Fitbaw Talk: 'Celtic humbled at Ibrox on derby day to forget but emphatic Rangers win comes with dose of reality'

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00:00Hello and welcome to the latest episode of National World's Fitbit Talk, where we dissect

00:09the latest news and views surrounding Rangers and Celtic.

00:14Just on the back of yesterday's old firm match between the pair at Ibrox, a brilliant day

00:22for Rangers in the end, a 3-0 victory over Celtic, certainly a result that not many Rangers

00:28fans in particular will have seen coming. Three goals from Yanis Hadji opened the scoring

00:35after just seven minutes before Robin Proper and Danilo added a touch of gloss to the scoreline

00:41in the second half in front of a capacity home crowd of over 51,000 at Ibrox, which

00:47is a new all-time record.

00:50So getting into the nitty-gritty of this match then, not only did Philippe Clement, the Rangers

00:57manager, manage to end his old firm hoodoo at the seventh time of asking, this was a

01:03result that also saw Rangers trim Celtic's lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership

01:08table to 11 points. And also, as mentioned, the victory certainly ends their barren run

01:17in the old firm fixture, with Brendan Rodgers having now tasted defeat just twice in 20

01:24previous derby matches prior to this outcome.

01:28The game took place just 18 days on from the Premier Sports Cup final at Hampden Park,

01:36Rangers Celtic starting the day 14 points clear at the summit. The pressure was firmly

01:42on Philippe Clement, giving his side a drop points on Boxing Day to St Mirren and again

01:48at Motherwell on the 29th of January.

01:51So they headed into this New Year derby knowing they simply needed to win this game in order

01:57to cling on to rather faint hopes of pulling themselves back into the title race as things

02:04stand during the second half of the season. But they looked right up for this game from

02:09the outset and were miles better than Celtic all across the pitch over the course of the

02:17afternoon. As I said, Yanis Hadji set the ball rolling after just seven minutes with

02:22a 25-yard strike low into the bottom corner of the net. From a Celtic point of view, some

02:29will say that goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel should have maybe done a wee bit better to

02:35prevent the ball from sneaking in at his far post. But it was a brilliant strike from a

02:42player who was somewhat of the forgotten man at Ibrox for a long time. Rangers fans are

02:50certainly know all about Yanis Hadji, a player of huge potential and talent. But obviously

02:59there was a big debate around whether or not he would play for Rangers again at the start

03:03of the season given his contract situation. But he was back in the starting lineup a few

03:10months ago and has been a valuable addition to Philippe Clement's side. Important to note

03:17as well that Rangers were severely depleted heading into this game with injuries. Jack

03:23Buckland, James Tavernier, Liam Balligan, key figures in the Rangers rear guard, all absent

03:31through injury. So it was a rather makeshift back line that Clement had to put together

03:36for Rangers. But they stood up to the task well. Celtic did have a couple of decent moments

03:44but were never really threatening an equaliser until the stroke of halftime when

03:50Rio Hatati's effort was well saved by Liam Kelly. Vaclav Cerny came closest to Dublin's

03:58Rangers lead midway through the first half when his deflected effort struck the crossbar.

04:04But going into halftime, I think the majority of Celtic supporters would have expected a reaction

04:12from Brendan Rodgers' players. For the first 10 minutes, it appeared as though that they

04:18were threatening a comeback but that failed to seriously materialise and Rangers went on

04:23to really assert their dominance with Dutch centre-back Robin Proper sliding home unmarked

04:29at the back post from a set piece that Celtic failed to clear to make it 2-0 after 66 minutes.

04:35And from then on, it was all Rangers. It was one-way traffic from that point. Substitute Danilo

04:41came off the bench in the closing stages and scored with virtually the first touch of the game.

