Celtic 0-1 Rangers: Naderi punishes Hoops as Gers claim another Old Firm victory | OneFootball

Rangers defeated Celtic in front of no away fans at Parkhead, with Ryan Naderi’s goal condemning the Hoops to a third consecutive defeat and ramping up the pressure on Martin O’Neill.

With no away fans in the stadium, Rangers took the lead with Ryan Naderi tapping home the rebound after Min-Su Kim’s strike was saved. They continued to be the team in control, and passed up huge opportunities to wrap up the victory.

The visitors held on for what turned out to be a relatively comfortable victory against their Old Firm rivals. It brings to an end Celtic’s unbeaten start to the Scottish Premiership season, with only two points now separating the two teams in the table.

As it happened

After sightings at both ends, Celtic thought they had an early lead after Auston Trusty volleyed home following a wide Celtic free-kick. The celebrations were short-lived as the linesman raised his flag, with the replay clearly showing Liam Scales in an offside position before he won the initial header.

Clear-cut chances were at a premium in the opening 30 minutes, with the closest either team came was Kieran Tierney’s powerful effort from just outside the box clipping the top of the crossbar.

But with 32 minutes on the clock, the visitors broke the deadlock. Min-Su Kim picked up the ball at the edge of the box following a Rangers corner before unleashing an effort which was saved by Viljami Sinisalo before being tapped home by Ryan Naderi.

The visitors very nearly doubled their lead minutes later. Djeidi Gassama did well to take it away from a Celtic defender before chipping the ball over the goalkeeper, but there was slightly too much on it as it came back off the woodwork as the home side survived another scare.

With that, the first half came to an end with Parkhead booing the Celtic team off the pitch after another poor performance.

Celtic began the second half quickly, with a cross finding Colby Donovan at the back post, but Ivor Pandur did well to keep out his powerful header.

After the Donovan opportunity, the second half found a similar rhythm to the first, with Rangers being the more dangerous team. The away side had a number of early chances in the second period, and appeared to be in complete control of the contest.

As the clock kept ticking, the game became more end-to-end as Celtic were trying to throw everything at Rangers.

Olwethu Makhanya did find the net brilliantly with a volley from the edge of the box, but the ball clearly struck his hand in the process, but VAR quickly intervened to disallow the goal, leaving the score at 1-0.

Despite Celtic pushing forward, Rangers were able to hold on for a Famous Old Firm away victory in front of no travelling fans. They have now won six games in a row, only conceding one goal in the process.

On the other hand, Martin O’Neill’s side have now lost three games on the bounce, and with two of them coming against their bitter rivals, the pressure is well and truly on the legendary manager to turn this bad run of form around.