Soccer Football - Scottish Premiership - Heart of Midlothian v Celtic - Tynecastle Park, Edinburgh, Scotland, Britain - May 7, 2023 Celtic players celebrate after winning the Scottish Premiership REUTERS/Russell Cheyne
Three goals in 16 second half minutes gave Celtic fans a taster of what Brendan II can look like.
In truth much of the first half resembled the 0-0 home draw with St Johnstone that caused so much concern in their last home outing.
Winning the Glasgow Derby, especially against the odds, tends to have a galvanising effect but the highlight of the first half was the return to action of Kyogo Furuhashi after treatment to his on-going shoulder issue.
? Three second-half goals ensured the champions remained unbeaten and top of the league with a 3-0 win over Dundee ?? pic.twitter.com/piH6uLgNAu
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) September 16, 2023
Referee Grant Irvine wasn’t keen to award Celtic a penalty but after being brought down David Turnbull stepped up to drive the ball into the net in the 51st minute thanks to the intervention of VAR.
Reo Hatate replaced the goalscorer on the hour mark, three minutes later Kyogo brilliantly timed his run to head home a Callum McGregor cross and the home fans began to enjoy their afternoon.
Kyogo was the creator for Matt O’Riley to score Celtic’s third with the woodwork twice denying Alistair Johnston his first goal of the season.
I know Celtic got the goals (eventually) and won the game, but they still don’t look remotely like the high-press killer team they were last year. I fear for them going up against Feyenoord this coming midweek. Hope I’m wrong but they simply don’t look to be anywhere near Champions League level. It sounds really negative, I know, but the confidence I had in the team last year simply is not there now. They look far more vulnerable now, which could prove fatal against a team like Feyenoord. My dearest wish now is to come back on Wednesday and eat a huge slice of humble pie!
I thought, at times, we played some of the best stuff this year.
CalMacs lifted ball was terrific for Kyogo to score another classy goal and the football for Matt’s goal was top class again. Liam Scales, if he keeps up recent performances, will prove me wrong and I’ll be delighted with that. There’s a LOT of room for optimism as we could have scored about 6. Daizen was SO unlucky as was Alistair Johnston.
I’m now quietly optimistic going into our 1st CL group game but we’ll have to be more organised in defence if we’re hoping for more clean sheets.
A good win – And on we go to Livingston via Rotterdam !