Smiling Rangers have that Friday feeling again after another Thursday thriller.
While it’s been a season of domestic struggles for Gers, in the Europa League Philippe Clement’s side continue to hold their own. And Nico Raskin reckons his side were at last able to get to grips with Celtic after summoning the spirit that’s kept them competitive on the continent.
With captain James Tavernier and his deputy Jack Butland both out, the little Belgian was handed the armband for yesterday’s derby showdown. And it was a day to remember for the stand-in skipper as his side ended a 20-month wait for an Old Firm triumph. Now he hopes the SPFL will do his side a favour and rethink the scheduling for the rivals’ next head-to-head.
He said: “I’m very proud. The fans deserved a performance like that. We deserved a performance like that.
“I know the last two games this week weren’t great, we all know that, so we all enjoyed this one so much. We’d looked good in training, we got confidence from that and we knew Thursday night was always a good night for us, so we just came in feeling good.
“Every game is not played before we play, so we just go and give everything. We also knew we had been so close to winning the cup final, so we just had the confidence to go for it. We’ve had good results on Thursdays, because they’re different games. Now is about the details to make us better so we can win every single game. If you can move the next Old Firm game to a Thursday, no problem!”
The Ibrox faithful lapped up every minute of their side’s dominant display. But the stirring nature of the performance could hardly be in any starker contrast to the pitiful showings Gers put in last week as they spilled five points away in Paisley and Motherwell.
Had Clement’s side taken care of St Mirren and Well last week, they could have really put Celtic’s title credentials to the test. Instead, all they’ve done is trim the Hoops’ huge title advantage back to a still whopping 11 points. But even still, that doesn’t diminish the pride Raskin felt at full-time.
He said: “At the end of the day it’s only three points and we have to repeat it in three days and then again after that. But this has been a really special day for me. My father Thierry hadn’t been in the stadium for a long time – I think this was only his second time, so it was great that he was here.
“I was really proud. The game was perfect, we all enjoyed it so much. It’s a day I’ll remember my whole life.”
But having left Celtic stunned, Raskin admits Gers need to be better against the Premiership’s lesser lights – starting with Sunday’s trip to Hibs. He said: “We need to understand that those games compared to this one are not the same. Here, you play a team where there is a lot of space, where you can counter-attack. Even when you have the ball, there is space. But when you play Motherwell or other teams like that, you face teams who defend a lot and give you no space.
“So there’s a big difference between those games and playing Celtic or a European game. Now, it’s about us finding the small details that make us good in both kinds of game.
“We know where we want to be and we’re working hard as a team and as a club to get there. When I see and hear the fans out there, it was so loud, it just feels amazing playing here.”
Raskin got himself involved in a scrape with Callum McGregor just before the break. The 23-year-old started it off with some needless pushing and copped a yellow from Referee Don Robertson. But he couldn’t get his head around why the Celtic skipper – already on a booking – wasn’t also punished for the bust-up.
“I just didn’t understand what was happening,” he said. “McGregor and I had contact, you know? And I think the referee wanted to book us both, but then he looked at McGregor and remembered he’d booked him, so just booked me.
“It was a bit unfair, because if you book me you have to book him. It’s the same thing by both of us. It was just a bit weird. I was calm, I was just explaining to the ref that it was unfair, that he had to book us both. The ref explained that he didn’t really see it, but you either booked both or no one.”
This shot at redemption for Rangers came just over a fortnight after they came up short by the thinnest of margins at Hampden. Ridvan Yilmaz was the spot-kick fall guy in the Premier Sports Cup final as he failed to net in the shoot-out. But Clement was impressed by the way the Turkish defender shrugged off that painful miss to help shut out Daizen Maeda as he slotted into an unfamiliar right-back role.
The Ibrox boss said: “He took his responsibility with the penalty and really big players, big stars of world football have missed penalties and he even didn’t miss because the goalkeeper saved. So it’s about that moment to stick together in the team. Everybody supported Ritvan directly after the game, all the players, all the staff, because he’s somebody with the right mentality for Rangers.
“He took his responsibility and that happens in football then and it’s disappointing that moment. But if the support and the togetherness is not that big, Ridvan can never do a performance like this today because then he would have run around with his head down for two weeks.
“It’s only two weeks ago, it’s not long. He made the click the day after because everybody feels safe in this group that they work hard together, but they support each other also.”