Here’s how many penalties Rangers and Celtic have received in the Old Firm derby over the last 10 years.
Celtic host Rangers this weekend in a game where controversy is often a well-used buzzword.
The Light Blues head to Ibrox backed by the largest travelling support in this fixture since 2018 as away fans make their return to the famous game. Celtic know a win will edge them closer to the title with their rivals fiar behind in the race,
Penalty kick debates often spark into life in this fixture with last season’s clash at Parkhead when Alistair Johnston collided with Abdallah Sima sparking fierce inquests. This term, Vaclav Cerny’s no-penalty award in the Premier Sports Cup final that Rangers went on to lose also sparked controversy.
Jose Mourinho was left raging over penalty decisions as his Fenerbahce side were eliminated by Rangers in the Europa League last 16 on Thursday night, on penalty kicks. He said to the BBC: “Today, we come here and the VAR is considered one of the best VARs. He didn’t see one of three penalties. I just hope it’s random. I paid for the suspension and I hope that it’s over. I pray that this is just bad luck.
We deserved to win over 90 minutes, we deserved to win after 120 minutes, we were the best team by far. In the first match, I was honest and I had enough to say we made mistakes, we deserved to lose, but in this match I also have to be honest and say we were the best team by far. The ref and the VAR decided that we should go to penalties.”
So who has actually been awarded more penalties in the last decade between Rangers and Celtic? We are taking into account every game since March 14th 2015, which takes us into the Scottish Cup semi-final between the pair in 2016. We’ll also peer into how many John Beaton has awarded as he is the man behind VAR this weekend, with Steven MacLean the match referee. Let’s look.
How many Celtic penalties vs Rangers in last decade?
April 2017, Scottish Cup semi-final, Celtic 2 -0 Rangers, Scott Sinclair GOAL (Willie Collum)
April 2017 – Scottish Premiership, Rangers 1-5 Celtic, Scott Sinclair GOAL (John Beaton)
April 2018 – Scottish Cup semi-final, Celtic 4-0 Rangers, Moussa Dembele and Olivier Ntcham penalties both GOALS (Bobby Madden)
December 2019, Scottish Premiership, Celtic 1-2 Rangers, Ryan Christie MISSED (Kevin Clancy)
April 2021, Scottish Cup, Rangers 2-0 Celtic, Odsonne Edouard MISSED (Bobby Madden)
April 2024, Scottish Premiership, Rangers 3-3 Celtic, Matt O’Riley penalty GOAL (John Beaton)
How many Rangers penalties vs Celtic in last decade
December 2019, Scottish League Cup final, Rangers 0-1 Celtic, Alfredo Morelos MISSED (Willie Collum)
January 2023, Scottish Premiership, Rangers 2-2 Celtic, James Tavernier penalty GOAL (John Beaton)
April 2024, Scottish Premiership, Rangers 3-3 Celtic, James Tavernier penalty GOAL (John Beaton)
Verdict and how many penalties John Beaton has awarded
So, the stats show that in the last decade, Celtic have been awarded seven penalties in this fixture to Rangers’ three, but there have been barren runs for both sides in that time. Beaton has been handed the fixture on plenty of occasions and has dished out four of the 10 penalties on this list.
