Celtic are back to winning ways in the Scottish Premiership.
After a gruelling week, Martin O’Neill’s men have secured a professional win over Falkirk to start February on the right footing.
January signing Tomas Cvancara scored a fine header to open his account with his new club, before Benjamin Nygren’s second-half peach gave the Hoops a two-goal cushion.
The win keeps the pressure on Hearts and Rangers in the title race, with the latter dropping points against Hibs earlier in the day.
Five things we learned as Celtic beat Falkirk
Tomas Cvancara is off the mark for Celtic!
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Celtic’s King Julian
Julian Araujo’s performance was a major positive – the right-back really looks to have found his form in a Celtic shirt.
The Mexican international is on loan from Bournemouth without an option to buy. Whilst Colby Donovan has impressed when filling in in Europe, Araujo’s display today showed his class and pedigree.
In both halves, he was a threat from both deep and advanced positions, rightfully earning the stadium Man of the Match award.
A brilliant moment for Tomas Cvancara
Goals are important at any time – but on his first Celtic start, the importance of Tomas Cvancara opening the scoring is impossible to overstate.
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It was a fine header too. From Kieran Tierney’s cross, the big man nodded it out of the reach of Scott Bain, earning a rousing applause from the Celtic Park crowd.
Benji hits 15 in style
Benjamin Nygren’s stunning finish oozed confidence, taking his tally for the season up to 15.
The Super Swede’s knack for goals is becoming more and more priceless by the week. The Hoops aren’t short on options in that area, but Nygren is undroppable at the moment.
His race with Tawanda Maswanhise for top scorer in the Scottish Premiership is seemingly bringing out the best in both.
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Celtic take a while to get clicking
Unlike on their previous two visits to Celtic Park, Falkirk more than made a game of it.
Barney Stewart forced an excellent save from ex-Bairn Kasper Schmeichel in the first half, and the visitors’ wastefulness became a theme.
The difference in quality was shown in the clinical nature of Cvancara’s opener, the timing of which was a sucker punch for John McGlynn’s side.
Solidarity shown with the Green Brigade
Before the game, the North Curve section of the stadium unveiled a large banner in solidarity with the Green Brigade.
It showed Celtic’s chief executive Michael Nicholson, head of finance Chris McKay and head of security Mark Hargreaves as The Traitors, inspired by the TV series.
The Green Brigade released a statement this week, saying that they saw “no end in sight” for their indefinite stadium ban which has been in place since November.
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