Celtic rallies to beat Rangers in Old Firm derby and keeps heat on Hearts in Scottish title race

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Daizen Maeda’s stunning overhead kick completed Celtic’s comeback in a 3-1 win over fierce rival Rangers that kept the heat on Hearts in a thrilling Scottish Premiership title race on Sunday.

Second-place Celtic moved a point behind Hearts with two matches left, while Rangers dropped out of contention for the title and is assured of finishing third.

Trailing to Mikey Moore’s ninth-minute opener for Rangers in a typically frenetic Old Firm derby, Celtic fought back to equalize through South Korea winger Yang Hyun-jun in the 23rd before a second-half double from Maeda — the second from the Japan forward being a looping overhead kick that dropped underneath the crossbar in the 57th.

The next installment of a title race for the ages comes on Wednesday. Hearts, without a Scottish league title in 66 years, will be expected to beat sixth-place Falkirk, while Celtic faces a testing trip to fourth-place Motherwell, which held Hearts to a draw on Saturday.

If the title is still in the balance next Saturday, it promises to be a sensational final day — with Celtic hosting Hearts in what would be a last-round shootout.

Martin O’Neill, Celtic’s 74-year-old manager, said: “We’re still in it, we’re still fighting.”

“We might fall short at the end of it all, who knows?" O'Neill said. “But it’s been a fabulous effort.”

Celtic has won 13 of the last 14 league titles, the other going to Rangers.

Not since 1985, when Aberdeen was champion under Alex Ferguson, has a team other than Celtic or Rangers been Scottish champion.

Hearts doesn't have as deep a squad as Celtic and it has been hit by key late-season injuries.

Marc Leonard and Craig Halkett will miss the final games after sustaining what Hearts coach Derek McInnes described as “really bad” and “unusual” injuries against Motherwell.

Halkett had an outside chance of making Scotland's squad for its return to the World Cup for the first time since 1998.

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Celtic's Daizen Maeda celebrates after scoring during the Scottish Premiership soccer match between Celtic and Rangers, in Glasgow, Sunday May 10, 2026. (Steve Welsh/PA via AP)

Celtic fans celebrate in the stands during the Scottish Premiership soccer match between Celtic and Rangers, in Glasgow, Sunday May 10, 2026. (Steve Welsh/PA via AP)

Celtic's Daizen Maeda (hidden) celebrates with team-mats after scoring their side's third goal during the Scottish Premiership soccer match between Celtic and Rangers, in Glasgow, Sunday May 10, 2026. (Steve Welsh/PA via AP)

Celtic's Daizen Maeda scores his side's third goal during the Scottish Premiership soccer match between Celtic and Rangers, in Glasgow, Sunday May 10, 2026. (Steve Welsh/PA via AP)

Russia accused Kyiv of breaking a U.S.-brokered ceasefire on Sunday, while Ukrainian officials said that one person had been killed and more injured by Russian drone and artillery strikes in the past 24 hours.

Two people were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson region, the area's Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said.

Separately, Russia's Ministry of Defense accused Kyiv of committing more than 1,000 ceasefire violations, state media reported, citing a daily briefing on Sunday. The ministry said Ukrainian forces had attacked civilian targets in several Russian regions and carried out strikes against Russian military positions on the front line.

Russia's military “responded in kind” to the ceasefire violations,” the ministry said.

Ukrainian officials said Russia had launched attacks, although they stopped short of accusing Moscow of violating the U.S.-brokered truce that came into force on Saturday.

Ivan Fedorov, head of Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, said one person had been killed and three more injured by artillery and drone attacks in the past 24 hours.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Ukraine's Kherson, said that seven people had been wounded over the same period.

Five people were also injured when a Russian drone attack damaged a nine-storey apartment block in the industrial district of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said late Saturday.

U.S. President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine had bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday to mark Victory Day, the Russian celebration marking the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Trump said there would also be an exchange of prisoners, declaring that the break in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of the war.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had said Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” during the May 9 parade in Moscow, followed up on Trump’s statement by mockingly declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits for Ukrainian strikes to allow the Russian parade to go ahead. The Kremlin shrugged off the comment as a “silly joke.”

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Sunday he expects U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner — who have both taken a leading role in negotiations to end the war — to visit Moscow “soon enough.”

However, he stressed that Moscow would not move from its demand that Kyiv's troops withdraw from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. “Until (Ukraine) takes that step, we can hold several more rounds, dozens of rounds (of negotiations), but we’ll be stuck in the same place,” Ushakov was cited by the state news agency Tass as saying.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Russian servicemen march as they attend the Victory Day military parade in Moscow, Saturday, May 9, 2026, during celebrations of the 81st anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany during World War II. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov, Pool)