Celtic stretched their lead out to eight points at the top of the Scottish Premiership in today's early kickoff.
The Old Firm Derby is one of football's most intense rivalries even if the quality has faded a bit in recent times.
Although, thankfully, today's edition was full of cracking goals.
Rangers travelled to their bitter rivals knowing they had two games in hand on Celtic, meaning positive a result would go a long way to putting pressure on the Bhoys.
Rangers would have been quite pleased with their first-half display as they got into good areas several times.
They managed to create some decent chances with Joe Hart called into action to make a few key saves from McCausland and Cantwell.
Celtic also looked dangerous in attack and the in-form Paulo Bernardo sent a rocket to the net in the 25th minute.
That strike made it two goals in two games for the on-loan Benfica midfielder.
Just before halftime, Rangers had a huge shout for a penalty waved away as the ball came off Celtic defender, Alistair Johnson.
To the relief of the right-back and the surprise of the pundits, VAR decided no penalty, and referee Nick Walsh wasn't called to the monitor.
Celtic - a goal to the good then at the break.
Postage Stamp
Celtic had the perfect start to the second half to calm the crowd's nerves.
Picking the ball up twenty-five yards from goal, Kyogo Furuhashi turned, dropped his shoulder, and curled a sumptuous left-footed strike into the top corner.
Jack Butland could do nothing to stop the stunning strike.
Chances came and went for both sides as Rangers looked to steady the ship.
That ship became much more unstable when Leon Balogun hauled down Daizen Meda who was racing through on goal.
An easy decision for the referee and Balogun was shown the red card with twenty minutes still to play.
Celtic should have seen the game out comfortably from there on but in the 88th minute, James Tavernier bent the ball over the wall and into the top-left corner.
The third top-quality strike of the game and Rangers were back in with a sniff of a late draw.
There were eight minutes of added time still to come and indeed more as Celtic missed some chances on the counter with Rangers desperately throwing bodies forward.
As the game ticked beyond the 100th minute, the final whistle sounded - much to the relief of Celtic players and fans alike.
A huge win for the Bhoys which means they will go into 2024 with an eight-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Keep up to date with all of the latest sport on our website Beat102103.com.
