Rangers headed to Celtic Park knowing this match was their last hope of keeping already faint title hopes alive but a crushing 3-2 defeat ensured they slipped 12 points behind the league leaders with seven games remaining.
Devoid of away supporters inside the stadium, Michael Beale’s men performably admirably in front of a raucous 60,000 home crowd with skipper James Tavernier netting a double, including his 100th goal for the club.
However, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Hoops from moving within touching distance of retaining the Scottish Premiership title, with Kyogo Furuhashi and Jota capitalise on two costly defensive errors to edge a five-goal thriller.
Rangers were architects of their own downfall on this visit to Glasgow’s East End and with their title hopes all-but extinguished due to Celtic’s vastly superior goal difference, they must now lift themselves ahead of the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park later this month.
Here, GlasgowWorld rates how the Rangers’ players performed....
UNUSED: Jon McLaughlin GK), Ridvan Yilmaz, Ianis Hagi, Glen Kamara, Scott Arfield
1. Allan McGregor - 7
Beaten by Kyogo early on but the offside flag came to Rangers rescue. Produced a number of key saves, denying Jota and namesake McGregor. Could do little to stop Kyogo scoring his second but slot to react to Souttar’s mistake and didn’t do enough to put Jota off for Celtic’s third.
2. James Tavernier - 8
A moment of excellence just before half-time from 20 yards hauled Rangers level at the break and displayed a striker’s instinct to head home his landmark 100th goal for the club. A sensational achievement from the right-back.
3. John Souttar - 5
Making his first league starts since the opening day of the season, he made a howling mistake with a slack back pass which presented Jota with a chance to score and he duly punished the ex-Hearts defender. Until that point, he was having a decent game. Photo: Craig Foy - SNS Group
4. Ben Davies - 4
An afternoon to forget for the Englishman. Didn’t get close enough to Kyogo at Celtic’s opener and weak header allowed the Japanese striker to restore their lead just after the hour mark. Made an important block to prevent Kyogo from a hat-trick.