Celtic...1 Rangers...0: The winter of discontent has turned into a spring of despair and disillusionment for Rangers, thanks largely to Celtic's progress from strength to strength. Martin O'Neill's team won a poor quarter-final yesterday to underline their ambitions of a treble, and now only the UEFA Cup appears remotely in doubt.
Nothing, it seems, can stop Celtic in Scotland, but Barcelona will represent a rather more difficult hurdle when they meet at Parkhead in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup on Thursday. Despite this merited victory, O'Neill has his fingers crossed that Chris Sutton will be available, the injured Englishman having been badly missed here as Henrik Larsson ploughed a lone furrow for most of a turgid afternoon.
Depleted as they were, Celtic still carved out more opportunities and when one fell to Larsson after 53 minutes, he made no mistake. A corner from Alan Thompson, being watched by the England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, a header from Bobo Balde, a shot from Stephen Pearson blocked by Stefan Klos and there was the Swede to swivel and fire the ball home.
That 28th goal of a final memorable season for Larsson confirmed match number 73 at Parkhead without defeat for Celtic and put them into the last four along with Dunfermline, Inverness Caley Thistle - who famously won 3-1 at Parkhead against John Barnes's Celtic team in February 2000 and repeated the feat, 1-0 at home, against O'Neill's in last year's quarter final - and either Livingston or Aberdeen.
Rangers, meanwhile, are left to rue a season bereft of silverware but their manager Alex McLeish claimed he could see "light at the end of the tunnel" and said that but for a series of injuries, the season would have been better. McLeish wants more home-bred players in his squad and of his foreign legion it now seems Nuno Capucho, Emerson, Michael Mols, Paolo Vanoli and Christian Nerlinger will be going in the summer.
"Their team has been together effectively for three or four years and that shows. They are a powerful side," McLeish said.
Stanislav Varga, Thompson, Larsson and the substitute Craig Beattie had decent efforts while Rangers' only genuine chance came in the dying seconds, when Rae shot wide, and their only effort that troubled Rab Douglas was a minute or two earlier, when the goalkeeper held Michael Ball's effort.
So the champions-elect march on, their domestic supremacy this season is down to a continuity of selection that Rangers have never enjoyed. Douglas in goal, Balde and Varga in the middle of the defence, Lennon and Petrov in midfield and, of course, Larsson and usually Sutton up front has given them a steely core through the side.
With Didier Agathe and Thompson supplying width it has been a consistent and successful formula for O'Neill, who occasionally tinkers with systems - as he had to in this match - but seldom unnecessarily disturbs the personnel.
"We have a busy and tough schedule and I thought that showed even in the first half of this match when we were a bit laboured after our midweek European tie in Teplice," O'Neill said. "But it was a very important win which I felt we deserved, and now we can look forward to Barca." He would, however, dearly love to have Sutton available for Thursday. "He's doubtful and if the game was now, he couldn't play," O'Neill admitted. "He's a big player for us because he's having a wonderful season, but it's impossible to know at this stage if he'll be ready."
