Rangers are 12 points ahead with 12 games remaining - and surely the destination of the Scottish Premier League title is Ibrox following a classic smash and grab from the champions. The league leaders expertly soaked up all that Celtic could throw at them for 90 minutes - missed a penalty in the process yet still stole the points with a goal from Rod Wallace with four minutes left. The speedy striker took a pass from Giovanni van Bronkhorst in his stride, dribbled around Jonathan Gould to place his shot in the corner to silence Parkhead. A missed penalty with just seven minutes remaining seemed to have deprived Dick Advocaat's side an even bigger lead at the top of the table. Jorg Albertz missed his third successive penalty kick, slamming the drive straight down ther middle after Johan Mjallby brought down Neil McCann - clearly pulling back the former Hearts player after a great pass from van Bronkhorst. It all came from a slack ball from Alan Stubbs that led to a classic counter-attack.
The other hero for Rangers was 'keeper Stefan Klos. A series of saves - from the fifth minte block to deny Mark Viduka to the last minute to the last minute stretch to save a close range Mark Burchill shot that would have beaten an average goalkeeper. This was the 99th SPL derby since the inception of the revised set-up in 1975 - and none other could surely have been played in worse conditions than this. Celtic knew that a draw would be no use to them. They can only rely on Rangers dropping so many points to the other eight SPL clubs, and that they must win the remaining Old Firm game at Ibrox to have an outside chance of catching the champions.
Rangers' captain - the Italian defender Lorenzo Amoruso - missed his kick early on highlighting the treacherous conditions after a pre-match rainstorm. He was led a merry dance by Mark Viduka in the first-half, but a combination of poor finishing, over-elaboration and desperate defending kept the scoresheet blank. Bulgarian Stiljan Petrov danced around Jorg Albertz in the game's first good move in the eighth minute. Viduka found himself totally unmarked just six yards out with the ball at his feet after a great run by Lubomir Moravcik, but somehow he panicked and blasted his shot against the legs of the prostrate Stefan Klos. In the first 20 minutes it was like the Hibernian defeat all over again. Celtic started so purpsoefully going forward. Viduka skinned Amoruso three minutes after his miss but could not find either Moravcik or Mahe in the centre when he reached the byeline. Then it was Jackie McNamara's turn to skip down the right wing and deliver a low cross that missed everybody in the centre.
Tom Boyd took a knock to deny Rod Wallace in Rangers' first real threat after Giovanni van Bronckhorst's fine low cross. Boyd took a accidental whack in the face for his troubles as he bravely cleared on the edge of the six-yard box. In truth that was a rare Rangers attack. Midway through the half Viduka took advantage of Amoruso's hesistation - and was gloriously through on goal. But the Australian - with Marco Negri's SPL record of a goal in 11 successive league games in sight - took too long to compose himself and compatriot Craig Moore managed to get back to tackle Viduka as he prepared to shoot. Too often the final ball for Celtic belied some good approach play, as the Bhoys run of only one win in ten Old Firm derbies now becomes a millstone around their fans' - and players' necks. Rangers attacks had been rare until that late flurry when they realised that they could outpace the sturdy yet slow Celtic defence. Arthur Numan delightful ball to Wallace saw a great saving tackle from Alan Stubbs - a player who always stands up for the count in these fixtures.
Viduka had the ball in the net with a fine finish on the hour. However he used the left arm when rising to beat Amoruso to a long ball forward. As Celtic composed themselves, van Bronckhorst ran at the defence and flashed a cross-shot just wide of Jonathan Gould's left-hand post.
The game was played at an exciting tempo now - and within two minutes Viduka had shot at Klos from an angle and from the resulting corner a strong downward header from Morten Wieghorst again trusted the German goalkeeper. Stubbs got across Amoruso but could not get enough on his connection to head Moravcik's corner home with a quarter of an hour remaining. That was an uncommonly accurate pass from a Celtic player to a like-shirted individual inside the opposition penalty area - and the lack of finishing and of a final ball cost Celtic dear.
