Giovanni van Bronckhorst praises the ‘phenomenal’ character of Rangers players

Giovanni van Bronckhorst praised his Rangers side’s “phenomenal” character to come back from a goal down to beat Celtic 2-1 at Hampden Park and reach the Scottish Cup final.

The Parkhead side took the lead against the general run of play in the 64th minute through left-back Greg Taylor but  Gers substitute Scott Arfield levelled in the 78th minute to take the game to extra time for the second time in four days for the Light Blues, after they had beaten Braga in 120 minutes in the Europa League quarter-final at Ibrox on Thursday.

In the 114th minute, as the game looked set for penalties, Celtic defender Carl Starfelt and Gers substitute Fashion Sakala jousted for a Calvin Bassey cross with the ball ending up in the net – it looked like an own goal- and Rangers will now play Hearts in the final on May 21.

“It was a very proud moment for me to see my side play like that,” said the Gers boss, who revealed Aaron Ramsey had to go off just before the break with a hamstring injury.

“We had to dig deep after a demanding game against Braga. But I think today our character was phenomenal, especially because we knew that Celtic were coming at us fresh. The guys did terrific.

“In the first half we created good chances to score. But when we got the goal against us we knew we had to dig even deeper. The substitutions made quite a positive impact for the team – fresh legs.

“We controlled the game after that. You know when you are playing a semi-final and it goes to extra time players get tired and make more mistakes.

“We know that when we scored in the second half of extra time it was a vital moment. Luckily for us we scored the winner with Sakala.”

Van Bronckhorst believes the win gives Rangers incentive to go on and win the cup for