Celtic cruised into the quarter finals of the Premier Sports Cup as an early double from Daizen Maeda helped them to defeat Hibernian in rather routine fashion for the second time in a week.
A brilliant looping header from Hibs striker Mykola Kukharevych had briefly given the visitors some hope that they could get back into the contest, but that was extinguished by their own hand, as some calamitous defending allowed Nicolas Kuhn to restore Celtic’s two goal cushion just before the hour.
They saw the game out easily enough from there, as Brendan Rodgers and his men look to win back the one trophy that eluded them last season.
Here are the talking points from Celtic Park…
Deputy Daizen rides to the rescue
There may have been some consternation among the Celtic support when they heard that striker Kyogo Furuhashi had missed out on the squad altogether for this one, with the forward still nursing the shoulder issue that forced him off at Easter Road last week. They needn’t have worried.
The returning Adam Idah wasn’t deemed ready to start, so Maeda was shifted from his usual duties on the left to be deployed through the centre.
It’s hardly unfamiliar territory to him in fairness, given that he plays centrally for his country, and he showed here that he was right at home as he terrorised the Hibs defence from the get-go with his running off the shoulder in behind their leaden footed back three.
His first goal came at the end of a good passing move down the Celtic right, with Kuhn playing Reo Hatate in behind Jordan Obita and the midfielder getting his head up to pick out the clever movement of Maeda across the front post.
He still had some work to do, but he managed to hook a composed finish across goalkeeper Josef Bursik and into the net to set the tone for the day early on.
The second was simplicity itself, as a perfectly judged ball over the top from Kuhn sent Maeda haring in behind to beat Bursik to the ball and prod home.
It was great striker play from Maeda for all of Hibs’ faults, and he showed here he is a more than capable auxiliary forward should he be required.
Hibs a shambles at the back
Hibs manager David Gray had spoken about making his side harder to play through prior to this game after the lesson that Celtic dished out to his men last week, but the changes he made fell firmly into the rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic category.
If anything, his back three here were even easier for Celtic to poke holes in, with Marvin Ekpiteta in particular failing to recognise danger or stick with the runs of Maeda.
The last thing Gray would have wanted was to give Celtic another two goals of a head start, but they did just that with some really poor defending. Celtic are the best side in the country of course, and are looking particularly impressive at the moment in their attacking play, but the Hibs resistance was meek in those early knockings.
They did rally with the goal from Kukharevych, a stunning diving header from a Martin Boyle set piece after Cameron Carter-Vickers had gone through the big striker in an aerial challenge, and that seemed to settle them down and give them some belief that they could actually compete with Celtic on the day.
They then conspired to shoot themselves in the foot once more though in spectacular fashion at the start of the second half, as the hapless Ekpiteta failed to look before selling Bursik a little short with a backpass, and his attempted square ball only found the foot of Kuhn to send the ball trickling into the net.
It rather summed up the issues they are having in their rearguard at the minute, with a lack of understanding and some real sloppiness the hallmarks of the Hibees just at the minute.
Celtic denied a penalty?
The incident became something of a footnote to the game after Celtic ran out comfortable winners, but the home support were infuriated in the first half as James Forrest went darting into the Hibs area and seemed to be bundled to the ground by a combination of two Hibs defenders who were desperately trying to get back at him.
It looked a decent claim in real time, but referee Kevin Clancy pointed instead to the corner flag, and there probably wasn’t quite enough in it to get over the ‘clear and obvious error’ bar for the VAR team to recommend an on-field review.
It may have been a good example in fact of how new head of refereeing operations Willie Collum has tried to pare back VAR interventions this season. Still, you’ve seen them given.
Idah makes triumphant return
The rousing reception that Idah received from the Celtic Park crowd when he came on to replace Forrest told you everything about the big man’s impact during the second half of last season, and was quite the contrast to the rather muted fanfare that greeted his original loan signing.
Despite having a full pre-season behind him and having come off the bench for Norwich City last weekend, Rodgers said before the game that his fitness wasn’t quite up to scratch yet, but that will come, and the Celtic fans will be looking forward to him justifying the hefty transfer fee that their club shelled out to bring him back to Glasgow.
Kuhn continues to improve and impress
It wouldn’t be unfair to say that the German winger struggled to show the Celtic support what he was really all about last season after arriving in January with fitness issues of his own, but he almost looks a different player at the start of this campaign.
As well as his quick feet and direct running, he has an eye for a pass, as evidenced by his ball to Maeda for Celtic’s second here, and he was rewarded for his relentless industry with a goal himself after applying pressure to Bursik.
He seems to have finally found his feet in Scottish football, and is showing why he was so highly regarded in his homeland as a youngster.
