Nikola Katic in 'really s***' Rangers flashback as he recoils at Celtic League Cup heartbreak memory

Nikola Katic hopes Rangers won't have to relive the 'really s***' dressing room atmosphere he did after the Ibrox side's last League Cup final.

Katic started under Steven Gerrard in the 2019 final when Christopher Jullien's controversial winner clinched it for Celtic on a day Rangers missed numerous chances. Alfredo Morelos was denied several times by the impressive Fraser Forster who also saved a penalty from the Colombian following Jeremie Frimpong's red card.

The two sides meet in Sunday's Viaplay Cup final at Hampden with the bulk of the Rangers squad who started that heartbreaking defeat still in place under Michael Beale. They'll be hopeful of getting one over on Ange Postecoglou and Celtic and can take a cautionary tale from Katic's recollection of the last time they were there.

He told The Athletic: “I had doping control at full-time with Allan McGregor - when we got back in everyone was down, it was really s***. As a team, I don’t think we got lower than that as we were so close. “I knew our time was going to come but it’s difficult to say when that will be after you build, build, build, think it’s finally there for you — and then you are left disappointed. You have to go all over again. “Alfredo felt really bad. You could see it in him. Players could be annoyed at him for red cards and things like that but no one blamed him for this game or thought he didn’t care. The next game was Young Boys at home and we had to get a result to go through to the Europa knockouts. He scored for 1-0 and apologised to the fans when he celebrated.”

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