© EuroFootball.com
In the "Premier" league of Scotland on Saturday, five matches of the fifteenth round took place, among which undoubtedly drew attention the Glasgow clubs derby - one of the championship leaders "Celtic" clashed with the crisis-stricken "Rangers", who are defending their title.
Ten days ago, the teams played each other in the Scottish league cup tournament, and then "Celtic" won with a score of 2-0. For the "Rangers" team, including matches in the Champions League, this was the fifth game in which they failed to achieve victory, so there were talks about a possible dismissal of the head coach Alex McLeish.
Playing the Glasgow derby at home for the second time in a row, "Celtic" broke through in the 12th minute when after a mistake by the visitors in the middle of the field, S. Maloney ran on the right side of the field and passed the ball to J. Hartson in the penalty area, who only had to send the ball into the goal.
Later, the "Rangers" failed to capitalize on opportunities to equalize the score and were punished for it, as in the 56th minute S. Nakamura misled the opponent on the edge, made an accurate pass to the defender B. Balde, and he hit the corner of the goal with a header. Soon the score became overwhelming - this time the young A. McGeady scored, defeating the insecure goalkeeper R. Waterreus.
As the match approached its end, the home team's goalkeeper A. Boruc defended against the attempts of F. Jeffers and F. Rickes, while one of the "Rangers" leaders D. Prso suffered an injury and will have to miss the upcoming match against "Porto". "Celtic" celebrated a convincing victory and temporarily surpassed the "Hearts" club in the tournament table, which will play their match against "Aberdeen" tomorrow.
The third-placed Edinburgh "Hibernian" experienced an unexpected fourth failure of the season, losing at home to the "Falkirk" team after volatile matches. Although the hosts led 2-0 after D. Riordan scored twice in the first half, the visitors did not give up, scoring three goals in the second half and shocking their opponents to win.
"Livingston" recorded their first season victory in a duel of bottom teams, defeating the "Dunfermline" club with a single goal by P. Dalglish. Meanwhile, the remaining two Saturday matches between "Dundee Utd" and "Motherwell" and "Kilmarnock" and "Inverness" ended in draws.
Results of the 15th round:
3 - 0
12` [1 - 0] John Hartson
56` [2 - 0] Bobo Balde
61` [3 - 0] Aiden McGeady
0 - 1
61` [0 - 1] Paul Dalglish
1 - 1
68` [1 - 0] Jim McIntyre
71` [1 - 1] Scott McDonald
2 - 2
30` [0 - 1] Graham Bayne
54` [1 - 1] Kris Boyd
56` [2 - 1] Steven Naismith
77` [2 - 2] Craig Dargo
2 - 3
1` [1 - 0] Derek Riordan
33` [2 - 0] Derek Riordan
48` [2 - 1] Darryl Duffy
55` [2 - 2] Alan Gow
73` [2 - 3] Darryl Duffy
