Celtic 1-1 Rangers: Champagne on ice for Celtic as Rangers hit back to delay rivals' title party

Celtic must wait a little longer than they and their supporters had hoped to celebrate becoming Scottish champions for a 52nd time.

In delaying what is still surely the inevitable outcome to this title race, Rangers produced a performance at Celtic Park which they could reasonably claim merited the victory they needed to inject any credible sense of jeopardy into the final three rounds of fixtures.

The defending champions displayed character and purpose in responding to Jota’s 21st minute opener for Celtic, levelling through Fashion Sakala midway through the second half and finishing the stronger side.

But Celtic are on the verge of reclaiming the Premiership crown for good reason. Even when not at their cohesive best under Ange Postecoglou, they possess a resilience which has underpinned an unbeaten league run which now stretches to 29 matches.

Their six point lead over Rangers remains intact, with a vastly superior goal difference offering additional insurance as they look to cross the winning line at some stage of their remaining games against Hearts, Dundee United and Motherwell.

Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his players know that their own pursuit of silverware must now focus on the Europa League, where they face RB Leipzig in the second leg of their semi-final at Ibrox on Thursday, and the Scottish Cup final against Hearts.

But there was certainly no hint of concession to that scenario in van Bronckhorst’s team selection or in the manner his players approached the match.

The three changes he made - Steven Davis, Scott Arfield and Sakala replacing Ryan Jack, Glen Kamara and Scott Wright - could not be construed as fielding a weakened side with Leipzig in mind.

As they attempted to put the chastening experience of