Rangers inflicted Celtic’s first defeat of the season with a 3-0 win, while old firm Hohooo through Philippe Clement ended up easing the strain on the struggling Rangers manager.
Hurt by problems lost at St Mirren and Motherwell, Clement’s was motivated to beat their rivals for the first time since May 2023.
They were the better side from kick-off and Ianis Hagi sparked the fans into life when he fired in the opener with just seven minutes on the clock.
Vaclav Cerny hit the woodwork, either of Kyogo’s purposes as the rangers continued to dominate. Robin Propper criticized the house for his moment with Danilo coming off the bench for a comprehensive victory with his first touch.
Some of the sheen was taken off the victory when Celtic’s Arne Engels was hit by a coin thrown from the crowd, with Police Scotland now investigating.
Celtic were far from their still-transparent themes in the Scottish Premier League naming race, as Clement seems to have won over the enthusiasts for now.
The Rangers were scoreless, Jack Butland and Captain James Tavernier, but they with genuine intent and Nedim Bajrami had 3 shots temporarily blocked as they looked for an early lead.
It took just seven minutes for Ibrox to burst into life when Hagi collected from stand-in captain Raskin to send a brilliant strike into the corner of the net.
The hosts were fired up.
Vaclav Cerny almost doubled the lead soon after, his shot deflecting off Liam Scales and clipping the top of the bar with Ridvan Yilmaz, then forcing Kasper Schmeichel to do so a few minutes later.
Celtic struggled to string a pass together with Daizen Maeda’s off-target shot the best they had to offer in the first half an hour.
Hagi had to make it 2-0 when Reo Hatate gave the ball away, but this time his shot went wide.
It was then Cameron Carter-Vickers to the rescue with a brilliantly timed sliding tackle to stop Mohamed Diomande putting Rangers further ahead.
Jefte left Nicolas Kuhn with a cut nose as half-time approached as he picked up a booking. After the resultant free-kick was cleared, Liam Kelly pulled off a brilliant save on his Old Firm debut to stop Maeda scoring from Paulo Bernardo’s corner.
The captains clashed at the whistle, Raskin received a yellow card while Callum McGregor, already under caution, avoided the penalty.
Celtic looked to get back into the game and Kyogo sent a brilliant volley past Kelly and into the net, but VAR proved he was indeed offside.
Cerny then rattled the woodwork again as his shot crashed off the post before Rodgers rang the changes with Adam Idah, Alex Valle and Luke McCowan replacing Kyogo, Greg Taylor and Bernardo.
The rangers threatened again.
Schmeichel got down to push Cerny’s shot past, but seconds later they doubled their lead as Propper slammed the ball in on the rebound after Raskin’s header was blocked.
The hosts were looking for more and Schmeichel adorned Yilmaz’s long-range shot as the hoops stared at shells.
And it’s not over yet as Danilo came off the bench here to sweep third place with his first touch of the match.
Fans were in the country of dreams, but expired articles were still thrown from the stands to the field, and the police worried about cleaning them.
Clement led his players to celebrate with fans while Celtic players walked painfully through the Ibrox tunnel, unbelievers in the face of their poor performance.
The owner of the Rangers, Philippe Clément, Sky Sports:
“It feels very good as the boys got the reward they deserve. What they didn’t get in the last couple of weeks – in the League Cup final and in the last couple of games – we shot ourselves in the foot with goals conceded.
“Things weren’t looking our way then, however, you can see that even with the injuries and the players, everyone in this team is running very hard to do more and more.
“This is evidence of this and we will have to continue like this in the coming weeks and months.
“Nico [Raskin] wasn’t in a position for the Captain a few months ago. But it is taking action. The more captains you have, the bigger your team.
“It’s a very important victory. It provides confidence to enthusiasts and everyone who follows the Rangers. This new team is being formed, there are many prospects and we will work hard to achieve it. This is my task and my project.
Celtic Brendan Rodgers in Sky Sports:
“I imagine the team won. I imagine that the rangers were larger than us.
“We made too many mistakes. When they score the first goal, it provides a spice to the stadium and everyone in the game, then on the goal of the moment, we lose it in the corner and the third goal, evident once again, we lose the ball.
“We made too many goals in the game and the Rangers deserved to win.
“This is not what you need and that is not your game plan. I just felt like we slowed down the ball and then we have no merit when we don’t have it.
“Too passive, not aggressive enough. All round, not a very good performance.”