Another Country
If a week is a long time in football, last August seems lifetimes away.
Context to August Derby
The first Derby of the season was Postecoglou’s 11th match in charge.
This was also the trickiest part of his reign so far.
Immediate exit from the Champions League and a first match SPFL loss at Heart of Midlothian then saw the wonderful possibilities of “Angeball” revealed. A run of six victories saw 24 goals scored (xG 25.15) and a very capable AZ Alkmaar side defeated 2-0 in the first leg of the Europa League play off.
Progress to the Group stages was secured with a fraught and tiring 1-2 loss in the Netherlands. And then the Derby loomed three days later.
The game at Ibrox on the 29th August was two days before the close of the Summer Transfer Window. Whilst Celtic would add Giakoumakis, Jota and Carter-Vickers on deadline day to eleven players recruited from June, it was the transfers out that had the bigger impact in this match.
Both Edouard and Christie would formally leave Celtic on 31st August and started this match - their last outings for Celtic and no doubt aware of their fate.
Juranovic made his debut as a left back due to Taylor’s injury. Welsh partnered Starfelt in central defence. Furuhashi started on the left and Christie partnered McGregor and Turnbull in midfield.
The Rangers, after 18 months, found that COVID19 had a negative impact on their selection. Balogun deputised for Tavernier at right back and McCrorie started in goal. Gerrard was missing from the touchline.
Otherwise, their selection was highly positive with Kent, Roofe and Morelos all up front.
Both sides were on 6 points from 3 matches and in mid table.
The Match
The Rangers won with a 66th minute header by Helander on a Barisic corner cross.
Match stats:
Shot Map:
Sofascore Momentum Advantage:
NB – Confusingly, on Sofascore, the home side Momentum indicator is always in Green and away team in Blue!
From the above it is clear this was a very close match.
Celtic dominated possession and overall chance creation was largely equal – Post Shot xG was 0.74 – 0.52 in Celtic’s favour.
Having the better of the first half, The Rangers took advantage of Celtic being sloppy in possession to exert control in the second half up to their goal, whilst mainly resorting to long range efforts at goal.
Two minutes after the goal, Furuhashi had a big chance well saved by McCrorie, whose overall performance especially his speed off the line to thwart quick forward passes, was excellent.
Learnings
What a difficult match this must have been for Edouard and Christie. They must have known this was their final match and certainly played like their thoughts were elsewhere.
Christie accumulated only 0.07 Expected Scoring Contribution and Edouard 0.35 off 1 shot. Their contributions were negligible.
Furuhashi on the left was Celtic’s stand out and he and Juranovic made an impressive pairing down that side in a perhaps never to be repeated partnership.
Ralston also did very well, and Hart made three routine saves.
Starfelt struggled really badly up against Morelos and Roofe, and won 12/19 challenges. I detailed 9 occasions in the match he made poor decisions or executed poorly on challenges.
In truth, The Rangers were able to see the game out quite comfortably, with bench options for Celtic being limited to Rogic, Soro and Montgomery.
Needless to say, it was the one and only time that line up appeared.
This was Celtic’s most turbulent period under Postecoglou. Including this and the prior AZ Alkmaar match, this started a run of 5 defeats in 8 matches, with 1 draw, culminating in a 0-4 thrashing against Bayer Leverkusen.
Now, it really does seem like another country.