It was one of the greatest moments of Liam Scales' career. The often-unfancied Irish defender captained Celtic to a memorable penalty shootout victory at the home of their fiercest rivals on Sunday.
Martin O'Neill's men dug in from the off. Backed by 7,500 of their own supporters from the Broomloan Stand at Ibrox, they resisted Rangers' pressure and somehow emerged victorious despite not having a single shot on goal in 120 minutes of open play football.
Starting out of position at left-back, Scales was nothing short of colossal. He won headers, read the game amply, and kept Andreas Skov Olsen quiet.
The 27-year-old truly led by example as Celtic booked their place in the Scottish Cup semi-finals.
"It's up there, it's right up there," Scales said post-match. "It would be one of the proudest moments for sure, captaining the team to win here.
"I was actually the fifth penalty taker as well, so I'm glad it finished up before me, to be fair! It was definitely one of the proudest moments.
"The coin was blue on one side and green on the other, funnily enough, so you didn't really have a choice.
"You're just hoping that it lands on the green side and you get to go down your end, but obviously it didn't. I still had good confidence in the lads. We practised our penalties yesterday.
"I think all the lads who stepped up were brilliant. Good courage and good technique as well.
"But again, it's a quarter-final, we still need to go on and win the semi and win the final for it to be worthwhile.
"It was a difficult game, probably not the best game. Sort of different to last weekend, but when we had to defend, we defended and sometimes it's like that here.
"It's brilliant to keep a clean sheet and then coming down to penalties, it can go either way and luckily we were better."
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Rangers will be kicking themselves. How they did not manage to beat a bare-bones Celtic side in their own backyard across 120 minutes is beyond belief.
Missing club captain Callum McGregor and the in-form Kieran Tierney, among many others, the men O'Neill picked to play did themselves proud.
Scales only found out he was captaining the side shortly before kick-off.
"Just before the game, I suppose," he revealed. "It wasn't really said, I just realised it coming up just before the warm-up.
"I think we do have a team full of leaders. It might not be the most vocal team, but the way the players play and compose themselves on the pitch, I think we have a lot of leaders."
Despite missing the match through injury, McGregor was as vocal as ever in the Celtic changing room at Ibrox.
"Callum [McGregor] was in there," Scales said. "Exact same as usual. He's brilliant at that. He's amazing at speaking and motivating.
"He was there for all that, so I didn't have to worry about that."
With Scales shifted to left full-back, Benjamin Arthur started at centre-half alongside Trusty. Dane Murray then replaced the young Brentford loanee on the hour mark.
"They were brilliant," Scales continued. "Benjamin [Arthur], to come into a game like this, he's only played a handful of senior games, he's young, and just to play it the way he did with a cool head.
"He obviously hasn't played many games, so he couldn't finish out the game, but for the time he was on the pitch, he was excellent.
"Auston's [Trusty] obviously experienced and played well.
"For Dane [Murray] to come in, it's not nice coming off the bench in a game like that. He made some big blocks, big headers. I think all three of them did.
"It's hard to pick a best out of the three, they were all just brilliant."
Behind Celtic's backline was Viljami Sinisalo. The Finnish goalkeeper consistently relieved pressure on his defenders by claiming and clearing countless crosses, corners, and high balls over the top.
"He's so calm, he's such a calming influence on the team," Scales said of his keeper. "I said it to him after the game, I don't think he knows how much of a relief it is when he comes out and collects a corner the way he does.
"It takes so much of that threat away. He was brilliant off his line. He came out and cleared a few ones that were dangerous, but it was over the top, things like that.
"He's been brilliant. I think he hasn't put a foot wrong and I'm really delighted for him."
This Celtic team may lack quality, but one cannot dispute their character. Consecutive away games against Stuttgart, Rangers, Aberdeen, and Rangers again looked more than arduous on paper. Incredibly, O'Neill's side have emerged with three wins and a draw.
"I think people questioned how we'd get on," Scales added. "The four away games in the 10 days, having to come here twice and have a European game in there as well. I just think that the character is brilliant in our dressing room.
"We know it's there, we know maybe the quality. We haven't got to the levels as consistently as we would like, but the character has got us through games, scoring last-minute goals and keeping a clean sheet today. It's given us good momentum now to kick on.
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"It's good for confidence, obviously. You looked at the four games coming up and you thought we need to take it game by game, but it was a difficult run.
"It's good to be out the other side of it. Now we have more time in between games to recover and rest. It's put us in the perfect position to where we want to be. We need to take the momentum now and go on.
"It's brilliant because there's no real game like this. Now the lads have experienced it. Next time we have to do it, they'll have that experience in there. They'll have experienced what it's like. It's hard to explain.
"The first 15 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes can be a blur. The lads have experienced that now and come through it and done well. It can really help.
"I think if you can do it here and play well here [Ibrox], at Celtic Park in one of these fixtures, you're well prepared for any game."
The football played at Ibrox might not have been the most pleasing on the eye, but the game itself was a fine spectacle nonetheless. Unfortunately, the post-match scenes marred events.
Celtic supporters made their way onto the pitch in celebration, before several members of the home crowd ran towards the away end.
"I'm not really in a position to talk about it that much," Scales said. "Obviously it's not ideal and it's not what we want to see.
"I think once we'd seen it unfold and we were just straight up the tunnel, so I didn't really see much."
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