Rangers were ‘lucky’ to not be further behind at HT v Celtic – Kris Boyd
Rangers were well and truly battered in the first half of the Old Firm derby against Celtic and Kris Boyd was not happy one bit with the performance.
Reo Hatate’s brace and Liel Abada’s tap in sent the Hoops into the break with a 3-0 advantage as the Gers were embarrassed by their inter-city rivals.
Boyd was a pundit on Sky Sports for the game and he couldn’t hold back his outrage at the display Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side had shown in such a big game.
“Apart from that one pass from Aribo into Scott Arfield just before Celtic went and got their second goal, that’s all we’ve seen from Rangers, they have been abysmal they’re lucky it is only 3-0 at halftime,” Boyd said.
Not up to the occasion
This was Rangers’ biggest game of the season but only because they lost it.
Had van Bronckhorst’s side come out firing and silenced the Parkhead crowd from the get-go, they could have stood a chance.
But the Light Blues were far too passive in the opening minutes and Hatate’s opener was fully deserved.
Boyd isn’t exaggerating when he says they were lucky to only be 3-0 down as Allan McGregor made up for his errors against Ross County with a string of fine saves.
Far too many of the Rangers side looked like they didn’t want to be on the pitch and none more so than Borna Barisic at left-back.
Every time the ball came anywhere near the Croatian, he looked more like a Sunday League player than a professional and his statue-like defending for Abada’s goal was the final straw that saw him rightly dragged off at half-time.
The second half might have been better but the damage was already done by then.
In other Rangers news, Ally McCoist and Andy Walker reacted to an extraordinary event in the first half on Sky Sports commentary.