The manner in which Celtic condemned Rangers to a telling 3-0 drubbing in the League Cup final on Sunday underlined anew the psychological divide between the two titans of Scottish soccer. On paper, the Hoops were not at their best, but mental strength, resilience, and ‘know how’ when it comes to the big occasion served them well.
Of course Callum McGregor was right Celtic did not play at their best, but what commendable about the team is that they were able to hang in there and get the win. Both goals – Daizen Maeda’s ostracers heroics in scoring the winning penalty and scoring a clean header in the second half.
Rangers, however, were left to wonder how they could have fared had they been at full strength. This defeat is ‘harder to take’ says Andy Halliday because Celtic were below par which points to the fact that Rangers do not have it in them to beat Celtic in big games.
Halliday said on the match that he loves this Nicolas Kuhn, and he was by far the best Celtic player on that day, to further emphasize the disparity between the two teams. This season for example we can see that Kuhn become a very important player for celtic where he has 22 avarage involvement in goals.
With the smoke cleared and Celtic crowned yet again the Rangers find themselves faced with the cold light of defeat. For all theirfootball mastery and creativity, they are still unable to get past another Scottish team, Celtic in big fixtures hence continue to be dominated by their bitter rivals.