Brilliant Celtic blew Dundee United away at Tannadice as trebles from Kyogo and Liel Abada heaped the pressure on Jack Ross at Dundee United.
There was an early injury scare with Joe Hart down for more than five minutes with a head-knock, but the Hoops had the lead almost as soon as play resumed. It was an incisive counter as Liel Abada played in Jota, who picked out Kyogo at the far post.
His second was a stunner as Matt O'Riley laid him off before curling it into the top corner, and just moments later he had yet another Celtic treble when he converted Liel Abada's cross for his sixth goal of the season. Jota notched the fourth, O'Riley again assisting with a perfectly-weighted cross to leave it on a plate, and the goals just kept on coming after that. Abada got in on the fun within five minutes of the restart, before Josip Juranovic notched his first Celtic goal not from the penalty spot to drive the point home. What Kyogo can do, Abada can do just as well as he bagged two more to take his Celtic tally to 19. United had given up by that point and the few home fans who remained were heading for the exit when Carl Starfelt waltzed in unmarked to head in the ninth of the afternoon.
What Kyogo can do, Abada can do just as well as he bagged two more to take his Celtic tally to 19. A pair of hat-tricks. United had given up by that point and the few home fans who remained were heading for the exit when Carl Starfelt waltzed in unmarked to head in the ninth of the afternoon.
Here are Record Sport's three talking points.
Hat-trick heroes
Kyogo had netted in his last three heading into this one but he matched that total in an explosive 45 minutes at Tannadice. The variety of his goals in particular blew Dundee United out the water; he does stunners, tap-ins and everything in between, and brought the full range out to play in Tayside.
His second needs hung in the Louvre. He didn't even need to look up to know where the goal was as he stepped across the ball and curled it beyond a helpless Carljohan Eriksson into the top corner. He marked it with the nonchalant celebration of a man who does that type of thing in his sleep; because he does.
Kyogo went off for a well-earned rest in the second half but the threat was far from over from Postecoglou's team. Abada picked up where he left off, notching two more of his own as the goals flowed from all over the pitch. How do you defend against this Celtic team? Can you defend against this Celtic team?
Trouble in Tannadice
They aren't the first team to be mercilessly torn apart by Ange Postecoglou's Celtic and they certainly won't be the last. But the backdrop of this one makes for particularly grim reading and Jack Ross must be on a shoogly peg after yet another thrashing.
Since their famous Tannadice win over AZ Alkmaar, they've now lost five on the spin, conceding 24 goals and scoring just once. It's their third Premiership trouncing on the bounce, and if last week's 3-0 defeat to St Mirren placed the nail in the coffin, this one might well have hammered it home.
The cruel irony of it is they actually gave decent account of themselves for much of the first-half. It might have been one-way traffic from minute one, but kept the score at 1-0 until the 40th minute before a goal burst just before the break left them winded and wounded. But they emerged for the second half with their heads down and looked like a side who just didn't want to be there, giving up and losing their men at will.
Worrying signs now for Ross and you sense there will be some uncomfortable boardroom conversations happening in the hours and days ahead.
Magic Matt
Carving out an automatic starting spot in the Celtic midfield was never going to be easy for Matt O'Riley with Reo Hatate and David Turnbull among the stacked cast looking over his shoulder. But he seems to have done just that, and on this evidence, it's pretty clear why.
Celtic completely overran Dundee United in midfield and he was an almighty part of that, winning challenge after challenge and picking out pass after pass to keep the pressure heaped onto the Tannadice men. He finished the game with three assists to his name while he also made the Japan star's treble goal, picking out Abada with a spectacular first-time pass before he put it on a plate for the hat-trick hero.
His vision, power and tenacity made him unplayable and it's easy to see why Leicester are seemingly sniffing about. But this performance could well have added a zero or two to his price tag and if he keeps it up then a senior Denmark call surely isn't far away.
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