Kyogo Furuhashi admits he fancied a chance at a hat-trick against Rangers but heaped praise on his Celtic team-mates for their part in his derby double.
The Japanese hitman made it five goals in three games against Michael Beale's side after he rescued a point in January at Ibrox before netting a double to win the Viaplay Cup for Ange Postecoglou's side. It was a first goal against Rangers at Parkhead for the 28-year-old when he opened the scoring last weekend before capitalising on a Ben Davies error to make it a brace.
Kyogo now has a whopping 28 goals in all competitions for Celtic this campaign and looks set to add another medal to his trophy haul with Postecoglou's men twelve points clear and two games to go prior to the split. But the forward explained his thinking behind his derby double and admits he would have loved a go at a trio of goals.
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He told Celtic TV: "To be honest, I was hoping to get a shot at it if I had the chance [hat-trick].
"But first of all our priority for the team is to win. I work for the team and I hope to get that chance in that circumstance."
On the first goal, he added: "I'm moving naturally and without thinking. When Matt O'Riley broke through vertically with the ball, I repositioned myself in a place where I could control the ball no matter where it came.
"I then composed myself, controlled the ball and fire the shot. The shot went in beautifully so that was very nice."
On the second goal, he commented: "When Jota was about to cross the ball, I was running around trying to get a good position in the area. The cross ball was blocked but my thought afterwards was how I could take the shot after recovering the ball.
"Then the ball rolled to me at a really perfect moment and I was happy to score."
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