Brendan Rodgers hailed an “immense” performance from his 10-man Celtic side as the Scottish champions moved nine points clear at the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership.
In a pulsating, thrilling encounter at Ibrox, Celtic twice came from behind, and overcame the sending off of Joso Simunovic, to secure a fourth consecutive win at the home of their old foes for the first time since 1909.
A jubilant Rodgers told Sky Sports: Its feels great. It was an immense performance considering we went behind very early in the game. You could see the intensity in the stadium today. It was an incredible game to be involved in. I thought we deserved it. We made some mistakes in the first half but I thought we played the better football. We had to cope with Rangers playing more direct and long in behind. We made mistakes dealing with that.
The second half we go down to 10-men but we have a plan for that in case that happens. We work on the importance of staying calm and keeping the shape. The last 30 minutes demonstrated the tactical courage of the team and the quality in our defending. A brilliant, brilliant win and really proud of the team.”
On Simunovic’s red-card, Rodgers added: “I can see why Willie (Collum) has given it. Normally the defender is coming across, fighting for the space, it’s normally a straighter arm. But he’s just bent his arm and catches him and you can see why he gives it. But we had to show resilience and we coped very well.”
Scott Brown, the Celtic captain, savoured another triumph at the home of Rangers and insisted the reigning champions showed their true worth amid pre-match talk of a potential title race building up a head of steam.
Brown said: "We went in at half-time having scored a late goal and we knew the second-half we’d dominate.
"Sadly, we lost a man, but we stuck to our task and we defended really well overall.
"We always believed we could do it, no matter what.
"We’ve come here four times and won four games, so we believe we can win here all the time now.
"They did a lot of talking beforehand - we stayed quiet. We usually do our talking on the park."
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