STEPHEN McGOWAN: Hampden hope springs eternal for resurgent Rangers as Philippe Clement shows he’s not done yet

So, let’s recap where things stood three weeks ago, when Timo Werner was torturing Kyle Walker and Rangers were dropping points to a Dundee United side trapped on their bus for four hours by Storm Bert.

Funny old game, football. Minutes after Vaclav Cerny’s equaliser failed to silence the boos around Ibrox, James Maddison celebrated his 28th birthday by volleying home the Tottenham Hotspur opener against Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City.

The fourth goal came when Werner raced past Walker — once the fastest defender in English football — as if he was lapping a Chelsea pensioner in the local Waitrose, crossing low for Brennan Johnson to complete the rout.

Google maps will tell you that the distance between Ibrox and the Etihad Stadium is 219 miles. By half past eight on November 23, Rangers and Spurs looked light years apart.

Philippe Clement resembled one of those haunted Dickens characters in a story where Ange Postecoglou — the ghost of Celtic past — threatened to tag team with Brendan Rodgers — the ghost of Celtic present — to rip away any hope of Christmas redemption.

A Europa League clash with Spurs exuded more danger than a night on the tiles with David Coote. A cup final against Celtic held all the appeal of a tooth extraction with a pair of rusty pliers dipped in Domestos. The Belgian looked like a dead man walking.

Time has moved fast for Clement, who looked on the brink after defeat to Dundee United

Clement’s fortunes contrast sharply with Werner’s, who looked a world-beater against City and ‘unaccecptable’ at the Ibrox

Now, here we are — just three weeks later — with Postecoglou enduring chants of ‘sacked in the morning’ while giving Werner both barrels after using the big hook to haul the hopeless German off the Ibrox pitch at half-time.

If Werner feels hard done by, you can hardly blame him. All over the pitch Spurs ducked out of tackles, gave the ball away and performed like a team hell-bent on booting the manager out the door faster than Walker can reach his Zimmer. Big Ange could just as easily have picked on Maddison or Son Heung-Min or Destiny Udogie. The only player to come away with pass marks was goalkeeper Fraser Forster.

While it’s only right to make allowances for crippling injuries in central defence, Daniel Levy’s Spurs remain the fourth biggest net spenders in English football over the last five years. This is a club which spent £64million on Dominic Solanke, for crying out loud.

Despite it all, a Rangers team without a pot to plant in made one of the more-money-than-sense brigade of English football look impoverished and ordinary.

Unrecognisable from the shapeless rabble which sat nine points adrift of Aberdeen after a shambolic start to the domestic season, Clement’s team really deserved to win by a couple of goals. Nico Raskin was a revelation, outplaying Rodrigo Bentancur and Yves Bissouma in midfield. Cerny played like a man who knew there were clubs with more cash than Rangers watching in the stands.

It’s probably no coincidence, meanwhile, that the team have improved no end since Hamza Igamane replaced Cyriel Dessers in the front three.

With five goals in five games and a nutmeg or two in the locker, the Moroccan new boy has been a revelation. Had he waltzed through for that chance in the final minutes instead of Dessers, Ibrox would have felt like Leeds ‘92 all over again.

All of this gives Brendan Rodgers unexpected food for thought ahead of a Premier Sports Cup final unlikely to be as one-sided as supporters of Celtic expected. Or fans of Rangers feared.

Clement and Ange Postecoglou can both afford a smile at the end of Thursday’s Ibrox contest

Nicolas Raskin was a standout performer against Spurs and is nailed on to start Sunday’s final

When the Old Firm meet at Hampden, the games are invariably tight. Last season’s Scottish Cup final was settled by a late Celtic strike from Adam Idah and this one should be another nip and tuck affair. That’s a scenario Rangers would have snatched at three weeks ago. If Clement now completes the turnaround by claiming his first win over Celtic in six attempts, he’ll force a mea culpa from fans and commentators — this one included — who marked him down as a sacking in the post.

None of this offers the guarantee of a Rangers victory. How can it in a fixture where they haven’t won a meaningful game since the Scottish Cup semi-final of April 2022? How much confidence can they really exude when Brendan Rodgers has lost just one of his 19 derbies over two spells as Celtic manager?

The physical and emotional demands of a Thursday night ding dong with Tottenham could extract a heavy toll. For that reason alone, the exclusion of Ianis Hagi and Danilo from the Europa League squad has gone from being another managerial cock-up to an astute piece of resource management in the space of 24 hours.

Both will be fresh for a cup final where Clement desperately needs to get the monkey off his back. And, while the lack of recuperation and the loss of John Souttar — their best defender in recent weeks — is unhelpful, the Rangers boss must know that excuses and waffle won’t cut if he fails to beat Celtic yet again.

Lose tomorrow and all that post-Spurs festive cheer would wither and fade pretty quickly. The players would be back to ducking out of a side door at Ibrox with blankets over their heads.

Cameron Carter-Vickers impressed for Celtic in Zagreb in midweek and will be a key man again at Hampden

All that said, Celtic haven’t quite been at their blistering best in the last week or so.

Cameron Carter-Vickers might not be the best player at Parkhead, but he is the most important. So long as he plays, Rangers will find Celtic a tougher nut to penetrate than Hibs did last weekend.

A strange affair, a Champions League point in Zagreb should have felt like a hell of a result for Scotland’s champions. And it might have been had they not enjoyed the kind of dominance they’d usually expect at Easter Road or McDiarmid Park. Failure to win the game felt like an opportunity lost. A source of regret.

The bed-wetting since has been over the top. Opta rank Celtic’s chances of missing out on the Champions League play-offs at just three per cent and, blessed by a decent draw, there’s a strong chance they’ll beat a pointless Young Boys at home to seal the deal.

Turn up, fit and firing, with Daizen Maeda hounding James Tavernier to distraction, and there’s a decent chance that they’ll win the Scottish League Cup as well.

Yet for the first time this season, Rangers and their supporters head for the national stadium imbued with an emotion they haven’t felt before an Old Firm game in quite some time. Hope.

Favourable draw gives Scots fighting chance

All in all, then, a decent World Cup draw for Scotland. As a bare minimum, a play-off place for finishing second in a four-team group is not beyond them.

They gave Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal a run for their money in the Nations League home and away.

The 2-0 win over Denmark at Hampden in the last campaign was one of the best performances of Steve Clarke’s time in charge.

Steve Clarke is determined to lead Scotland to a World Cup finals during his time in charge

Cristiano Ronaldo was left frustrated the last time he faced Scotland… could there be a repeat?

Already down to play Greece in a Nations League play-off, Ivan Jovanovic’s side will soon feel like the new Israel.

And while Hellas fans may fancy their chances of winning the group, almost none of them wanted Scotland as their pot three team.

The only question surrounding Belarus, the group cannon fodder, is where on earth they’ll play it after UEFA ordered all their games to take place at a neutral venue.

Could the draw have been better? Probably. Could it have been worse? Absolutely no question.