Rangers 1 Celtic 1: Adam Idah equalises for Hoops as linesman’s offside call overturned by VAR

DAIZEN MAEDA’S wife didn’t deliver.

When it came to the stoppage time chance her husband had at Ibrox, neither did he.

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Adam Idah celebrates his equaliser with Celtic team-mates[/caption]

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Cyriel Dessers after putting Rangers ahead[/caption]

But then this was an Old Firm derby at Ibrox that saw both teams labour.

Mrs Maeda still hadn’t given birth with the Celtic forward having a wasted trip back home to Japan last week.

By time up here, though, both Barry Ferguson and Brendan Rodgers were satisfied enough with the outcome – after 90-odd exhausting minutes – knowing neither of their Rangers and Celtic teams did enough to win it.

Decisions and VAR checks could have gone differently, sure they could.

But the two goals from strikers Cyriel Dessers and Adam Idah saw a share of the spoils on an afternoon when few could have any real complaints.

Idah had a great chance to make it 1-0 to Celtic just 36 SECONDS before Rangers took the lead.

The striker was put right through on goal but lacked the conviction in the moment.

There was a little slip, sure. 

But that shouldn’t have prevented him from hitting the back of the net.

Credit to Liam Kelly who made himself as big as he possibly could have made himself.

But it was a definitely miss more than a save.

It wasn’t the first time, either, that Idah wasted a fantastic opportunity at that end of the pitch.

Early on, with only eight minutes on the clock, he burst forward and had James Forrest supporting him to his right.

A good pass and the winger was in.

But that’s not what Forrest got and the chance was gone.

Later, Idah would show he’s got something to offer in the penalty box when he did score.

But it’s wasted opportunities like those which will make Rodgers believe he has to sign a new No9 in the summer.

Celtic would have been kicking themselves that they were behind at half-time.

They weren’t dominated by any stretch of the imagination. 

Rangers were denied the lead by a tight VAR call after 24 minutes when Nico Raskin had stepped half a yard off-side at a free-kick whipped into the box by James Tavernier.

But Celtic’s press was making it extremely difficult for Rangers to get out of their own half and they should have made more of it.

The home side were also finding it difficult to cope with the movement of Arne Engels who kept getting himself into little pockets of space between the Rangers midfield and defence. 

At left-back, Jefte didn’t know when to get tight on Forrest and when to drop off.

Raskin came onto a game, though. 

The young Belgian was up for it, alright, and got better and better throughout the first-half.

Celtic captain Callum McGregor tried desperately to rile him up – and should have been booked for a late challenge on him after half an hour – but Raskin ignored his taunts.

If there was someone out there leading the fight for Rangers then it was him.

When it came to Dessers’ goal, his finish was cool, calm and collected.

Centre-back Liam Scales won’t enjoy watching it back as he was far too weak and timid in his attempt to stop the striker from scoring.

But Dessers deserves top marks for being able to keep his composure, especially when he’s had so little involvement in the game until then.

Incredibly, before he scored, he’d had just FIVE touches of the ball in the first-half.

The game was literally passing him by.

And yet, despite that, he was the man celebrating the opening goal as he took his tally for the season to 25.

Celtic had to respond in the second-half, and did.

Idah’s equaliser on 57 minutes was initially ruled out by an off-side flag with Daizen Maeda seemingly the guilty man.

But a VAR check showed the Japanese frontman wasn’t anywhere he shouldn’t have been when Idah fired past Kelly.

It initially looked like the Rangers deputy goalkeeper’s line of vision was impacted by Maeda, who was offside, but that wasn’t the case.

With the game level again, it felt like Celtic would go up a gear. 

Rodgers took off Engels and Forrest and replaced them with Hyunjun Yang and Paulo Bernardo.

But Rangers were always dangerous on the counter-attack, especially when Ferguson changed Nedim Bajrami and Vaclav Cerny for Hamza Igamane and Ianis Hagi.

Cerny was clearly furious with Ferguson’s decision to take him off with the game in the balance.

After trudging off, he elbowed the dugout perspex three times.

Had he maybe shown that kind of aggression out on the pitch then maybe he would still have been out there.

There was absolutely no doubting the Czech’s ability and quality. But he’s seemingly one who doesn’t seem to understand that these games demand more than that.

Rangers were soon taking Hagi back off the park after he was hurt by a tackle inside the Celtic box.

The Romanian claimed for a penalty but referee Nick Walsh was having none of it and VAR didn’t get involved either.

It was maybe always drifting toward a draw.

Yet in the final seconds of seven minutes of stoppage time, Maeda had a terrific chance to win the game.

He sprinted forward from his own half and had young substitute Johnny Kenny to his left, but wrongly chose to go it alone.

That gave Kelly a chance to smoother the ball and he did.

Within seconds, the final whistle had gone and it was over.

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