Celtic stunned by one ‘massive’ Rangers change – Hutton
Alex McLeish has suggested Rangers stunned Celtic with their fitness levels in the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden Park.
The former Gers manager, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, insisted many would have thought Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men would be “knackered” after their Europa League exploits.
Rangers ran out 2-1 winners against the Bhoys after extra time, having also played 120 minutes against Braga less than 72 hours prior.
The Gers’ victory comes off the back of successive Celtic wins in the last two meetings between the clubs.
McLeish hailed the Light Blues for preventing the Bhoys from building up a head of steam.
He suggested the Hoops may have been shocked by the Gers’ intensity on Sunday.
McLeish told Football Insider’s Russell Edge: “Rangers didn’t allow Celtic to have the tempo of that start they had at Celtic Park in the league.
“Celtic certainly did start a wee bit slow and you wonder why that is, were they tired? What I did feel, and you can just smell it in the air, is that Rangers got massive confidence from what happened in the midweek game.
“There was a thought that: ‘Oof, going into extra time, they must be knackered. Surely they cannot go into this cup semi-final feeling nice and bouncy.’
“But that was the fact. I thought they went into the game really, really confident. They grew great belief. It’s one in which Giovanni deserves a lot of credit.
“You could see the knives were out a wee bit in the defeat the couple of weeks before. The fact they’ve had these two magnificent results is a really tremendous achievement.
“Coming back, how did they do that? It was amazing.”
In other news, Daizen Maeda among three Celtic stars slammed for Rangers display.