Celtic won the Women’s Scottish Cup for the second year in a row after a convincing victory over rivals Rangers at Hampden.

A cautious and cagey first half passed nearly without incident in the first women’s spectacular to be played at Scotland’s national stadium before Celtic won the game with two goals in two minutes.

Both goals came from set pieces, with Natasha Flint converting a corner two minutes before Claire O’Riordan’s looping header.

That startled Rangers, who had Laura Berry’s goal ruled out for offside five minutes from time by VAR, and means Celtic finish the season with a trophy after narrowly missing out on the Scottish Women’s Premier League title a week ago.

As it happened, reaction
On that occasion, a stoppage-time goal by Glasgow City against Rangers took the trophy from Celtic’s hands, leaving manager Fran Alonso in tears.

But this time, the Spaniard was jubilantly pumping the air. Even in a sluggish first half, his team created the finest chance when Shen Menglu robbed Hannah Davison and ran into the box, but the forward shot wide.

As did Jacynta after the break from a similar position, but it was Celtic’s legendary set-piece nous that ultimately won the game.

First, a corner was delivered on top of Rangers goalkeeper Victoria Esson, who was only able to punch it as far as Chloe Craig. The Celtic defender assisted the goal, and Flint finished from inside the six-yard box.

O’Riordan met another corner at the near post two minutes later and floated the ball into the far corner.

Rangers woke up in the last minutes after a slow performance, and Berry thought she had set up a grandstand finish after finishing neatly in the box.

But VAR, which was used in a women’s game for the first time in Scotland, took a look and concluded the 15-year-old was barely offside.

Rangers’ final roll of the dice came when they were unable to give manager Malky Thomson the perfect send-off, despite winning the SWPL Cup earlier in the season.