Why this win was so un-Celticy, their Bermuda Triangle and mad stat against Rangers

There were mysteries to be interrogated in the over-arching ordinariness of Celtic as they stayed fair for total supremacy within the Scottish game.

Yet everything was firmly as met the eye when it came to the Parkhead side’s defensive triangle … in which Rangers hopes of avoiding a grizzly campaign were made to disappear. A Bermuda version, it certainly wasn’t. Instead, in Cameron Carter-Vickers, Carl Starfelt, and Joe Hart, the victors all-too-straighforwardly possessed a trio who all but guaranteed the treble.

In talking about how “all facets” of his team’s game were required to “get the job” done, Ange Postecoglou effectively acknowledged as much following the slenderest of 1-0 successes. Here was a monumental match as notable for the nil as the one. In truth, talking about getting the job done tends to be a standard coaching euphemism for not playing very well and winning. But in the case of his centre-back and the keeper behind them, the Celtic manager could have the confidence to lean on – and was required to lean on as his team were forced to defend their own box for a concerted spell following the interval – a triumvirate that triumphed in more than just the result stakes.

Four of the five goals Celtic had conceded in the derby this season had resulted from set-pieces, in one form or another. There were precious few instances where Postecoglou’s men appeared vulnerable to such threats at Hampden. Carter-Vickers, even as he played through a knee problem that has now ended his season, and Starfelt seemed to draw the ball to their bonces as if there was some sort of inexplicable magnetic field allowing them to do so. It was so un-Celticy – even in the dominant Postecoglou era that has made for one one derby loss in the bitter rivals’ last nine meetings – for a string of crosses into the area during the second period to be repelled with such conviction. Which followed Hart playing his part with a couple of emphatic punches in the early stages as Michael Beale’s men sought to take the encounter to their opponents.

Celtic's Cameron Carter-Vickers holds off Rangers' Fashion Sakala Jr during the Scottish Cup semi-final.

Granted, Fashion Sakala unforgivably burying into the side-netting a rebound from a James Tavernier effort clattered off the inside of the post around the hour-mark provided the Celtic defence with a let-off. However, it was the solitary one they required as, according to Beale, his side fell short in both boxes. That was harsh on his personnel in an attacking sense because, although the Rangers manager simply could not say as much, the command exhibited by Carter-Vickers, Starfelt and Hart was what underpinned his side’s attacks being stymied.

As a consequence, Celtic’s fourth derby victory in a five-game unbeaten sequence in the fixture couldn’t just be set apart from all others outside of their Parkhead environs in this run. It can be set apart from any clash of the pair away from the east end of Glasgow across the past three-and-a-half years. Attributable to the fact that until this latest usurping of the ancient adversaries Celtic had failed to kept a clean sheet beyond facing them on the home front since, in the scrawniest fashion imaginable, they held out with 10 men to lift the League Cup in December 2019 courtesy of another 1-0. Postecoglou has a hatred of the word, but that Neil Lennon-led trophy snaring absolutely was down to luck. No-one, though, should dare suggest the same scoreline at Hampden this weekend was borne out to anything similar. It was the faultless judgement of his defensive triangle in their own third that had Rangers trophy prospects evaporating into thin air.