Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
GOING TO THE ‘WELL AGAIN..
Ange’s Bhoys are forced to dig deep to see off gritty challenge
GOALS from Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda saw Celtic claim a 13th win in 14 league outings and cement their sevenpoint lead in the table.
Motherwell made them fight. The Steelmen have been having issues of late but they hung in there.
Sub Ross Tierney (inset) netted to make it a tense finale for the title pacesetters but there would be no further slips from the champions.
Smoke clouded the stadium at kick-off due to a pyro display in the away end but the opportunity spurned by Kevin van Veen just three minutes in was crystal clear.
Stephen O’donnell sprung the Dutchman with a through pass and he sauntered around a stranded Joe Hart.
However, with the target at his mercy, van Veen knocked his effort against a post from a tight angle.
The Steelmen would pay heavily as Kyogo opened the scoring.
It was the Japanese’s name on the scoresheet but it was all down to the tenacity of Matt O’riley as he simply refused to give up a ball which looked in the control of Callum Slattery in his own box. Keeping his composure having won the tackle, the Danish Under-21 ace spotted Kyogo bang in front of the target and his square ball offered a simple tap-in.
It was a horror goal for the home team to lose and Jota’s drive over from the edge of the box soon afterwards suggested Celtic wanted to quickly press home their advantage.
Having hunted his range with the earlier effort, Jota then used chest control before smashing a volley into the home No.1’s midriff.
Despite their grip on the affair, Celtic were unable to add to their tally before the break with the best chance coming from Aaron Mooy’s cross into the box which Reo Hatate couldn’t reach.
Just before half-time, VAR had a look at a short spat involving the Hoops midfielder and O’donnell after the pair jostled on the deck. Willie Collum was given word from HQ that no serious offences had been committed.
The second half began lively. O’donnell profited from a breakaway to have a shot from the edge of the box into the gloves of Hart.
Jota had a strike deflected over and, just before the hour, the Portuguese was denied what would have been a goal of the season contender by the tightest of offsides. Kyogo produced mesmeric holdup play and a magnificent through pass to send the winger scampering clear and his sublime dink at full pace was lifted over Kelly and into the net.
Unfortunately for the visitors, VAR backed up the offside flag from assistant Dougie Potter and the score stayed at 1-0.
Sub Giorgos Gaikoumakis, who had taken over from Kyogo, was unable to adjust his feet after a Jota cross was flicked by the backtracking Ricki Lamie and the ball bounced over.
Motherwell sub Louis Moult came even closer when his header from a Matt Penney cross rattled into the turf and lifted just inches over the bar.
Within seconds, Ange Postecoglou’s men had sealed it.
Sub David Turnbull’s clipped pass sent Maeda racing clear and he drilled home.
There was some drama as another sub Tierney survived a VAR offside check after pouncing to net a late volley from a Sean Goss free-kick but Celtic saw it through.