Celtic went one point clear at the top of the Cinch Premiership thanks to a confident 3-0 win over Rangers under the lights at Paradise. The Celtic support were in fine voice before kick-off and the team rose to the challenge.
It was a fast start and the Celtic midfield, led by skipper CalMac, dominated and helped the team get forward. Although, special mention needs to go to one man – Reo Hatate. Hatate was named Man of the Match after the Japanese midfielder contributed two goals and an assist over the course of the evening.
His first goal came after a cleared corner fell to his feet at the edge of the area, a drive that was moving away from Allan McGregor evaded bodies in the box before nestling in the corner. His second came from a lovely move down Celtic’s right hand side, neat interplay allowed Liel Abada to play his teammate in at the edge of the area, allowing Hatate to bend the ball around Goldson and into McGregor’s near post.
Hatate assisted thereafter when he found the touchline on the left and delivered a delightful ball into the mix, which Abada ran onto – leaving Barisic on his knees. Celtic did their business early, Giakoumakis was denied on a few occasions by McGregor but the goals allowed Celtic to sit off and soak up the pressure.
The atmosphere, without visitors, was terrific. The club decided to revamp how they approach these games and YNWA before kick-off was special.
Celtic Park did not disappoint. pic.twitter.com/Ff2qJL8dkg
— Paul Dalglish (@DalglishPaul) February 2, 2022
Ange: "We're upholding the values of this club. I want them to be proud of us. I hope they are on the journey home. We had 60,000 in – I'm sure a lot of them walked in with problems in their life, tonight we made them forget that for a while & that's something special."
Wow.
— John McGinley (@jhnmcgnly) February 2, 2022