MOUSSA DEMBELE BAGGED a hat-trick and created another as Celtic secured bragging rights in the Old Firm derby with a 5-1 rout of Rangers.
The former Fulham striker may not have even started the contest at Celtic Park had Leigh Griffiths not missed out with a calf injury.
Dembele proved Celtic’s hero, though, opening his Scottish Premiership account for the club when afforded a free header at a corner before doubling the lead with a clever finish in the 42nd minute.
Joe Garner brought Rangers back into the game on the stroke of half-time, but Dembele played in Scott Sinclair to make it 3-1 on the hour before the visitors had debutant Philippe Senderos sent off for a second bookable offence.
Dembele then completed his dream afternoon with a drilled finish in the closing stages and Stuart Armstrong added a fifth in stoppage time as Brendan Rodgers was left to celebrate three points in his first Glasgow derby as Celtic manager.
It was a deserved victory for Celtic in what was the first league encounter between the teams since 2012 due to Rangers’ demotion to the fourth tier after their liquidation.
However, the opening half an hour failed to match the electric atmosphere in the stands with few chances of note.
But the game burst into life in the 33rd minute. Dembele was afforded a free run from Sinclair’s corner and the striker accepted the gift with a powerful header that cannoned in off the right post.
And Celtic fans were celebrating again when Dembele showed great pace to meet Nir Bitton’s ball over the top before easily cutting inside Senderos and beating Wes Foderingham with a neat outside-of-the-boot finish.
Rangers were back in it a minute before half-time with their first meaningful attack.
James Tavernier’s deep cross from the right was brilliantly headed back across goal by Kenny Miller and nodded in on the line by Garner.
But Celtic’s two-goal lead was re-established on the hour mark.
Dembele was once again influential and his excellent throughball found Sinclair, who clinically slid his shot past Foderingham and off the right post.
There was worse to come for Rangers when Senderos’ bow came to an end with a blatant deliberate handball when he misjudged the bounce of the ball.
Dembele put the gloss on a classy performance by controlling Mikael Lustig’s cross brilliantly before drilling across Foderingham and it was 5-1 in injury time when Kieran Tierney’s low ball from the left was met by Armstrong, who took a touch of feet and placed a low effort past the goalkeeper.
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What about her run in with Martin Johnson in the 2003 Six Nations? Caused quite a bit if controversy and an apology from the RFU.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/international/2904249.stm
You’re the one dubbing her “Ireland’s newest saint” Pete. The rest of us are simply acknowledging that she did the job with grace, humility and respect. Simple as that.
She certainly helped me over the hurdle of watching england play in croke park. She dragged me kicking and screaming thru quite a few things actually.
My sporting highlight for Mary McAleese was when she took the winning free that won the 2011 all Ireland football final for Dublin…wait a minute she wasn’t playing…actually now that I recall she didn’t play in any team during her presidency. What a load of nonsense this article is. More fool me for reading it. Hup-ya boyo!
All of of her speeches were empty platitudes.
When she opened the GR7 conference in the RDS in 2004 she opened her speech by saying that she knew nothing about Science.
The genius Stephen W. Hawking was sitting directly in front of her.
(Ireland collapsed on her so-called watch.)
Aw FFS, you can’t blame her for that, get real! Also I have a huge amount of respect for someone who acknowledges their ignorance on a subject. You could possibly learn something from her….
Not much soccer there!
Donnacha:
I was complaining about her elevation to be the newest Irish Saint.
She could have done SOME research before making such a speech in front of the cleverest people on earth.
And be criticised for trying to pretend she knows more than she does…. You can’t win in this country. Platitudes come with the role unfortunately, but so do the begrudgers.