The Irishman basked in the glow of a day to properly mark his return and set about lift off for his second era.
Brendan Rodgers has taken a bit of time to make the big statement in his second spell as Celtic boss.
It was a mammoth success in that context. Of nine faces recruited during the transfer window, just one, Gustaf Lagerbielke, started. Four unavailable, four more only on the bench. That’s not ideal, yet Rodgers did what he almost always does at Ibrox. Win. Whatever issues he had in his first spell, Rodgers always seemed to have Rangers in his pocket.
Beale is in bother. Four points behind a Celtic team missing key men and who haven’t really kicked a ball yet. No question, he and his team could count themselves unlucky to have Kemar Roofe’s strike at 0-0 ruled out after VAR adjudged Cyriel Dessers to have clipped Lagerbeilke. The winner came just before the closure of a first half during which Rodgers’ team dodged one big bullet before firing their own massive shot to the heart of Rangers. The tempo seemed set inside the opening minute when Rabbi Matondo ball in the net, but Dessers had been offside before providing the centre for the Welshman.
Dessers then just failed to net a Tavernier centre, but he was then involved in a monumental moment just before the half-hour. The Nigerian international caught sloppy Lagerbeilke dithering and robbed him before squaring for Roofe to rifle past Joe Hart. From the noise of anger at the Roofe goal being chalked off, Ibrox was now stunned into silence. Celtic almost doubled their advantage immediately after the restart when Abada’s fizzed cross just eluded Daizen Maeda. Celtic were able to stage counter attacks – Abada sprang Kyogo, who opted to shoot instead of playing the return pass.
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