RACKING up a massive home league win didn’t help Celtic before their last Champions League match but repeating the feat certainly won’t do them any harm. The gulf between the challenges facing them domestically and in Europe was revealed in the most brutal fashion earlier this month when they followed a 5-1 victory over Rangers by succumbing 7-0 to Barcelona. Having completed the first slice of that two-bit equation yesterday by sticking six past Kilmarnock, they will look to deliver a different outcome in part two when Manchester City arrive at Celtic Park on Wednesday night. They could have done little more to prepare.
Celtic took a while to find their feet but once they had recovered from the shock of falling behind to a Kilmarnock team who would barely threaten their goal for the remainder of the game, there would be no stopping them. Guarding a single-goal advantage by half-time, they went up through the gears in the second half, showing no mercy as they pummelled their opponents into submission. By the end of a pulsating 90 minutes they had created 23 chances on their way to amassing their biggest league victory of their season. They probably won’t get even half as many chances against Pep Guardiola’s men in midweek but at least have amassed plenty shooting practise just in case.
Leigh Griffiths returned from a month-long injury stint to take a seat on the bench and it is a state of affairs he may need to get used to. In his absence Moussa Dembele has staked a claim to be considered Celtic’s first-choice striker and he improved his chances of remaining at the apex of Rodgers’ preferred 4-2-3-1 system, scoring two goals to take his tally for the season into double figures.
Both came in the first half and were similarly executed. The first came just three minutes after Kilmarnock’s opener and quickly settled any feelings of anxiety among the home support. Mikael Lustig was the creator with a cutback from the right and Dembele calmly swept his finish past Jamie MacDonald. Another three minutes later and the Frenchman had his second. This time the goal was created down the left-hand side, Scott Brown feeding the excellent Kieran Tierney whose cutback was again despatched first-time by Dembele. He had chances for a hat-trick – most notably a header that plopped onto the roof of the net – before sauntering off after 65 minutes to be replaced by Griffiths.
“If you look at his record, virtually all of his goals have come in the box and that’s great,” said Rodgers of Dembele. “A lot of modern-day strikers spend a lot of time outside the box but he is a boy who wants to get inside the box and score goals. He still has a way to go to fulfil what his capabilities are, in terms of his pressing and his tactical ideas, but if he can add that then he will have even more quality, confidence and ability.”
Griffiths did not wait long to make an impact, helping Jozo Simunovic’s goalbound header into the net just two minutes into his substitute appearance for Celtic’s fourth. He could have had another just five minutes later but rather generously handed the ball over to Scott Sinclair after winning a penalty when Greg Taylor brought him to the ground. Sinclair converted the kick to extend his run to six goals in his first six league games.
Celtic had scored their third goal early in the second half, James Forrest applying a composed finish after good build-up play with Tom Rogic, while the Australian – rather sheepishly – celebrated his team’s sixth five minutes from time after his low trundler had somehow deceived MacDonald and crept into the net.
Kilmarnock had got their consolation in first after 32 minutes but what a goal it was. There seemed little on when Souleyman Coulibaly spun Brown around 40 yards out but the Ivorian spotted Dorus de Vries marginally off his line and launched an audacious effort that the goalkeeper could only wave it as it floated over his head. “I tried something similar against Dundee but the defender was close to me and the ball went wide,” said Coulibaly. “Today I saw the goalkeeper a little bit [forward] and I just tried and it went in.”
De Vries, intriguingly, did not return for the second half, Rodgers later revealing the Dutchman had hurt his back trying to keep out the goal. That meant another reprieve for Craig Gordon who, ironically, would have been suspended had he been shown the red card many felt he deserved for a wild challenge against Alloa in the Betfred Cup earlier in the week. The Scotland international was barely tested during his 45 minutes on the field as Celtic dominated. It will surely be a different story should be keep his place for the visit of City in midweek.
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