Celtic 1-1 Rangers: Ange Postecoglou at the heart of title revival for champions elect

With time running out at Celtic Park, Rangers pushed forward with the purpose of men who knew they needed a knockout blow.

A draw, though admirable, was no good to them in the grand scheme. They had to find a haymaker that would win the game and at times during that breathless finale it looked as if they would.

Fashion Sakala, having already thumped in an equaliser, turned into a human magnet for Rangers' best opportunities. He muscled Cameron Carter-Vickers aside and forced a save out of Joe Hart, he rose high from a corner and nutted a header over, he went zeroing in on goal with six minutes to play and now you felt that Rangers were about to pull it out of the fire.

There were 60,000 people in the stadium but in that moment only two counted. Sakala composed himself, slipped his shot low past Hart and saw it come slapping back off his left-hand post.

The boxing analogy is apt in all of this. Celtic were reeling and Rangers were unloading. Carl Starfelt had run himself into the ground and he was giving it the jelly legs. Carter-Vickers looked out on his feet. The home support didn't know whether to look on or look away. Watching them watching the game was compelling in itself.

Celtic could have played for time, but they didn't. Hart explained later that it's not in the DNA of this team to settle for a draw when they can go in pursuit of a win and that's what made the final 20 minutes of this game so madcap and so memorable.

The Old Firm get a lot of grief from outsiders for their obsession with one another and for the ugliness of some of their element. That spilled out after the final whistle when missiles flew backwards and forwards between rival fans in the Rangers corner of the ground. Police and stewards moved in and it all petered out.

That all came after a game where both teams emerged with a point and with honour firmly intact. Both sets of players emptied themselves out there. You couldn't have wrung an ounce of untapped energy out of any of them at the end.

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'Celtic alive again after last season's fury'

Celtic will win the league now - and they thoroughly deserve it. Callum McGregor has won many things at the club but he deserves to win a league as captain because he's been a totem. He played his 56th game of the season on Sunday following on from the 64 he appeared in last season for club and country and the 58, 69 and 58 he played in the seasons before that. Astonishing numbers. His influence has rarely waned. McGregor is the best player in Scotland.

The point his team earned here puts them on 86 with another nine on offer in their three remaining games. Excluding the season that was called early, 86 points is more than their end-of-season total when winning title number two and seven in their nine-in-a-row and it's the same mark that won title number five and only one point short of title number eight.

If they win the next three games they'll finish on 95 points. That would be their third-highest points total in what would then be 10 league titles in 11 years.

Manager Ange Postecoglou has been a magnificent appointment. When jilted by Eddie Howe, the Celtic board could have knee-jerked and gone for another high-profile manager from this part of the world, but they didn't. And how astute they were. The Australian has done what only outstanding managers can do - he recognised the myriad problems that dogged Celtic last season and he fixed them with an apparent ease.

He did it with fine judgement in the transfer market, a coaching nous and an understanding of people and what makes them tick. You got the sense from early on that every one of his players would happily run through walls for him. They certainly play like it.

The club is alive again after last season's fury. Neil Lennon, Peter Lawwell, Dermot Desmond and company never deserved the incessant, and at times poisonous, flak they got while the 10-in-a-row was going south - short memories and all that - but Postecoglou has banished those grim days.

His new recruits have accounted for 70% of Celtic's league goals and the clean sheets they've kept have been earned by a new goalkeeper (previously a considerable problem position), two new centre-halves, a new right-back and by. Effectively, another new full-back in that Anthony Ralston was unwanted before Postecoglou got hold of him and turned around his career.

He's his own man, Postecoglou. When fans have done their nut about refereeing decisions that went against them, the manager hasn't engaged in the victimhood. He's shown himself to be a strong leader throughout the season. Focused and in control. Time was when the chat about Celtic's pursuit of a head of recruitment and a director of football filled the airwaves. All of that has gone quiet. Postecoglou is manager, coach, recruiter, motivator, redeemer.

There was no sense of a task completed from Postecoglou after Sunday's contest. He said something interesting later on, referencing a possible league title as just the first phase of what he wants to achieve at Celtic. Improving the team for European adventures ahead would be part of where he was coming from. His moves in the market in the summer will be fascinating.

'A Rangers side that almost defies description'

They were taken to the wire on Sunday by a Rangers side that almost defies description. A riddle wrapped in a mystery. In the last month, before Sunday, they played seven games and 11 and a half hours of largely high-octane football to Celtic's four games and six and a half hours.

Rangers have had to dig so deep over the last four weeks that they practically tunnelled their way across town for this one. Trailing 1-0 and giving up chances that almost made it 2-0, they looked in deep trouble yet came off the ropes and started swinging. Even without Alfredo Morelos, Kemar Roofe, Aaron Ramsey and Ianis Hagi, four of the most creative players at the club, they still found ways to make it a tremendous scrap.

They've been an extremely curious lot. Rangers have now dropped points in 11 league games this season. Outside of Old Firm matches they have drawn with Motherwell and Aberdeen when a goal ahead, they've drawn with Hearts when conceding in the 90th minute, they've drawn with Ross County when again conceding in the 90th minute, they drew with Motherwell for a second time when 2-0 up, they've lost to Dundee United and, in the League Cup, they imploded against Hibs.

That screams weakness, but then you look at the flipside and it hollers heart and character. The incredible run to the semi-final of a European competition that might yet become an unreal run to the final of a European competition. The victorious 120-minuter against Braga on the Thursday followed by another victorious 120-minuter against Celtic at Hampden. The resilience showed in Leipzig and the off-the-canvas spirit they showed on Sunday. There's a split personality in this squad. From losing so lamentably to Hibs in the League Cup semi-final to what we've seen from them this past while is Jekyll and Hyde. The one thing you can't do is underestimate them.

Postecoglou didn't do that. In fact, he praised Rangers when the game was over. That's five times he's faced them in league and cup and it's two wins apiece with one draw. His team are poised to take the league title off a side that has made the last four of the Europa League, a fact that only lends more significance to what he's done in his brief time in Glasgow.

It's what he's done but also what he might be able to do in the seasons to come that have galvanised the Celtic support. With a deft touch, Postecoglou has changed everything.