Celtic hammered Ross County 4-0 in the Scottish Premiership this afternoon, moving six points clear of rivals Rangers at the top of the table.
It was a brilliant day at Paradise with the sun shining, fans in strong voice and, most importantly, the Bhoys on top form.
Giorgos Giakoumakis was the hero of the day with his second hat-trick in the space of the month. He also assisted Daized Maeda’s latest Celtic goal.
Ange Postecoglou’s Bhoys are now in an imperious position with seven games of the league season remaining, although the Ibrox side have a chance to peg us back to three points tomorrow.
What did we learn from today’s game? Here are three of the big talking points…
Ange predicted Celtic would peak at the end of the season – it’s coming true
Celtic absolutely cruised today’s encounter. We were 3-0 up by the time they had a man sent off and the rest of the game was a glorified training exercise.
But the intensity and quality apparent in the opening half an hour is what to look at here. We went for their throat, in a football sense, from the off and never looked like dropping points today.
What’s more, Postecoglou had the luxury of subbing off key players for a rest, without really weakening the team. The options the manager has now are quite ridiculous, with David Turnbull back in action and Kyogo Furuhashi on the way.
You may remember the manager talking a couple of weeks ago that he thought the extra time between matches could help see the team peak for the closing stages of the campaign. On today’s evidence, he wasn’t wrong.
Celtic get a goal difference boost
Given the tight nature of the title race, we know it could come down to goal difference on the final day. If so, Celtic hold a key advantage and today boosted it further.
Celtic now have a plus-15 lead over Rangers in goals, having played a game more. Over seven games that is going to be hard for them to claw in. This is as good as a point right now ahead.
Despite the game effectively being over in the first half, Celtic kept pushing for goals today. I know that is baked into the football Postecoglou wants to play, but it shows they are relentlessly pursuing this goal advantage.
This was a perfect day for the Bhoys.
Giorgos Giakoumakis in the running for top scorer
The Greek striker has moved on to 12 goals for the season at Celtic, which is an excellent return given he missed large chunks of the campaign due to injury. You get the sense there’s more coming too.
Only Liel Abada (14) and Kyogo Furuhashi (16) have scored more than him in the Celtic squad this season. The physical poacher has a genuine chance of ending the season as our top scorer. I’m almost positive this will be a motivating factor for him.
He’s in ridiculous form and will be hard to shift from the centre-forward position in the remaining games, even when Kyogo returns.
Giakouamakis just has that in the box knack for scoring that is undeniable when the stakes are so high.
In other news, Report: The modest fee Celtic will get from Liverpool for Ben Doak.
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