Celtic warm up for Ibrox with cup stroll
● Rodgers’ men breeze into the Betfred Cup semis with clinical victory over Dundee
ated the move with a superb tackle to dispossess Kerr and send Kieran Tierney scampering down the left. The fullback’s cutback picked out Forrest who slid his sixth goal of the season low beyond Bain from around 14 yards.
Leigh Griffiths tested Bain with a dipping effort from around 22 yards at the start of the second half, the ‘keeper doing well to touch it wide, as Celtic showed no sign of loosening their grip on the tie.
In truth, they were already in cruise control with Dundee exhibiting no signs they were capable of mounting a recovery mission.
There was a worrying moment when Wolters went down after catching a stray arm in the throat from Ntcham. It was an accidental collision but the Dundee player was in considerable distress. He required lengthy treatment and although he finally got back to his feet, he was subsequently replaced by Roarie Deacon.
The visitors did occasionally burst into life again and Forrest was denied when his shot was well saved by Bain.
Celtic’s appetite for more goals was renewed in the closing stages. Mcgregor made it 3-0, guiding a left-foot shot beyond Bain, before Forrest completed the one-sided action in stoppage time, claiming his second goal of the night with a fine strike.
It was a mere appetiser for the main courses of the Old Firm battle and Champions League challenge which face Celtic over the next seven days, but their hunger for victory was undiminished as they strolled into the Betfred Cup semi-finals at the expense of Dundee.
The Scottish champions’ undefeated domestic run under Brendan Rodgers now stretches to 56 games and will have lasted over 500 days by the time they arrive in Govan to confront Rangers on Saturday.
First-half goals from Scott Sinclair and James Forrest imposed their authority on Neil Mccann’s outclassed and outgunned side before late strikes from substitute Callum Mcgregor and Forrest again emphasised their superiority.
Celtic have now played six ties in this tournament since Rodgers’ arrival – they have won them all, scoring 20 goals in the process and conceding none. This was their first away tie in that sequence but they never looked likely to suffer a first defeat at Dens Park since 1988.
Even dominance of the scale Celtic have imposed on Scottish football under Rodgers comes with degrees of priority. It’s fair to say the Betfred Cup wouldn’t be top of that list, a status underlined by the startling increase in the club’s revenue on the back of Champions League participation which they revealed in their annual accounts published a few hours before kick-off at Dens.
But even with six changes to his starting line-up – Jozo Simunovic, nursing a swollen knee, and Moussa Dembele were among those omitted as Saturday’s first Old Firm showdown of the season looms large – it was a powerful indication of the resources at the Celtic manager’s disposal.
Dedryck Boyata, inset, absent since suffering a knee injury in pre-season training, made his first appearance of the campaign. The Belgian international, rated so highly by Rodgers, joined Nir Bitton in the latest of several central defensive partnerships deployed by Celtic in recent weeks.
Celtic were typically purposeful, setting a tempo which left no room for doubt over their determination to retain the first of the trophies they claimed under Rodgers last season.
Dundee had barely touched the ball when Olivier Ntcham saw his low shot from 20 yards touched wide by Scott Bain.
While Celtic largely hogged possession and controlled territory, Dundee were not without their own opportunities in the first half which, had they been less feckless in front of goal, might have painted a different picture than the comfortable 2-0 advantage the visitors eventually secured before the interval. Dutch winger Randy Wolters saw his shot from Cammy Kerr’s cross deflect wide off Mikael Lustig, before some slack play from the ring-rusty Boyata allowed Faissal El-bakhtaoui to send A-jay Leitch-smith bursting through the middle. The on-loan Shrewsbury Town player failed to make the most of the chance, hesitating fatally to allow Scott Brown to get back and cut out the danger.
As Celtic continued to pass and probe patiently at the other end, it was a burst of dynamism from Sinclair which led to their 25th-minute breakthrough. The winger went through the gears as he eluded challenges from Wolters and Lewis Spence on his way into the penalty area where he was brought down by Jack Hendry. It was a simple decision for referee John Beaton and Sinclair took the penalty himself, beating Bain despite the Dundee ‘keeper guessing correctly and diving to his left.
El-bakhtaoui was presented with a glorious chance to equalise for the hosts five minutes later when Wolters cross from the right eluded a flat-footed Celtic defence to land at the feet of the French forward. But with only Craig Gordon to beat from around six yards, El-bakhtaoui mistimed his effort horribly and the ball dribbled harmlessly wide.
The significance of the fluffed opportunity emerged in the shape of Celtic doubling their lead three minutes before the break. Bitton initi-