Fifty five minutes into this Rangers romp at Ibrox, Martin O'Neill and Shaun Maloney stood beside each other in the Celtic technical area, chin-stroking, head-scratching, pointing, waving, drowning. To them, in this moment, this Premier Sports Cup quarter-final must have felt like a surreal and nightmarish occasion - and it was only 1-0 at the time. Rangers had really only started to wreak their havoc.
Such was Rangers' dominance, their complete owning of their visitors in every conceivable category, the Celtic managerial brains trust seemed just as lost as every one of their players on the field. Man for man, Rangers won every battle, not for 45 minutes but for the full ninety. Rangers overwhelm meek Celtic to clinch semi-final spot No away fans, of course.
Not that that had anything to do with it. Being locked out of Ibrox might have seemed like a curse to Celtic folk. In the end, it must have felt like the greatest blessing.
In his early months in the job, Derek McInnes has been looking for a marquee performance. He was looking for a formation that worked and personnel that were big enough and bold enough to execute it and he got that, too. This was 3-0 going on more.
The simplicity of their progression to the semi-final was a touch surreal. Neither of these were in particularly good form coming into this. They were both winning, yes, but they haven't been all that convincing.
This season, in their last eight domestic features combined - all won, in fairness - there was only a goal in it at the end in seven of them. Both sides had got themselves into a cycle of missed chances and, at times, uncomfortable days. So the smart money was on a tight contest.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
