{"id":508801,"date":"2026-03-02T04:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508801\/"},"modified":"2026-03-02T04:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T04:51:08","slug":"reo-hatate-grabs-celtic-a-draw-at-rangers-to-leave-hearts-as-real-winners-scottish-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/508801\/","title":{"rendered":"Reo Hatate grabs Celtic a draw at Rangers to leave Hearts as real winners | Scottish Premiership"},"content":{"rendered":"

A penny for the thoughts of the Hearts manager, Derek McInnes, as John Beaton was diverted by the video assistant referee towards the pitchside screen. Only seconds of regulation time remained. An afternoon that for so long looked to belong to Rangers<\/a> was about to take a significant twist. As Beaton awarded Celtic a penalty, from which Reo Hatate eventually scored, idle Hearts emerged the real winners.<\/p>\n

The Edinburgh club\u2019s aspirations of winning the Scottish title for the first time since 1960 have been enhanced over back-to-back weekends. Hearts lead Rangers by six and Celtic<\/a>, who play their game in hand at Aberdeen on Wednesday, by eight. McInnes has the making of history within his grasp. No wonder Sir Alex Ferguson, the last non\u2011Old Firm manager to win the top league, thought it appropriate to take in the weekend fixtures at Tynecastle and Ibrox.<\/p>\n

This was no ordinary Glasgow derby. It involved one of the finest goals scored in the long history of the fixture. Rangers were utterly dominant for a half, which preceded their own capitulation and a complete turnaround in Celtic\u2019s performance level. Had Celtic scored even slightly earlier than Hatate\u2019s effort, which landed 20 seconds into stoppage time, they would have fancied themselves to win. This scenario felt unfathomable at half-time, such was Rangers\u2019 superiority.<\/p>\n

The home support made no secret of their frustration at full time. One chap seated immediately behind the press area branded the home team \u201cfucking bottlers\u201d. While the sentiment is extreme, the core principle is fair enough. Rangers have drawn a dozen of their 29 league games. This one, from such a position of authority, did nothing to remove the sense that Rangers are a soft touch.<\/p>\n

Danny R\u00f6hl dismissed perfectly valid questioning about the mentality of his squad. \u201cWe are all disappointed,\u201d the Rangers manager said. \u201cWe played an outstanding game for 50 minutes but football is about 95.\u201d Playing part\u2011games is a damaging Rangers habit.<\/p>\n

Martin O\u2019Neill, the Celtic manager, said: \u201cWe could easily have won it. We dominated the second half so much that the [home] crowd seemed to turn on their own players. We still have the heart and desire to retain the championship.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers\u2019 Youssef Chermiti opens the scoring with a spectacular overhead kick. Photograph: Lee Smith\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Rangers\u2019 afternoon had started in explosive fashion. Youssef Chermiti launched himself into the air and the ball into the Celtic net courtesy of a wonderful overhead kick. This was a goal of stunning quality, that partly summed up his erratic Rangers career. So, too, did a backheel in midfield that gifted possession to Celtic shortly before the first of the visitors\u2019 goals.<\/p>\n

Albeit lacking the star quality of his first, Chermiti\u2019s second goal still involved a fine finish. Dane Murray had slashed an attempted clearance backwards and Juli\u00e1n Araujo was ponderous. In nipped Chermiti to poke beyond Viljami Sinisalo.<\/p>\n

At this point, Ibrox was raucous. Far too much of the racket involved the kind of sectarian trash that Scotland\u2019s football authorities and Rangers themselves have allowed to return due to pitiful inaction. Rangers, now under American ownership, should be working much harder to remove this archaic stain on the club\u2019s reputation. Yet on the field at least, Rangers were progressive. O\u2019Neill branded his team \u201cuncertain\u201d in quite the understatement. Mikey Moore, the Tottenham loanee, was tormenting the Celtic defence.<\/p>\n

Celtic manager Martin O\u2019Neill intervenes as players from both teams exchange words at the end of the match. Photograph: Russell Cheyne\/Reuters<\/p>\n

On the occasion of his 74th birthday, O\u2019Neill did two key things at half\u2011time. His replacing of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was visibly shocked by the pace of the game, with the excellent Hatate was important. So, too, was O\u2019Neill\u2019s messaging. \u201cI told the players how important the next goal was,\u201d O\u2019Neill said. \u201cWe were still in the game despite not being at the races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangers will reflect on a Tuur Rommens chance within three minutes of the restart. Rommens could have placed R\u00f6hl\u2019s team out of sight but was instead wasteful. Celtic duly gained a foothold, as emphasised by Kieran Tierney rising to plant Benjamin Nygren\u2019s cross into the Rangers net. The home crowd were now audibly edgy.<\/p>\n

Daizen Maeda should have restored parity but headed straight at Jack Butland. Murray sent a free header over the Rangers crossbar. Luke McCowan was afforded the best Celtic chance of the lot but shot tamely. Just when it felt as if Rangers may cling on, Dujon Sterling was adjudged to have handled from another Maeda header. Hatate\u2019s penalty was saved by Butland, as was the rebound; at the third time of asking the Japanese midfielder bundled home.<\/p>\n

There followed a full-time rumpus that O\u2019Neill later branded \u201cfeeble\u201d. The Irishman poked fun at his backroom staff, who delivered a birthday cake with candles to him on Saturday evening. \u201cIt was pathetic,\u201d he said. \u201cThe problem was, it wasn\u2019t my birthday until midnight. This was at half seven. I could have died in between.\u201d<\/p>\n

There remains life in Celtic\u2019s title defence. Just about. The more days that belong to Hearts make you wonder. They couldn\u2019t \u2026 could they?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A penny for the thoughts of the Hearts manager, Derek McInnes, as John Beaton was diverted by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-508801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}