Celtic's Collapse at Ibrox: McGregor's Scathing Verdict
Callum McGregor did not bother sugar-coating it.
Celtic were taken apart at Ibrox, beaten 3-0 by Rangers in a quarter-final that laid bare every flaw in their game and, in their captain’s eyes, in their mentality. When the midfielder stepped in front of the Sky Sports cameras, he sounded less like a player offering excuses and more like a man delivering a verdict.
"It wasn't us. The difference between the two sides was you saw a team and then you saw a team of individuals as well," McGregor said, the contrast as brutal as the scoreline. Rangers looked organised, connected, relentless. Celtic, he felt, looked like strangers.
The captain’s anger centred on effort without the ball. He was scathing about players switching on only when it suited them.
"We looked like a team of individuals who like to do our own thing and play when we got the ball, not necessarily run when you don't have the ball, [which is] the thing you can't do when you come here," he explained.
At Ibrox, that is a footballing sin. McGregor knows it. He has lived enough of these fixtures to understand that survival starts with work rate, not pretty passing patterns.
"You can't defend with six players, it's impossible," he added, a line that cut straight to the heart of Celtic’s collapse. Too many jerseys ahead of the ball. Too few willing to chase, cover, suffer.
The warning signs had already flashed in Europe. Celtic had just come off a catastrophic Champions League qualifying exit, one that still hangs over this team. They led Austrian side LASK 3-0 from the first leg and somehow contrived to lose 5-1 in the return, 5-4 on aggregate. A commanding position turned into a defensive horror show.
That trauma was on McGregor’s mind as Rangers racked up the goals.
"[Y]ou don't want fours and fives for sure. As soon as the goals go in, then I'm saying to Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales, no more goals," he admitted. It was damage limitation from a captain who has seen enough humiliations to know when a scoreline is in danger of becoming a scar.
This is not just about one bad afternoon across the city. Two big games, two collapses. The pattern is ugly: a soft centre, a back line exposed, and a team that too often fractures under pressure instead of closing ranks.
There is no breathing space to fix it on the training ground. Celtic’s schedule now turns ruthless. Ferencvaros arrive at Celtic Park on Thursday in the Europa League, a tie that suddenly carries the weight of a response rather than just progression. Three days later, Rangers come to Glasgow’s east end for a Premiership showdown that already feels loaded with consequence.
McGregor has thrown down the challenge in public. The question now is whether his teammates respond as a team, or whether the next chapter of this season reads exactly like the last two.
