Captain Callum McGregor believes Celtic confirmed their character and character to battle again from two targets down to draw 2-2 with Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday.
McGregor delighted with Celtic’s struggle in opposition to Rangers
Martin O’Neill’s facet had been blitzed within the first half by Rangers, who led by a double from 21-year-old Portuguese striker Youssef Chermiti and it seemed like being a good distance again for Celtic.
However, in a surprising second-half turnaround, left-back Kieran Tierney scored within the 56th minute with a header and a dramatic last-gasp leveller by substitute Reo Hatate – after Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland had saved his spot-kick and a second shot from the rebound – earned a degree, albeit the draw favoured William Hill Premiership leaders Hearts.
With 9 fixtures remaining Rangers are six factors behind the Edinburgh membership and two forward of Celtic, whose recreation in hand is away to Aberdeen on Wednesday night time.
“Strange” – Chris Sutton says Celtic star played like it was a “testimonial” against Rangers
The pundit wasn’t impressed.
The Hoops have additionally produced key late targets in video games in opposition to Dundee, Livingston and Kilmarnock in latest weeks and midfielder McGregor talked up his facet’s resilience.
He stated: “Maybe the last four or five weeks it’s been quite evident. And football’s not easy.
“It never goes to plan a lot of the time as well. You can plan for things but in the moments where you’re up against it, you need characters, you need personality to take the ball and play your way back into the game and probably none better a place to do it than there.
“It shows everyone that we’re right in this, obviously with a game in hand which hopefully will nudge us closer as well and then we charge down these last nine games and see where we can get to.”
McGregor believes Celtic’s never-say-die perspective can ship the psychological message to different groups that they’re aiming to retain their title.
He stated: “Obviously we’d probably like to not be putting ourselves in those positions, but like I said the game’s never perfect and it just shows you the team are still fighting.
“We believe in where we want to get to and it’s that attitude that you never know when you’re beat and obviously we get the equaliser again on Sunday, which on the face of it looks like a really good point.”
There had been a few thousand Celtic supporters celebrating on the finish, however for subsequent Sunday’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup quarter-final tie at Ibrox there will be around 7,500 travelling fans in the Broomloan stand, as per competitors guidelines.
McGregor believes each that and the siege mentality they confirmed on Sunday may very well be key components.
He stated: “That’s what we wish from the staff. We know we’ve received a cup recreation to come on the finish of the week and we wish to try to feed into that as a lot as we are able to.
“Obviously, we can have a full stand as nicely and it’s simply little issues like that that may hopefully flip the momentum in your favour and that’s the place we want to be as nicely.
“But the boys showed every bit of character that they’ve got and it was a really good point in the end.”
Willie Collum set to look into penalty incident – Hackett
While a lot of the eye has been on the penalty John Beaton awarded for Hatate to finally bundle residence, ex-PGMOL chief Keith Hackett claims there might be an enquiry throughout the Scottish FA over the one the referee missed.
Dujon Sterling appeared to seize Sebastian Tounekti’s shirt and bundle him over, and Hackett has instructed Football Insider that Collum might be trying into it.
“Well, I do hope that Willie Collum, the Head of Referees, will take a look at this and enquire of the referee and VAR how they failed to award what’s clearly a penalty kick.
“The defender holding and impeding his opponent with contact. That is a foul and should have resulted in a penalty kick.”
The draw leaves the pair each within the wake of high-flying Hearts, however with the Hoops holding a recreation in hand, a win at Ibrox might have been season-defining.
