It was one of those games which had a 'you had to be there to feel it' as Celtic came back from two goals down after the break to level the game in added time in order to snatch a crucial point from another fiery encounter at Ibrox against the Rangers.

It was not the ideal start for Martin O'Neill and his side as the Rangers were clearly the better team during the first half as they put two past Viljami Sinisalo during the first 45 minutes.

The home fans were looking for more in the second half but O'Neill and the Hoops had other plans as he made a couple of changes, as Sebastian Tounekti and Reo Hatate were introduced into the game at halftime by the Northern Irish manager.

Hatate in particular became the leveller for Celtic. The Japanese international has come under a lot of criticism lately, but at Ibrox, he turned out to be the missing link between the Bhoys' defensive and forward lines.

The visiting side pulled one back in the 56th minute of the game as Kieran Tierney brilliantly nodded the ball past Jack Butland from a centre by Benjamin Nygren.

After that, the travelling fans had to wait until the 90th minute of the game to celebrate their side's second goal of the game as Hatate scored from the rebound of his own missed penalty.

Despite the draw feeling like a victory for the Hoops, O'Neill's feet remained grounded as the manager spelled out the actual winners of the nail biting Glasgow Derby on Sunday.

Celtic's interim manager talked about the result of the game, as the Northern Irish manager said on Sky (via Edinburgh News): 

“If you're looking at it from a distance, I think that the result is a really good result for Hearts as much as anything else. That's the way, if you were involved with Hearts, you'd have been thinking a point each here would be good. As I said earlier, we've been fighting the whole way through.

“It seems as if it's like the proverbial mountain to climb every single week and games are getting fewer and fewer now. Even so, we're still well in it. We're still well in this here. We need to try and win on Wednesday (vs Aberdeen), and if we could do that, it'd be great. That will not be easy for us.”

As it stands, the Hoops are now eight points behind league leaders Hearts and two points behind second-placed Rangers, of course, with a game in hand and plenty to play for.

But the fact of the matter is that Hearts now find themselves in the driver's seat of this title race. It is their lead to lose. Absolutely nobody could have predicted this at the start of the season, but once again, football has proven to be a funny game.

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