Six goals, 10 yellow cards, extra time and a penalty shootout that was won by the narrowest of margins. It will be of no consolation whatsoever to Rangers that they played their part in a Hampden Park epic. The scale of Celtic celebration as they reclaimed the League Cup gave a tacit admission of how hard they had to work to get there.
Ridvan Yilmaz proved the Rangers fall guy. Rangers’ Turkish full-back missed the only one of 10 spot-kicks, Kasper Schmeichel saving low to his left. Celtic thereby took delivery of the one domestic trophy to elude them last season.
The final started at 120mph and did not relent until extra time, when both teams were visibly knackered. Jack Butland denied Nicolas Kühn and Reo Hatate as Celtic chased an early goal. Leon Balogun should have sent Rangers ahead but fluffed his lines from a James Tavernier cross. Rangers were to reach the interval ahead, though, and deservedly so. Celtic were clearly short of their best during those opening 45 minutes. A Greg Taylor error gave Rangers their opening. Nedim Bajrami played in Hamza Igamane, whose shot was saved by Schmeichel. Bajrami pounced on the rebound.
Celtic took four second-half minutes to turn the tables. Taylor’s shot from 19 yards flicked off Nicolas Raskin, leaving Butland helpless. If Raskin was barely culpable for that, his poor header towards Balogun set Daizen Maeda free for Celtic’s second. The Japanese forward made no mistake having raced through on goal.
The error at that stage would have been to believe Rangers would accept their fate. Celtic dozed at a short corner, with Mohamed Diomande able to spin off Arne Engels. Diomande’s shot deflected off Kyogo Furuhashi on its way beyond Schmeichel. Game on.
Celtic notched the fifth, a sharp one-two between Kühn and Engels resulting in the German slotting home in typically cool fashion. Back roared Rangers again, Vaclav Cerny’s terrific cross from the right flank headed in by the substitute Danilo.
No side could summon an extra-time winner. Neither looked like doing so, either. Penalties felt an appropriate conclusion to proceedings. There, it was Celtic who held their nerve. After Yilmaz missed, Maeda stroked home the decisive kick.