Celtic warmed up for their midweek meeting against Bayern Munich with a thumping 5-0 victory over Raith Rovers in the Scottish Cup.
The Bhoys breezed into the quarter-finals of the competition as the gap in quality ultimately shone through at Celtic Park on Saturday night.
Celtic fans were concerned at the close of the January transfer window that a failure to replace Kyogo left them extremely short in attack.
But Daizen Maeda proved there’s absolutely nothing to worry about as the winger – deployed as a central striker against the Fifers – fired in a sensational hat-trick.
Yang Hyun-jun and Luke McCowan – both extremely impressive on the night – added the other goals in what was a dominant display by the Hoops.
67 Hail Hail have delivered the Celtic player ratings vs Raith Rovers below.
Celtic player ratings vs Raith Rovers
Viljami Sinisalo – 7
Clean sheet on his debut for the Finnish international. He only had one save to make and it wasn’t even on target. Dealt with Raith’s corners well.
Jeffrey Schlupp – 7
Took 15 minutes or so to adjust to his role at left-back and strolled it from thereon in. Good first start for the man on loan from Crystal Palace.
Liam Scales – 6
Got caught underneath an over-the-top through ball in the first-half that saw Raith in on goal. But he was hardly troubled across the entire match.
Dane Murray – 7
Brendan Rodgers was keen to see how the youngster would get on on his first start for Celtic. Again, it was the perfect game to build some confidence as he saw a lot of the ball and wasn’t required to defend very often.
Anthony Ralston – 7
Gave the ball away a few times in the first-half when making forward passes down the right wing. But he made up for that with a stunning cross for Yang to make it 4-0.
Callum McGregor (C) – 7
The ever reliable captain did not put a foot wrong in the centre of the park and put in yet another professional performance.
Paulo Bernardo – 6
Assisted Daizen Maeda with a clever little pass for Celtic’s first goal but had to be substituted on the 37th minute due to a knock sustained on his lower leg.
Luke McCowan – 8
Always extremely neat and tidy on the ball and makes difficult passes look utterly straightforward. Got himself into a dangerous area early in the second-half to score Celtic’s third and assisted Maeda’s hat-trick.
Yang Hyun-jun – 8
The South Korean can flatter to deceive at times but that wasn’t the case tonight. The winger did extremely well to race through and square for Maeda’s second goal before adding another assist for McCowan’s strike.
He then got on the scoresheet with a lethal first time finish after Anthony Ralston’s wonderful cross.
Nicolas Kuhn – 6
Extremely busy as always but perhaps not quite at his scintillating best. Jota replaced him after 65 minutes.
Daizen Maeda – 9
Deployed as a central striker this evening, the 27-year-old was unbelievable again. Finished well for the opening goal and took his second with equal aplomb.
Maeda then got his hat-trick in the 77th minute with a back post tap in that moved him onto 50 Celtic goals. Proving more and more that he has bags of quality to add to his relentless work ethic and running.
Reo Hatate (sub) – 6
The substitute started in midfield before moving to left-back when Schlupp was taken off in the second-half. An easy night’s work for the Japanese man.
Arne Engels (sub) – 5
Came on and did a job in midfield. Hit two free-kicks from distance but both sailed over the bar.
Jota (sub) – 5
Another half an hour under Jota’s belt as his fitness continues to improve.
Johnny Kenny (sub) – 5
Had a chance to get on the scoresheet but failed to get on the end of the cross.
Maik Nawrocki (sub) – 4
Handed some rare minutes off the bench and helped see out the game for Celtic.
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