CELTIC GOT WHAT THEY DESERVED

It has been a season of far more ups than downs for Celtic under Ange Postecoglou, and probably far more than they dared to expect at the outset of the campaign.

That being said, there is no doubt that this will be a sore one for Postecoglou and his men, with the manner of the defeat being almost as hard to take as the eventual cup exit.

That they lost from a winning position following Greg Taylor’s second-half opener would have been hard enough to swallow, but in truth, the wind had been blowing in Rangers’ favour in the match for quite some time before the set-piece that put Celtic ahead.

Rangers were all aggression and energy, and given that they had played 120 minutes on Thursday night, the fact that their opponents managed to outlast them physically will surely be a source of concern for the Celtic manager.

The unease from the Celtic end during extra time told you everything you needed to know about the way the match was going at that point, with Rangers enjoying the lion’s share of territory around the Celtic area, while players in green and white were looking visibly exhausted.

Saying there was a sense of inevitability about the Rangers winning goal is perhaps stretching it, but for almost that entire extra time period, it looked as though either that or penalties were the probable outcomes.

They have had plenty of credit so far this season, and deservedly so, but it has to be said that they got exactly what they deserved after turning in a lacklustre performance on the Hampden stage.

CREATIVITY ISSUES

Celtic’s attacking arsenal has been potent all season, and the one thing they haven’t failed to do is create chances. Here though, their creative players picked a hell of an afternoon to have a collective off-day.

Tom Rogic barely had a kick before being substituted, suffocated by a combination of Calvin Bassey and John Lundstram. Liel Abada was anonymous on the right, while Jota had enough of the ball on the left, but did very little with it.

The Portuguese wide-man has been a smash hit since arriving in Glasgow on loan from Benfica, but he has been a little off the boil in recent weeks, and again it was the case here. Too often, he wanted to cut in on his favoured right foot, and was proving easy for the Rangers defenders to read.

The one time he did shift the ball onto his left in the first period of extra-time, he put a great ball across goal that had Rangers keeper Jon McLaughlin scrambling. He just didn’t do it enough.

Daizen Maeda was full of running as usual, but his best work came in shutting down Connor Goldson and stopping Rangers building from the back rather than providing a threat of his own, while Kyogo struggled to get involved when he eventually came on through the middle.

During extra-time, even with the introduction of the likes of James Forrest and David Turnbull, Celtic struggled to create anything of note, and it rather looked like penalties would have been their best hope of progressing to the final.

STILL ALL TO PLAY FOR

Encouraging perspective after an Old Firm defeat is always a hard sell, but it is important that the Celtic players and supporters don’t lose sight of what is still in front of them in the remaining weeks of the season.

The Treble has gone, but there is still an incredible opportunity for them to lift a Double, an almost unthinkable proposition just a few short months ago.

They have a six-point lead at the top of the table, but they must regroup quickly and not allow this defeat to derail them from what has been their main mission this term in winning back the league title.

They still have to face Rangers at Celtic Park of course, and if they avoid defeat in that match they would surely go on to win the Premiership. That is a situation they would have bitten your hand off for in the summer, so they now have to ensure that this wobble doesn’t knock them off course entirely.