Celtic end year with nervy Old Firm victory over Rangers to go eight points clear
Celtic 2 Rangers 1
Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi scores their second goal in the Scottish Premiership win over Rangers at Celtic Park, Glasgow
Celtic have beaten Rangers in their Old Firm derby clash to go eight points clear of their bitter rivals in the Scottish Premiership title race.
Even though Rangers have two games in hand on Celtic, this was a huge win for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
Wicklow-born former Shamrock Rovers defender Liam Scales kept his place in the Celtic starting eleven as they set about hitting Rangers for an early goal.
The reigning champions eventually took the lead on 25 minutes when Rangers failed to adequately deal with a corner, with Paolo Bernardo slamming home from just inside the Rangers 18-yard box.
The second half was only two minutes old when Celtic doubled their lead thanks to a wonderful 20-yard strike from Kyogo Furuhashi that sailed into to the top right-hand corner.
However, Celtic failed to hammer home their advantage, even when the Light Blues were reduced to ten men with the dismissal of Leon Balogun on 71 minutes.
That lack of cutting edge came back to haunt them when dead-ball specialist James Tavernier fired home a brilliant 25-yard free-kick on 88 minutes to set up a nervy finish for Celtic.
Irish winger Mikey Johnston was caught napping a couple of times by Tavernier as Rangers pressed for an equaliser with eight minutes of time added on.
All of a sudden it was the ten men of Rangers who looked most likely of scoring the next goal.
Despite a flurry of possession Rangers were limited to half chances as Celtic held out for a precious three points.
Read on belfasttelegraph.co.uk
