I watched Rangers and Celtic draw on captivating afternoon at Ibrox and came to key conclusion on Hearts
Our three key takeaways as Rangers and Celtic both hand title initiative to Hearts with 2-2 draw at Ibrox.
Rangers were forced to settle for a draw against fierce rivals Celtic as an injury-time goal secured resulted in the Glasgow giants drawing 2-2 at Ibrox on Sunday.
Despite racing into a two-goal lead via a Youssef Chermiti brace - one of which included a goal of the season contender - Danny Rohl’s men were pegged back in the second period, with Kieran Tierney reducing the deficit before Reo Hatate bundled home the equaliser in injury-time after seeing his penalty saved by Jack Butland.
The result does little for either side in the context of the title race, with Rangers now trailing league leaders Hearts by six points, whereas Celtic, eight points off the pace, have a game in hand.
On another big weekend in the Scottish Premiership title race, here are our three key takeaways from Rangers 2-2 Celtic...
Key title conclusion
So much of the pre-game chat centred on a simple theory; whoever lost the game was out of the Scottish Premiership title race. However, few really concentrated on what it would mean if the game ended in a draw.
In the first half, Rangers were excellent to a man. The midfield axis of Nico Raskin and Tochi Chukwuani was dominant, while livewire Mikey Moore grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck as Danny Rohl’s side swarmed over their Glasgow counterparts like bees to a hive. Those first 45 minutes were as good as Rangers have been under the German head coach, whereas Celtic’s were as bad as they have been since the second coming of Martin O’Neill in January. Their outstanding first-half performance shook their rivals almost as much as Youssef Chermiti’s acrobatic opener did the foundations of Ibrox.
Of course, that dominance didn’t remain, and Celtic fought their way back to a deserved draw in Govan with a combative, effective, and determined second-half display. The key question after the game was simple. Was that a Rangers collapse, or a Celtic fight back? While those of us in the press room debated the merits of both, the conclusion was a fairly simple one. It was neither. What both teams proved with their bipolar performance at Ibrox is why Hearts are sitting pretty at the top of the table, and why both Glasgow sides are not. When it comes to consistency, Derek McInnes’ men are the Scottish Premiership’s premier outfit and should they not win the title from here on in, it’ll only be due to a pretty unexpected late-season drop off.
The Chermiti enigma
How Rangers have managed to replace one of their most enigmatic forwards of all time, Cyriel Dessers, with a steroidal version of their former Nigerian hitman in Chermiti is as mystifying as it is impressive. The 21-year-old has bizarre peaks and troughs on a bi-weekly basis. For Rohl, it must be infuriating.
If I were to never work a day another day in this industry, then I’d be hard pushed to have seen a better goal than his overhead kick opener that looked almost certain to spark Rangers to a much-needed three points less than 10 minutes into the game. While his second wasn’t quite as spectacular, it was equally as important and was scant reward for the constant effort he put in during the opening stages of the game.
He wasn’t alone in this assessment, but Chermiti reverted to the type of performance that saw sections of the Rangers fanbase question former sporting director Kevin Thelwell’s sanity when he paid £8.5million for him in the second half. He now has seven goals in four games against title rivals Hearts and Celtic. However, you don’t have to look too far back to remember glaring misses against Motherwell and Livingston in recent weeks.
As attested to above, Hearts are clear in the title race at the moment due to their consistency during the campaign. Few would argue that they don’t possess the two best strikers in the division in Claudio Braga and Lawrence Shankland. In Chermiti, Rangers have a young, occasionally brilliant striker. But they need that first-half performance from him more consistently.
Happy birthday, Martin
There’s been few like him, and there’ll be even fewer of him in the future. Amid the chaos currently surrounding Celtic, the breathtaking 2-2 draw in Govan showed just how much we’ll miss Celtic manager Martin O’Neill if, and more likely when, he finally vacates his position as the club’s manager in the summer.
Leading Celtic out at Ibrox for the first time since April 2025, the Irishman was able to celebrate his 74th birthday when Reo Hatate stabbed home an injury-time leveller, and he was in incredible form after the game. Drafted in for the second time this season in an attempt to save Celtic’s evaporating title hopes, the veteran manager has seemed to almost enjoy the pressure that has eaten up some of his predecessors.
Describing the on-pitch scuffle between the two sets of players that took place at the final whistle as “feeble”, O’Neill launched into a tongue-in-cheek attack on the Celtic staff members who had bought him a birthday cake in the team hotel the night prior. “The backroom staff dimmed the lights and brought out a birthday cake. It was pathetic,” smiled the Celtic boss. “The problem is, my birthday was not until 12 o’clock. I could have died between 7.30pm and 12 o’clock. Seriously. I don’t know who would have eaten the cake. Probably [Mark] Fotheringham.”
In modern-day football, characters are few and far between. Long gone are the days of Brian Clough and Don Revie battling it out on television for the entertainment of the watching world. Media-trained and mundane rule the airwaves. But in O’Neill, we are reminded of what some would call ‘the good old days’. He may have gotten that little bit older today, but his character and wit remain better than ever. Without it, and a stirring half-time team talk, Celtic may well have been mourning a damaging second consecutive derby defeat.
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