Rangers Women hosted Celtic at Broadwood Stadium in the semi-finals of the Sky Sports Cup for the right to face SWPL league leaders Glasgow City in the final.
Rangers and Leanne Crichton headed into the match with two wins from two over the Hoops in the league, Mia McAuley, who had been the matchwinner at Ibrox late last year made it a century of appearances in blue at just 19.
For Celtic, it was an Old Firm initiation for new boss Grant Scott, the title-winning former Hibernian manager replacing Elena Sadiku in December.
Katie Wilkinson got the match underway for Rangers in front of a packed main stand in Cumbernauld.
It would be the visitors who forced the first save, with Claire Welsh forcing Jenna Fife into a save with a close-range header from a corner – she would catch the subsequent corner and her punt right up the part found McAuley, who outpaced the retreating Celtic backline but her shot was smothered by Celtic keeper Lisa Rodgers.
Celtic would take the lead after a mix-up in the Rangers defence, Amy Gallacher managing to poke the ball away as the Light Blues defence surrounded her to the onrushing Maria McAneny, who struck the ball past Fife into the bottom near-post corner.
Rangers would have the chance to respond within ten minutes; Laura Berry tripped in the area and referee Abbie Hendry pointed to the spot. Wilkinson stepped up and calmy slotted the ball into the bottom left corner of Rodgers goal – despite the keeper diving the right way.
The match would only be level for a moment as almost instantly Celtic retook the lead – an admittedly superb pass through from Poppy Pritchard found Emma Lawton who managed to beat Fife at the second attempt after a decent stop with the initial shot.
Celtic would then extend the lead with a penalty of their own when Li Mengwen left a leg out for Morgan Cross to trip over. Pritchard stepped up and found the net via the post despite Fife being inches from a superb save.
Rangers would pull one back, Mengwen latching onto a long diagonal, beating the offside trap and cutting it back for Berry to slide home to give Crichton a lifeline on the stroke of the interval.
Celtic got the second 45 underway. Rangers had the first chances of the half – McAuley testing Rodgers from range and Berry firing wide after a good layoff from Wilkinson but Celtic quickly took control of a mostly scrappy opening period of the half.
Rangers chased the match with several second half subs but struggled to create anything of note as Celtic looked set to ease into the final. Quinty Sabajo had a shot cleared off the line on the 90th minute without any other big chances in the second half.
However, the ladies struck in stoppage time from the resultant corner from Shin Ji. Jess Pegram hit the bar at the back post, but Berry was on hand to rescue Rangers and force extra time.
Rangers kicked off the additional 30 but Celtic would get the biggest chance of getting the opening goal of extra time. A shot hit the outstretched hand of Kathy Hill but Gers keeper Fife would keep the score level and give relief to Hill with a fantastic save to deny Saoirse Noonan.
Fife would make another great stop from a Welsh free kick right before the break.
Rodgers would tip over a long-range thunderbolt from captain Nicola Docherty near the end before making a huge stop to deny Wilkinson right on 120 minutes – the rebound fell to Berry with an open goal but a heavy touch left her unable to tap home and Celtic cleared for full time and penalties.
The penalties would be taken in front of the Rangers support. Wilkinson stepped up first and fired past Rodgers following a short run up. Celtic skipper Kelly Clark would be first to go head-to-head with Fife and just about tucked it under the Gers stopper.
Brace scorer Berry was next; she tucked her kick into the corner while Walsh was denied by Fife.
Shin Ji would keep Rangers perfect record before Jenny Smith kept her side alive. Calliste Brookshire would pass home the fourth.
Jenna Fife would be the hero for Rangers – denying McAneny with a second save of the shootout and a third of the afternoon to send Crichton’s team into a fifth consecutive League Cup final.