By Alexander Cruickshanks

After a 120-minute heavyweight fight that involved six goals it was the left glove of Kasper Schmeichel that was the difference in the end. Celtic lifted the League Cup, making it their 119th major honour as a club, overtaking their opponents, Rangers.

The atmosphere at Hampden was absolutely electric. You could cut the tension with a knife as both sides of the Old Firm lined up for what would turn out to be a blockbuster match. The first half was tense and the first chance fell to Celtic. Nicolas Khun made a great run down the right, took it inside where Jack Butland pounced on it. The ball then fell to another Celtic player and Butland saved again.

Rangers bounced back and began to make headway. And in the 41st minute, Nedim Bajrami had the Gers in front. A poor pass from Greg Taylor had the Albanian charging in on goal. He opted to slip it into Hamza Igamane whose shot was saved by Schmeichel but Bajrami followed up to put it in the net.

Into the second half, Rangers were looking strong, and hoping to build on their lead. However, Celtic got their equaliser through a deflected effort from Greg Taylor. The ball fell to the full-back on the edge of the box and his shot came off of Robin Propper leaving Jack Butland stranded as he watched it go in.

And just five minutes, later Celtic were in front. Spurred on by their goal the fans and players seemed to get a boost of energy. Daizen Maeda latched onto a loose ball, took it down beautifully and finished it to send the Celtic end into chaos. At this point Celtic were in the driving seat. Like so many times before, they had punished Rangers and scored quickly to assert their dominance.

However, Rangers didn’t go quietly. Vaclav Cerny had an effort saved on 70 minutes and in the 73rd, Diomande had a long shot tipped out for a corner by the Danish keeper. The Ivorian wasn’t done. A quick short corner was then delivered into the box and Diomande held off his man and just managed to poke it into the net for 2-2 on 75 minutes.

This game was one for the books, and it wasn’t done delivering. Khun gave Celtic the lead in the 87th minute and the German surely thought he had won it for the Hoops. A brilliant bit of play from him to start the move and he finished it expertly.

But Rangers answered again, less than a minute later through Danilo. A header that would take the two sides to extra time. In the 30 minutes of extra time, not much happened. You could see how tired the two sides were having given there absolute best for the 90.

This crazy Old Firm final was eventually decided on penalties with Ridvan Yilmaz’s saved penalty being the decider. There were some questions raised about the shootout. Why did Cyriel Dessers, who was subbed on in extra time,not step up? Even Jack Butland took one for Rangers, although he scored his he couldn’t save the winning penalty from Daizen Maeda to make Celtic 2024/25 League Cup champions.