Lethal Larsson kills Rangers

RANGERS' season came to a painful conclusion with defeat at the hands of their bitter rivals in the Tennent's Scottish Cup quarter-final clash at Parkhead yesterday.

Celtic 1 Rangers 0

Henrik Larsson was again the ruthless hitman who effectively killed off any trophy hopes that Alex McLeish might have had, with the championship also surely out of reach.

But McLeish refused to condemn several of his misfiring foreign stars to the Ibrox exit door despite the club's trophy hopes for the season coming to a sorry end at the hands of Celtic.

Nuno Capucho, Emerson, Christian Nerlinger and Michael Mols were dropped while Egil Ostenstad and Paolo Vanoli were overlooked after the dismal showing at Dundee United.

"Yes they will find it hard to get back in," admitted McLeish. "But they are still Rangers players. Vanoli and Emerson have struggled a bit to settle with the culture. Nerlinger has given me everything and Mols has given me everything. I can't dispute that at all.

"Mols was involved yesterday, but it was just the choice of subs I went with. But I was pleased with the momentum of the lads out there today and I will build on that."

A defiant McLeish was remaining optimistic and he drew some hope from the reaction of his players who earned generous applause from the visiting fans at the final whistle.

He added: "Of course I am disappointed, but I do see light at the end of the tunnel with the commitment we got out there today. I have to take positives and I know there was a lot of negatives in the press the last few days.

"Of course it's been levelled against us in games that we have not showed commitment but that wasn't the case today".

A tired Celtic side pulled together to dump Rangers out courtesy of Larsson's second-half winner and their reward is a few days' rest before their UEFA Cup match with Barcelona.

Manager Martin O'Neill hopes to have striker Chris Sutton back for that last-16 game, but he is still down to the bare bones.

Despite several injuries, Celtic effectively ended Rangers' season and booked their place in the draw for the semi-final. O'Neill added: "They will come in tomorrow for a bit of a warm down and I think the main bulk of the boys that were involved today will be given the day off on Tuesday.

"They will then come in to do something light on Wednesday but we will get on with it. That was our squad today with Ross Wallace and Jamie Smith on stand-by so we are a bit stretched at the moment." Celtic missed the injured Sutton alongside Larsson in attack and O'Neill said: "If the game was tomorrow he wouldn't be fit. He's doing okay and it might be just days rather than weeks.

"He has been hit in the nerve and his ankle is fine but there is a lot of bruising at the moment. The nerve is causing him problems and it's about getting feeling back again. Club doctor Roddy Macdonald said he might have some discomfort. He is a doubt for Thursday but I'm hoping."

CELTIC: Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Valgaeren (Kennedy 85), Agathe, Lennon, Petrov, Pearson (Beattie 57), Thompson, Larsson, Beattie (Sylla 90).

RANGERS: Klos, Moore, Frank de Boer, Berg, Ricksen, Rae, Arteta (Ronald de Boer 36), Hughes (Thompson 66), Ball, Lovenkrands, Arveladze.

Referee: H Dallas.