The Light Blues had the ball in the back of the net twice inside the first half – with Michael Beale’s side denied an opener by a contentious VAR decision – before Kyogo struck the decisive blow of the contest on the stroke of half-time.
It was a positive opening from the Light Blues as the referee sounded his whistle, with the ball finding the back of the net inside 60 seconds. A direct move from Rangers released Cyriel Dessers beyond the Celtic backline, whose square pass was knocked home from close range from Rabbi Matondo before the linesman swiftly raised his flag for an offside in the build-up.
Although the away side were enjoying spells in command of the ball, it was the Gers who looked the most likely to break the deadlock in the opening blows. Dessers was next to go close for the Ibrox side, almost latching onto James Tavernier’s delivery across the face of goal after Todd Cantwell punched a cute pass through to the Gers captain.
Brendan Rodgers’ side slowly began to work their way into the contest. Kyogo was released in-behind the Rangers backline on 25 minutes, bearing down on goal with only Jack Butland to beat. However, a terrific sliding challenge from Connor Goldson inside his own six-yard box prevented Daizen Maeda from tapping home at the back post for the visitors.
The Ibrox crowd was then brought to its feet two minutes later as the Gers looked to have opened the scoring for the second time in the match. Gustaf Lagerbielke was robbed of possession by the alert Dessers, who advanced into the penalty and picked out Kemar Roofe. The forward composed himself before rifling an unstoppable finish beyond Joe Hart, but his celebrations were short-lived when referee Don Robertson took a trip to the pitchside monitor and adjudged that the Nigerian forward had impeded the Celtic defender in the process of winning possession.
Rangers had their tails up as the half ticked towards its conclusion. A seemingly harmless deep delivery from Tavernier prompted a mix-up in the Celtic rearguard on the edge of the penalty area and, after Hart’s clearance could only find Matondo from 30 yards out with the visitors’ goalkeeper stranded, the Welshman’s lifted effort sailed agonisingly over the crossbar.
The opening 45 minutes appeared to be meandering to a stalemate when Celtic struck the first blow on the stroke of the interval. The Light Blues were caught on their heels when Goldson’s clearing header from a goal-kick was returned with interest by Matt O’Riley, allowing Kyogo to beat the offside trap and arrow a finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the penalty area.
The away side had the opportunity to double their advantage shortly into the second period, but Liel Abada flashed a shot wide of Butland’s far post after collecting a loose ball on the edge of the danger area.
Cantwell tried his luck from distance for the Light Blues moments later after Tavernier’s free-kick was cleared, although the midfielder could not keep his resulting effort under Hart’s crossbar.
The Gers’ desire to haul themselves back on level terms was sure to open up spaces for the away side to attack going in the opposite direction, with Kyogo firing a left-footed effort off target after latching onto Abada’s through pass on the counter-attack.
Hart’s palms were stung in the Celtic goal just shy of the hour-mark when Matondo did tremendously to manufacture space inside a congested penalty area and fashion a powerful effort from a promising position on the left-hand side.
The chances continued to arrive for the Light Blues, with a corner from the right proving particularly dangerous on 65 minutes. Tavernier’s floated delivery was on the money, allowing Goldson to sneak round the far post and loop his header onto the roof of the net.
Butland was forced into a smart diving stop to his left moments later to deny Odin Holm for the away side as the midfielder curled an effort towards goal from 25 yards out.
Rangers passed up a golden chance to restore parity with 15 minutes remaining. Nicolas Raskin was the architect on this occasion, disguising a delicious slide rule pass through to substitute Sam Lammers who rounded Hart confidently but could not sort his feet out to dig out the all-important finish.
The intensity from Beale’s men was further ratcheted up as the game entered its latter stages. Danilo looked primed to level for the Ibrox side when he controlled Goldson’s lofted pass with aplomb, although he was denied by Hart when he looked to stab his finish beyond the Celtic goalkeeper.
The Brazilian tested the visitors’ goal seconds later, turning Abdallah Sima’s driven cross towards goal at the front post in which Hart was equal to with his feet.
Seven minutes of additional time was indicated by the fourth official, prompting a clever cross from Ridvan which Cantwell collected in space at the far post and rifled straight into the grateful arms of Hart.
An equaliser was to prove elusive for Beale’s men despite the territorial dominance in the second half, with the league now set to pause for the international break over the next fortnight.
RANGERS: Butland, Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Sterling (Ridvan, 64), Raskin, Jack (Lawrence, 75), Cantwell, Matondo (Lammers, 63), Dessers (Sima, 75), Roofe (Danilo, 63)
Subs not used: McCrorie, Lundstram, Cifuentes, Davies
CELTIC: Hart, Johnston (Ralston, 64), Lagerbielke, Scales, Taylor (Bernabei, 73), McGregor, O’Riley, Turnbull (Holm, 65), Abada (Yang, 64), Maeda, Kyogo (Oh, 75)
Subs not used: Bain, Palma, Kobayashi, Kwon
REFEREE: Don Robertson