The scheduling of this coming weekend’s Scottish Premiership matches means Ange Postecoglou and his Celtic team can play the pressure game in the title race with a victory over Hibernian.
Celtic have the tougher assignment in the next round of matches, playing away to fourth-placed Hibernian at Easter Road before Rangers take on Motherwell at Ibrox.
However, victory against Shaun Maloney’s side wouldn’t just be another three points, it would place serious pressure on Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s outfit before playing in front of their own fans.
They’d be six points behind before kick-off against the Steelmen, knowing more dropped points would have the stadium in an uproar.
Giorgos Giakoumakis yesterday admitted players do pay attention to other team’s results before kick-off, it’s only natural.
Celtic passed that gut-check yesterday despite the hard-fought nature of the win at home to Dundee. They knew they had a big opportunity to extend the points lead and lived up to the billing.
This title race is going to have plenty of twists and turns ahead, it’d be foolish to think otherwise. However, Celtic can turn the screw here, make no mistake.
Easter Road has been a difficult place for Celtic to go to in recent years, however, we did manage to pick up a 3-1 win there earlier this season thanks to goals from Anthony Ralston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kyogo Furuhashi.
We’ve also emerged as winners in the other two games against Hibs this term at Celtic Park and Hampden.
There’s no reason to think the Bhoys can’t put in another professional performance here and really slice open that gap at the top of the league before Rangers play next.
In other news, Joe Hart and Josip Juranovic respond as Giorgos Giakoumakis sends Instagram message to Celtic supporters.
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