04:47Jeff Dey's shot blocked the ball, breaking kindly to the Brazilian striker who coolly

04:53tucked the ball beyond Kasper Schmeichel. So, a final victory for Rangers and one that certainly

05:01is important in the context of their season. It's been well documented their domestic struggles

05:06this year, Rangers saving their best performances for European competition. But on the domestic

05:14front, it's been grim viewing for supporters and this was certainly one of their best performances

05:20of the campaign to date. The task now, I guess, for Philippe Clement will be to try and build on

05:26this going forward. As I say, they're still 11 points behind in the title race and it's going

05:31to take one almighty effort to make further inroads into Celtic's lead. But they've got

05:37the chance to do so this weekend when they head to Easter Road for Sunday's lunchtime kick-off.

05:43A venue Rangers have become accustomed to winning at in previous seasons and Clement will hope that

05:52on the back of this game, there's no further injury concerns to deal with. Squad is rather

05:58threadbare at this point and with the January transfer window now open, it will be interesting

06:02to see which positions he looks to strengthen in over the course of the next three or four weeks.

06:13As for Celtic, they have a home game against St Mirren this weekend and obviously that's

06:18probably a game that many would expect Celtic to bounce back in rather emphatically. They've

06:24done that time and time again on the back of defeats and without any European football

06:31to concern themselves with for a couple of weeks. They'll be hoping to return to winning ways in

06:39style. You'd imagine that Brendan Rodgers will again look to rotate his team. He made just three

06:45changes to the starting line-up from the side that beat St Johnson 4-0 on January 29th and you'd

06:53imagine that the likes of Luke McCowan and Arnie Engles could come back in for this next game.

07:01As things stand, undoubtedly the manner of this defeat will have hurt Brendan Rodgers and his

07:07players, but you would suspect that they won't dwell too much on it. They were completely out

07:13the sorts. They were wasteful in possession. Rangers harried and hustled them from the get-go

07:21and it was very uncharacteristic of Celtic time and time again, as they say. I thought they lacked

07:28precision in their passing all over the pitch and they were just second best on the day.

07:35It was rather surprising, given that they were totally outplayed in the first half,

07:39that there wasn't a better reaction from Rodgers' men at half-time.

07:45Rangers, where does this leave Philippe Camon? Obviously, it's managed to ease some of the

07:51pressure that was certainly mounting on his shoulders. He's still got a lot of work to do

07:57to win some of the Rangers' fans back over. I think the vast majority still have their guard

08:04up against Clermont at this stage. Rangers have been so far behind Celtic during the first half

08:12of the season. The recruitment, in particular, has been well spoken about. That's been poor.

08:19There haven't been many standout performers during the first half of the campaign.

08:23Maybe Vaclav Cerny and Conor Barron are the two that deserve mention there, who have been

08:30kind of the standout two. As I said, it's not been a season to remember so far for Rangers.

08:37They'll look to now, as I said, an important, old firm win for them, given that they have a

08:44wretched record in the fixture in recent years. They will really hope to use this now as a catalyst

08:52for them going forward. It's a difficult run of games they've got going up. Hibs are very much

08:58revitalised under David Gray. They're looking to move away from the drop zone and potentially

09:05battle out for a place in the top six. That's going to be a really difficult game for them

09:10on Sunday. Rangers then have games against Dundee, St Johnson and Aberdeen over the course of the

09:17coming days. It's another busy month for Rangers to contend with. It's been well documented that

09:23some players have voiced that they have been fatigued and that the sports scientists are

09:28working a lot closer with the players to ensure that their recovery time between games is improved.

09:37As for Celtic, well, as I said, I don't think Brendan Rodgers will be hitting the panic button

09:43at this stage, given that it was a heavy defeat, but it was also their first of the

09:49premiership season. They've been in commanding position at the top of the table for some time

09:55now and with Aberdeen faltering back into the pack, you'd imagine that Celtic will continue

10:02to push on towards retaining their title. Stay tuned to the next episode of Football Talk,

10:09where we'll be dissecting the latest round of results this weekend. Thanks again for joining.

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