors and insisted his players have the bottle for the Premiership title race despite letting a two-goal lead slip at Ibrox. “I don’t accept this about mentality, ” he said, and added that “everyone who has played football knows there is a story in every game” and that momentum swings are part of matches. He said the team must continue their performance for the whole 90 minutes and that they have shown character to come back before.

Rohl explained the collapse in the second period: “I think there were some moments where we lost the ball in areas that we shouldn’t. We gave them some transition moments and allowed the game to become stretched when we wanted to keep it compact. ” He said the side tried to stabilise the midfield with a third midfielder and that “football is about energy, ” but they could not get momentum back and faced an opponent who “tried everything. ” On chances he conceded he would need to “look back and count how many chances they had because apart from the penalty I can’t really think of how many shots they had. ” He singled out two defensive situations where positioning in the box was wrong: “For example at the pen, it was a five against three situation. If we have the right body position then I think we can defend this situation. ”