Steven Gerrard fell to his first defeat as Rangers manager at the weekend, watching his side beaten 1-0 by Glasgow rivals Celtic.
Olivier Ntcham scored the only goal of the game but it was enough to send Brendan Rodgers’ side to victory.
For Borna Barišić it was his first experience of such a game, having signed for Rangers during the summer transfer window. Now part of the Croatia squad, Barišić has been speaking to the media in his home country and was inevitably asked about the Celtic match.
Novolist quote the Rangers player as saying: “A phenomenal feeling, so far I have not experienced anything like that yet. Did I survive? Barely, ha, ha, ha… I’m kidding, everything was great, except for the final result. We have lost, but I think we left a very good impression.
Barišić believes the referee was influenced by Celtic’s support, but the Rangers player certainly doesn’t seem to blame him: “The referee gives a solid game, only from time to time his reaction is provoked by the fans. So I got a yellow card, although many before me made much worse offences, but nothing. It does not matter, so it’s the first Old Firm to gain experience. But all in all, it was awesome to experience the derby. I hope we will celebrate the second time.”
The Croatian did reserve some praise for Rangers’ rivals: “Let’s say Celtic is the first team that wanted to play football from all we’ve been playing since I got to Scotland. Everyone else mostly skips the game, but in the Scottish league it’s all about fights. It’s a physically demanding competition, but I have never had problems with the challenge, so it was easier for me to adapt to the new conditions.”
