Callum McGregor makes ‘double-down’ Rangers vow, defends Celtic duo and explains Ibrox mentality switch

allum McGregor says Celtic’s second-half comeback against Rangers has reaffirmed their belief that they can win at Ibrox next week when the sides meet again in the Scottish Cup quarter-final this weekend.

 

Celtic looked on course for a damaging defeat at Ibrox after a Youssef Chermiti double put Rangers 2-0 ahead after 26 minutes, but the defending champions rallied after the break and earned a point thanks to goals from Kieran Tierney and Reo Hatate.

While a rearranged league clash with Aberdeen comes first on Wednesday, the two rivals will reconvene on Sunday in the last eight of the Scottish Cup, and the Celtic skipper believes his teammates now have the belief they can go one better against their fierce rivals.

“It was probably similar at times [to Celtic’s recent game against Hearts] at Tynecastle as well,” admitted McGregor. “We turned it into a bit of a physical game and obviously that’s what Rangers and Hearts were good at on the day as well. We obviously tried to take the sting out the game in the first ten minutes just to try and bed ourselves in, but sometimes when you try and play the game like that, you actually then get stung. So maybe that’ll be the learning for us when we come back next week.

“That’s the kind of psychological element behind it, but I mean once the game starts everyone’s up for it again and you have to earn the right and hopefully we can start the game better than what we did today. But obviously the game will be played to a finish so both teams will be trying to win it. We will absolutely. Off the back of today it reaffirms this is the way you have to go, double-down on it and when that game comes then we have to be fully all in ready to win the game.”

Part of what sparked Celtic’s second-half rescue mission was the introduction of Reo Hatate and Sebastian Tounekti as half-time substitutes. One of the casualties of that substitution was Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who struggled on his second start for the club. Hatate has come in for some tough criticism this season after his performance levels dropped below the standard he has set in previous campaigns, but the 32-year-old captain believes he is slowly working his way back to his impactful best.