Scottish League Cup: Celtic claim title in thriller vs Rangers

Celtic beat Rangers in a pulsating Scottish League Cup final on Sunday after a rollercoaster contest that was eventually decided by penalties.

Brendan Rodgers' side have now lifted the trophy 22 times, six fewer than their cross-city rivals who will be bitterly disappointed having led 1-0 at half-time only for the match to finish 3-3.

Nedim Bajrami opened the scoring for Rangers after 41 minutes, stealing the ball after a poor pass from Greg Taylor and feeding Hamza Igamane, whose shot rebounded to the feet of the Albania international in front of an empty net.

Celtic immediately showed more vigour in the second half and were swiftly rewarded for their efforts. Kyogo Furuhashi saw a good chance saved by Jack Butland in the Rangers goal, only for Taylor to make amends for his earlier error and fire a deflected shot into the net from a corner.

That invigorated the fans in green and white and the players followed suit, scoring in the 60th minute after Nico Raskin's header back to Leon Balogun was pinched by Daizen Maeda who went on to calmly fire past Butland for his 11th goal of the season.

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It was then Rangers' turn to respond with a flurry of their own. Václav Cerný saw a shot well saved by Kasper Schmeichel before the Denmark international pulled off more heroics from Mohamed Diomande's arcing strike.

Diomande would not be denied a second time, however, as he held off Arne Engels from the subsequent set-piece and scored via another deflection, this time off Kyogo.

That left 15 minutes of normal time, though it proved far from next goal wins. Nicolas Kuhn thought he had won it after meeting Engels' square ball and powering home in the 87th minute, only for Danilo to head in an instant equaliser from a Cerný cross just over 20 seconds after the restart.

That sent the game to extra time, with fatigue growing more evident on both teams as cramp set in and first touches failed. First, Engels miscontrolled a beautifully weighted pass from Reo Hatate that would have put him through, before James Tavernier burst into the box at the other end of the pitch and inexplicably blasted a cross beyond teammates and out for a throw in.

Perhaps unsurprisingly tempers frayed throughout the breathless contest -- referee John Beaton handed out 11 yellow cards, eight of which came in stoppage time and the added period -- and the stop-start nature of the closing phases made it hard for either team to build momentum or indeed create chances.

Eventually, the game went to spot-kicks, and after six perfect penalties, Ridvan Yilmaz was the unfortunate fall guy for Rangers as Schmeichel leapt to his left and gave his team the advantage. Butland beat his opposite number with Rangers' fifth penalty, but Maeda stepped up and sent him the wrong way to claim the title in an epic encounter.