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 today.

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.

With murmurs in Glasgow about his job at Ibrox following the defeat at Dundee United last week, the Rangers manager made five changes to revive his side.

Out went Nuno Capucho, Emerson, Christian Nerlinger, Ronald de Boer and Michael Mols from the side which slumped to defeat.

Drafted in were Shota Arveladze, Gavin Rae, Peter Lovenkrands, Stephen Hughes and Henning Berg despite his criticism of McLeish this week after being dropped.

Martin O'Neill was forced to make one change with Chris Sutton failing to recover from an ankle injury and he was replaced by Stephen Pearson.

The Celtic boss, whose side face Barcelona in the UEFA Cup next week, made two more changes with Neil Lennon and Joos Valgaeren coming in for Paul Lambert and John Kennedy and he elected to start with Larsson as his loan striker in a strange 4-5-1 formation.

But even though the atmosphere was even more ferocious than ever, the game was littered with too many fouls and not too much quality.

Rae blazed over the top from the edge of the area after Mikel Arteta's corner and Stanislav Varga was the unlikely man to produce Celtic's first shot in the 23rd minute, after exchanging passes with Petrov, but he whistled a blazed wide from long range.

Referee Hugh Dallas was lenient early on, especially with Ricksen, but he finally took action in the 29th minute after Bobo Balde had clattered Lovenkrands and the hot-headed Dutchman was also shown the yellow card for running 20 yards to get involved.

Celtic finally carved out a good opening, four minutes later, when Larsson and Didier Agathe combined to give him a sight of goal but he sliced his left-foot strike horribly wide.

McLeish was forced to make a change in the 36th minute when Ronald de Boer came on for Arteta.

But Celtic broke with intent, two minutes later, and Larsson found the overlapping Pearson.

The youngster should have picked out Petrov in the middle but the ball broke to the Swede and he fired over the bar.

Larsson again threatened moments later when Valgaeren whipped the ball across the face of goal but the striker was stretching and headed past the post.

But the prolific hitman came even closer to scoring, four minutes before the break, when he headed Thompson's corner off the foot of the post and wide.

The England hopeful again curled an an inviting cross into the box and this time a glancing header from Balde flew wide.

Rangers were marginally better after the restart and De Boer would have gone clean through but for a superb last-gasp challenge by Balde.

But the Dutchman put his side under pressure in the 54th minute with a challenge on Petrov which cost his side badly.

Stefan Klos got caught among a ruck of players, from Thompson's floated free-kick.

He managed to return to his feet to save Valgaeren's shot but could only watch as Larsson fired into the back of the net from close range.

O'Neill made a bold move to bring on young striker Craig Beattie for Pearson in the 57th minute and his harsh welcome to the Old Firm game was to be taken out by Klos near the touchline which earned the German goalkeeper a booking.

Rangers responded just as positively but Rae fired over after Arveladze had done well to pick him out in the area.

McLeish made a desperate attempt to resurrect their campaign by bring Thompson on for Hughes in the 66th minute.

The home side attempted to kill off their rivals but Klos made great saves from Thompson's deflected free-kick and Beattie's strike after he was put clean through by Lennon.

O'Neill brought on Kennedy for Valgaeren, who was feeling the effects of cramp, in the 86th minute as Rangers had one last-gasp desperate push for the equaliser.

Douglas was given a late test by Ball with a powerful low shot but the Celtic goalkeeper was alert and made the save look easy, and then Rae screwed a great effort wide.

But Celtic stood firm in defence to move into the semi-final of the Tennent's Scottish Cup and gain sweet revenge over their Glasgow neighbours for last season.

Teams

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

Subs Not Used: Marshall, Lambert.

Booked: Balde.

Goals: Larsson 53.

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

Subs Not Used: McGregor, Khizanishvili, Ross.

Booked: Ricksen, Klos.

Att: 58,735

Ref: H Dallas (Scotland).