Saturday afternoon’s Glasgow derby game could be Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi’s first real chance to make his mark on the fixture.
The 27-year-old arrived at Parkhead as one of Ange Postecoglou’s first additions last summer, and it turned out to be a very important one for the Hoops.
Kyogo finished the season as the club’s top goalscorer, notching 20 for the campaign, which was impressive considering he missed around three months out through injury.
He didn’t just score goals against smaller sides in the Scottish Premiership, though. The Japanese internationalist loved the big occasions, scoring in the Europa League and leading the Bhoys to Premier Sports cup success with a double in the final against Hibernian.
To me, the one fixture that it feels like the on-form striker hasn’t really had a crack at yet, through no fault of his own, is the Glasgow Derby.
During his first 12 months at Parkhead, Kyogo did feature against Rangers in three out of the five games that took place in the 2022/23 campaign.
However, if we take a think back to those games, a number of different circumstances show us that a fully fit and firing Kyogo Furuhashi as a striker, from the start of the game, hasn’t yet been unleashed against our rivals.
His first outing at Ibrox came in a 1-0 defeat last September. Famously, Kyogo started the game out of position on the left-hand side, with former striker Odsonne Edouard leading the line.
Later in the game, the ex-Vissel Kobe man was switched to his more natural position. Despite looking dangerous, the change came too late in the game to have a big enough impact.
The following two derby match-ups in February and March took place without Kyogo, who was still nursing a long-term hamstring injury.
The Celtic striker did eventually mark his return, though, and played in the 2-1 Scottish Cup loss and 1-1 draw against Rangers at the latter stages of the season.
However, both of those appearances came as he continued to recover from injury and was still getting back up to speed within Ange Postecoglou’s squad.
So far, the Japanese forward has started the new season off on incredible form, scoring six goals in the Hoops’ first five league fixtures.
And, for arguably the first time, he comes into a Saturday’s game, fully fit and on form, ready to make his mark on the famous derby fixture.
It is an extremely exciting prospect to be going into this game, with Kyogo leading the line at our free-flowing attacking best, making a brilliant start to the season.
Having yet to score against Rangers in his three outings, you would imagine the Celtic star is desperate to get off the mark in the fixture and tomorrow afternoon could bring that moment.
After scoring a hat-trick against Dundee United, Kyogo will undoubtedly be full of confidence and ready for the task ahead as he hopes to help fire Celtic to an early five-point advantage in the Scottish Premiership.
In other news, The key Celtic attacking choice Ange Postecoglou will have to make for Glasgow Derby.
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