Celtic v Rangers inquest: Ange Postecoglou has say on claim his team looked like they played 120 midweek minutes

There was one question that was on the lips of every Celtic supporter as they digested the weary showing of Ange Postecoglou’ men in their Scottish Cup semi-final 2-1 extra-time loss to their rivals.

How was it, this perplexed constituency asked themselves, that Celtic rather than Rangers looked as if they had pushed themselves through 120 minutes of football only the Thursday night prior to the last-four tie? For a second successive meeting between the pair, the Ibrox men saw more of the ball than their bitter foes. A rare occurrence in the fixture across recent times and a particular oddity in the current environment with Postecoglou priding himself on being a possession-based coach.

In the main, both teams struggled to break the press of the other across much of a stuffy contest. Yet, Rangers set the tone across the first period as they betrayed none of the legginess expected to inhibit them following their punishing exertions in the Europa League quarter-final success over Braga. It was Celtic’s sluggishness instead that then allowed Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men to exhibit greater control and bite in the middle of the park, and allowed them to pin back a Celtic that appeared anything but the fresher of the Hampden adversaries despite having a full nine days to prepare for the contest. Even if ultimately Celtic may have been undone by failing to go two-up when Cameron Carter-Vickers smacked the bar with only 21 minutes of normal time remaining. Yet, the Celtic manager took issue with contention that it appeared as if his team had come off a draining midweek as opposed to Rangers. “I didn’t see it that way,” he said. “They did press us, but I still thought we had our moments to play through, and we did. In these kind