Monday 21 March 2011

Celtic And Rangers Go To Battle For The League Cup.

Hampden,the venue for the National team.


It was the fifth of seven Old Firm games this season and arguably the most important yet with the chance to win the first piece of silverware of the campaign.

Rangers haven't won in the last three they have played against Celtic and were desperate to get a win and showed their intentions when they played a more attacking formation with youngster Greg Wylde keeping his place and Steven Naismith starting after injury.

Referee Craig Thomson's first big decision came on the quarter-hour mark as he waved away Celtic's protests for a penalty when Wilson burst into the Rangers box and went to ground as Davis and Sasa Papac closed the Celtic full-back down.

Celtic almost went in front when Kris Commons' teasing cross found Brown diving in but the skipper's header flew past the post.

The deadlock was broken on 24minutes by Rangers when Davis pounced upon Charlie Mulgrew's defensive header, drove at the Celtic defence and guided a low left-foot shot into the net via the post in the 24th minute.

That lead lasted just six minutes as full back,Emilio Izaguirre's deflected cross was knocked on by Samaras and Ledley got to the ball and knocked past Neil Alexander.

Rangers thought they had been awarded a penalty when Jelavic went to ground following Rogne's tackle and referee Thomson initially appeared to point to the spot. However, after advice from one of his assistants he changed his mind and booked the Rangers striker for diving.

So the sides went in level at half time and Walter Smith's words clearly had an impact on his side as they started the half in attacking fashion,Whittaker forcing Forster into a save with a fierce drive.

Papac was inches away from scoring an own goal after his attempted clearance from Commons' centre rolled across the face of goal.
Maurice Edu tried to force his way past Wilson and the Rangers players claimed  that the Celtic defender had used his arm to block the ball's path but referee Thomson again refused to award a penalty.

Celtic began to make substitutions as an injured Scott Brown made way for Ki and later Rogne was replaced by Loovens and he nearly created a goal from a corner as he knocked the ball down for Ledley but Alexander got to the ball to keep the game level.

Vladimir Weiss came on for the final seconds of normal time and, after the match moved into extra-time.

The Slovakian was fouled on the edge of the box and Jelavic's effort from the free-kick was deflected off the wall but Forster reacted superbly to claw the ball over.

Jelavic finally got his reward for all his hard work as he brushed off the challenge of Mulgrew to latch on to Weiss's quickly taken free-kick and sliding a shot past Forster, the ball rebounding off the right-hand post but spinning back over the line and he could have finished the game when he went on the attack again.1 on 1 with Mulgrew as he was forced to bring down the striker,Last man Mulgrew should have seen a red card but instead the referee decided to give yellow obviously judging it wasn't a goal scoring opportunity.

El-Hadji Diouf replaced Jelavic for the closing stages and set up Weiss for a shot that required a last-ditch save by Forster.

Celtic were reduced to 10 men when Izaguirre was shown a straight red card for barging Weiss over as he tried to take advantage of Foster not being in his goal just minutes before the final whistle.

 The game ended and Rangers ran out winners after extra time to pick up the first piece of silverware of the season.

7 comments:

  1. I've been getting more and more into Soccer lately, never thought that would happen. But it will always just be Soccer to me, never Football, ever.

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  2. I've got a few friends that are right into soccer, so I better follow so I can keep up in conversation.

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  3. You know, I watched a Celtic Vs. Roar game when they were touring Australia once. That was awesome!
    :)

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  4. wonder what the odds are of 22 men on the field at the final whistle...

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  5. Boruc is from Poland and play in Celtic. So i am with Celtic :)))))

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  6. Seems like it was an interesting game, sad i couldn't watch

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