Celtic 3-0 Rangers: Giovanni van Bronckhorst critical of 'naive' players after Old Firm loss
- Published
Watch the best of Celtic's statement derby win over Rangers
"Naive" Rangers relinquished top spot in the Scottish Premiership after an "unbelievable" Old Firm collapse, says manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst.
The champions were three down at the break against Celtic after Reo Hatate scored twice and Liel Abada netted, and comfortably saw out the contest.
It means Rangers now trail Celtic by a point, having been six clear a little over two weeks ago.
"It seemed like the first Old Firm game we'd played," Van Bronckhorst said.
"We know what it will bring and we know what to do. It seemed like we weren't ready for it.
"You see the way we gave the goals away... not going with your man, not ready for the battles, it was an unbelievable first half. Our Old Firm game started in the second half, but the first half we gave the game away."
The defeat was Van Bronckhorst's first since succeeding Steven Gerrard in late November, but his side have dropped points at Ross County and Aberdeen in recent weeks and won just one of four league games since the winter break.
They trailed after five minutes at Celtic Park, but the Rangers players claimed Hatate's opener should have been disallowed after Calvin Bassey and Joe Aribo collided in the build-up, with the former sustaining a head knock.
Van Bronckhorst brushed aside those protests and said his team deserved to be 3-0 behind.
"It's for the referee to stop the game, we still had the corner to defend," he added on Sky Sports. "You don't stop when the referee doesn't whistle. It was unbelievable to see. When the whistle blew, we were just waiting for the goal to be scored.
"We're not the first Rangers team to lose. I lost big here as a player, but we eventually became champions that year. These games don't decide the championship."
Rangers next host Hearts - 13 points behind them in third place - on Sunday, by which time Celtic could be four clear should they win at Motherwell earlier in the day.
Numbers tell sorry tale for Rangers
The statistical breakdown paints a bleak picture of Rangers' performance, their first derby defeat since the League Cup final in December 2019.
In a blistering first half, Celtic peppered the away goal with nine shots, four of which were superbly stopped by Allan McGregor. Rangers managed two by way of response.
The corner count was five to one in Celtic's favour. They had 32 touches in the Rangers' box compared to seven, more than doubled their rivals' haul of 14 final-third entries with 32, and Celtic made 159 passes in their opponents' half to 93.
Celtic eased off in the second period, lowered the tempo and dropped their ferocious intensity, but while Rangers grew into the game, a comeback was never on the cards.
'Reeling' Rangers must halt slump - analysis
Former Rangers striker Kenny Miller on Sportsound
Rangers came out with a little bit of a negative mindset - they sat off, allowed Celtic to make easy passes, have easy possession. You're not knocking them out of that rhythm at any point, and you're in for a hard night.
They will be reeling. They need to start winning and putting runs of wins together - not draws, not hanging on at Pittodrie. Performances must improve.
I hope I'm completely wrong in saying this, but in two of the previous three years, after the winter break, the wheels fell off. You never saw it coming, with how good and relentless this team was last year, but we've not seen that level of performance at any point this season.
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