Celtic and Rangers played out a manic 3-3 draw at Ibrox, in one of the most hectic Glasgow Derbies in recent memory.

Brendan Rodgers’ side went for the jugular early on and were ahead in under a minute after Daizen Maeda pressed James Tavernier, with his outstretched leg making contact with the defender’s clearance, in turn bypassing Jack Butland in the Rangers goal. The visitors would double their lead through Matt O’Riley’s chipped penalty, following a VAR review on Connor Goldson after the ball hit his outstretched elbow.

Despite having chances to kill the game off at the end of the first 45 minutes, Celtic allowed Rangers to get back into the game, as Alistair Johnston was judged to have fouled Fabio Silva in the box by VAR – a contentious decision to say the least. Cyriel Dessers would then have the ball in the back of the net, though VAR would intervene again to give a foul on Tom Lawrence for a foul on Tomoki Iwata. Substitute Abdallah Sima would equalise for the hosts via a deflected strike, though Celtic would take the lead again minutes later thanks to their own replacement in Adam Idah, following good work by Paulo Bernardo. Unfortunately, they conceded a late strike from Rabbi Matondo from distance, which was the final goal of an action-packed 90 minutes in Govan.

Using StatsBomb analytics, The Celtic Way brings you a match report like no other…

Race chart + key stats

Perhaps expected due to having no away support and being under the cosh – especially in the second half – Celtic had less possession than the hosts in this match, having 46 per cent to Rangers’ 54 in the game. This perhaps demonstrates the drop-off from the first to second half of the game in terms of Celtic’s control of proceedings. Rangers also had more passes than their visitors, managing 507 to 425 in the game. Again, this is to be expected.

In shots, however, Celtic had more than Rangers, at a rate of 14 to 12, with Rodgers’ side managing seven on target to five for Clement’s men. A higher xG was recorded for Celtic – though only just – with 1.74 to their rivals’ 1.59.

The above race chart demonstrates the closeness between the two sides at the start despite Celtic’s early goal – a low xG-scoring chance, admittedly. The O’Riley penalty allows for the away side’s xG total to rise due to it being a high-scoring chance in proceedings. Rangers would just about catch up to this total following the restart, as chances came hard to come by in the second half for Celtic.

With all of these chances added up, StatsBomb gave Celtic a 41 per cent chance of winning in the eyes of xG, with Rangers sitting on 30 per cent. A draw was calculated at 29 per cent, which turned out to be the case.

Team line-ups, positions and passing

As per usual this campaign, Celtic lined up in their traditional 4-3-3 for this match. Kyogo Furuhashi led the line himself, assisted by Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn on either side of him, the latter’s first taste of a Glasgow Derby. It was Tomoki Iwata’s birthday for this one, and he was rewarded with another start - his first in this fixture – ahead of returning captain Callum McGregor, who only made the bench. Reo Hatate and Matt O’Riley would provide the creative sparks in the middle of the park, whilst it was an unchanged back-line for Rodgers’ side. Cameron Carter-Vickers continued his run in the team – accompanied by regular defensive partner Liam Scales – whilst Greg Taylor and Johnston applied width from the wide areas. Joe Hart started as usual between the sticks for the club.

Rangers went for a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Dujon Sterling playing instead of Ridvan Yilmaz due to injury. Sima and Todd Cantwell only made the bench, as Scott Wright and Mohammed Diomande were preferred. Dessers led the line for the home side, supported by Silva on the left. Tom Lawrence was picked to start for the side, whilst Goldson and John Souttar provided the defensive cover at the back. Butland made his presence felt in goals for the Ibrox side.

Admittedly, Celtic’s passing network does not make for great reading or viewing in the eyes of OBV. A reminder that the warmer the colour, the better the performance from each individual when measuring on-ball value. The thicker the lines, the more passes between the highlighted players in the network as a result.

When comparing positions to – for example – last week, Celtic were pushed back far more in this game than before. That front eight that was present just seven days prior has changed into three, given the nature of the game. Surprisingly, Kuhn and Taylor were the side’s top performers in this metric, despite being perceived to have had poor games respectively on either end.

With 0.33 in OBV, Kuhn was Celtic’s top contributor for this particular statistic. Taylor was next with 0.18. Maeda, Carter-Vickers and Kyogo all had negative readings, with the former on -0,15 for his 19 passes on the day.

Looking at Celtic’s key passers on the day, it was little surprise to see O’Riley top this list, as he has been doing so all season long. Indeed, he led both teams with four in total, at a combined xG of 0.39. Kuhn was next with three, whilst Paulo Bernardo, McGregor and Kyogo had one each.

Shooting

As expected, Celtic’s shot map is a bit of a mixed bag. The ridiculousness of Maeda’s ‘lucky’ goal to open the scoring is shown above as the furthest chance to the left. Truly a mad goal that encapsulated a mad Glasgow Derby. Elsewhere, the majority of Celtic’s good chances were in and around 12 yards from goal, with O’Riley’s two big chances – the penalty and header – happening in near enough the same area. Idah’s goal was close by, too. Kyogo’s best chance – the one closest to Butland’s goal – was saved by the Englishman.

For Celtic’s top shooters on derby day, that accolade goes to the Japanese trio of Kyogo, Maeda and Hatate, who all had three each. However, nine shots only contributed to one goal, and you get the feeling that if all three got on the scoresheet then it would have been a big victory for Rodgers’ men at Ibrox. Idah and O’Riley had two each, and two goals between them, showing more of a lethal side than their teammates.

Despite Idah’s goal being the most well-worked finish out of the three, Maeda’s ridiculous goal deserves a special mention. In pressing Tavernier into playing out from the back, the winger chases a lost cause and gets rewarded for it. A quite astonishing goal 20 seconds in, which was a 0.02 chance concerning xG. It only rose to 0.04 following the touch from Maeda leaving his leg, showcasing how unbelievable the opportunity was. Celtic’s best starting attacker, purely by default. That’s now two goals at Ibrox for the up-and-down winger, in every sense of the word.

Pressing and defending

Despite Celtic having less of the ball, they also committed less pressures in the game, as Rangers managed 176 to their opponents’ 138. They also regained the ball from pressures 37 times to just 16 from Rodgers’ side, a poor return on this side of the game.

Looking at individuals, Maeda still led both teams when it came to pressures with 33 in total. Johnston and O’Riley had 15 and 14 respectively, whilst Taylor and Kuhn managed 12. Dessers had 27 in total for Rangers, a hardworking performance from Rangers’ forward despite not scoring. Maeda also had the most counterpressures for the club with five, though Lawrence led this metric for both sides with 10. O’Riley had four, whilst Glasgow Derby debutant Diomande had six for his team.

Celtic’s full-backs were in the wars defensively, as both Taylor and Johnston had eight combined tackles and interceptions each. Maeda – always on the move – had six concerning these two metrics, whilst O’Riley had five. Diomande and Sterling had eight each for Rangers combined in these areas.

Arguably the away side’s best performer on the day, Carter-Vickers helped himself to eight clearances on the day with Johnston managing six of his own and Scales with five, as well as six aerial wins for the Irishman. Tavernier had five clearances for the hosts, on what was a mixed bag for the prolific right-back at home.