And the good mood was clearly shared by the players as Gers started brightly and inside the opening 45 seconds Dado Prso nearly made his mark.
Fellow Old Firm rookie Nacho Novo split the Celtic defence with a great pass, which Prso took in his stride, but Agathe made an excellent challenge to take the ball away from the Croatian.
Four minutes later Klos made his first contribution and denied the home side a goal with a superb save.
Alan Thompson’s free kick into the box was headed back across goal by Balde and Der Goalie did brilliantly to paw the ball away from Henri Camara’s boot just as he was pulling the trigger.
Immediately on the counter attack though Gers sprung into action with Alex Rae who skipped past two Celtic midfielders to release Novo, but Agathe again covered well and conceded a corner.
Unfortunately nothing came of the resulting set piece but in the 13th minute Prso met Hutton’s cross and only some decent goalkeeping from Marshall distracted the former Monaco hitman and his header went over the bar.
The best chance of the match so far, however, fell to Martin O’Neill’s men in the 24th minute.
Juninho laid the ball off to Camara, after getting a break on the edge of the area and Klos looked on gratefully as his fierce shot skidded inches wide.
Just after the half hour mark Alex McLeish’s men had their first actual shot on goal.
Ricksen played the ball wide to Arveladze, who was occupying the wide right position this afternoon and the Georgian cut inside to unleash a wicked shot with his weaker left foot into the side netting.
Much of the hype before this clash focused on the midfield battle between Alex Rae and Neil Lennon but so far the match has gone without real incident.
The former Wolves star took a while to get into the game but in the 34th minute he hit a screamer although it failed to hit the target.
Right on half time Vignal blocked Juninho’s shot and after Klos hesitated when coming to collect, the little Brazilian tried a spectacular chip, which thankfully landed on the roof of the net.
The manager refrained from making any changes at the break but only five minutes into the second half Peter Lovenkrands was sent on to bolster the attack.
And he made an instant contribution when he broke down the right and crossed to Novo.
The Spaniard took a touch before shooting, when it was probably a better option to hit it first time and Balde blocked.
But when the ball broke back to Lovenkrands he couldn’t hold his nerve and fired high and wide.
On the hour mark though John Hartson should have given Celtic the lead when he had a free header on goal, but it went straight to Klos who held well.
In the 71st minute Alan Hutton broke at pace and found Lovenkrands, who then played in Prso at the edge of the box.
The Croatian kept his cool and after turning Balde looked odds on to score but Marshall stood up well to block the shot.
As always Celtic looked dangerous at set pieces and Varga was cursing his luck when his free header went high over the bar.
With six minutes to go though the Light Blue defence, which had been so strong up until now, couldn’t hold out any longer and the home side took the lead through Alan Thompson.
Agathe’s cross into the box was cleared but only as far as the former Aston Villa man and his shot from at least 22-yards out rattled the bar and went in to beat Klos.
Despite being behind though Gers didn’t let their heads go down and Rae thought he had equalised in the 86th minute but his shot it trickled wide.
Within 60 seconds Eck’s men then carved out another chance when Novo had two shots blocked but as has been the way this season nothing seemed to break for the Light Blues.
CELTIC: Marshall; McNamara, Balde, Varga; Agathe, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson, Juninho; Hartson (Sylla 83), Camara (Wallace 64)
SUBS: Douglas, Valgaeren, Pearson, McGeady, Cuthbert
BOOKINGS: Balde 68
RANGERS: Klos; Hutton, Boumsong, Moore, Vignal; Ricksen, Rae, Mladenovic, Arveladze (Lovenkrands 53); Prso, Novo
SUBS: Smith, Burke, McCormack, Thompson, Andrews, Hughes
BOOKINGS: Moore 75, Rae 79
REFEREE: Hugh Dallas
MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Jean-Alain Boumsong