2022-04-09: Celtic 7-0 St Johnstone, League

Match Pictures | Matches: 2021 – 2022

Trivia

KO: 15:00; Saturday Match 33 of 38, last match before league split
Sold out long in advance!
Celtic 6pts in front and now are 19+ goal difference v Sevco who won 4-0 v St Mirren.
Kyogo returns for first match apperance after long injury. Giakoumakis goes off injured after a cracking goal.
Celtic closing in on league title after last week’s victory over Sevco away. Scottish Cup semi final v Sevco next Sunday.
Post-split will be Celtic, Sevco, Hearts, Dundee Utd, Ross County & M’well. Great end of split.
Credit to St Johnstone: Easter Egg collection today for kids who might not receive one next week. Great to see some dropped off from the visiting supporters. Much respect to them.
Min applause held for passing of young Celtic fan Megan Reid on 17th min. RIP
Celtic and Sevco have now both been awarded 7 League penalties this season. Celtic have been awarded none when trailing and Sevco have been awarded none when leading. The combined scores when PK’s were awarded are 13-0 for Celtic and 1-5 for Sevco.
Celtic and Sevco B sides are set to remain in the Lowland League for next season. The introduction of the teams this campaign was meant to be for one year only. However, a vote of the league’s clubs found 11-4 in favour of extending the experiment.
Celtic Chairman Dermot Desmond interview on Celtic TV has mixed response, but he has a thinly veiled blast at Sevco.
Sevco have apologised to Celtic over the bottle-throwing incidents from Sunday’s encounter between the sides at Ibrox. A broken bottle was thrown onto the pitch, while Celtic players had to dodge a missile and a member of the club’s backroom staff was hit by one. Celtic’s supporter liaison officer confirmed an apology was made when asked on social media.
Celtic fans are using “Old Firm” to reference Sevco alone after their bizarre campaign last week.
Reports: Burnley, Wolves and Leicester City are keen on Celtic loanee Cameron Carter-Vickers.
Ex-Celt Kieran Tierney to undergo knee surgery; will miss rest of EPL season and is doubt for Scotland’s World Cup playoff in June.
VAR: SPFL clubs will vote on whether to introduce VAR on April 19.
TV: Govt proposal to privatise Channel 4.
Former Man City player and teammate of Joe Hart: Micah Richards insists he was on the edge of his seat watching Celtic beat Sevco. He was hugely impressed by Ange Postecoglou and reckons Celtic have a “special human being” in the dugout.
Panini has lost the contract with UEFA to be the stickers for Euro 2024 and Euro 2028, among others. Topps are set to take over.
Rugby: Tom Smith, an outstanding player for Scotland and Lions during the 1990s and 2000s, has died following a long battle with cancer. He was 50. RIP
David McKee, the children’s author and illustrator known for the brilliant Mr Benn series, has died at the age of 87. RIP
Grand national day.

Summary

Ange Postecoglu:
“They want this, they can taste it. They want to create something special for themselves and they’re not going to let it go now.”

Ange Postecoglou on possible complacency in his squad: “If any of that sort of thinking creeps in with anybody, they’ll get left behind. It’ll stand out in this environment.”

“We’ve got five games to go.… we don’t have to hold on to anything, we need to keep the accelerator down”.

Celtic Chairman Dermot Desmond:
“We want to be financially prudent in the way we run the club, we don’t want the club to get into a state where there the club goes into liquidation and there’s going to be a new Celtic. “We want our history to be continuous”

@joebloggscity of TheCelticWiki:
The Scoreline says its all, clearly the best performance of the season in an incredible day of wonderful goals, and likely the goal of the season in Scotland (and possibly the best anywhere seen this weekend).

The quality of the play was brilliant, with wonderful passing and even at the back, Celtic coped well with the pressing tactics employed by opposition. From 1-11 plus subs, brilliant all round. Giakoumakis scored from an incredibly acute angle too. Just brilliant.

Great to see Kyogo back BUT sadly Giakoumakis went off with a muscle injury hopefully will not keep him out of the match next week. Hatate scored the opener and Juranovic scored a penalty, and after the two had a tough game last Sunday, it was good to get their confidence back up.

Every goal scored today was by a player that wasn’t even here last season. Seven goals. Six different scorers. Nine goals in the last two games. Eight different scorers, seven of which were signed by Ange

Must temper the result as St Johnstone have been under the cosh & stress and only now has the pressure been released as there is now a good gap between them and bottom placed Dundee in the league, so really they weren’t pressing as hard as they otherwise would have been. They’ll likely still have to play a playoff now at end of season but now should be no longer in relegation spot.

Onwards to the big one next Sunday v Sevco!

@agentScotland: An emphatic performance from a very stylish Celtic once again, all their forward players having a hand in the goals, 9 points clear and now 23 goals to the good.

@Boyle_67:
Howling yesterday while Kyogo was waiting to come on everybody shouting for the ball to go out of play about 100 passes later O’Riley has bent it into the top bin for 6 nil. That’s it out of play lads on ye come Kyogo.

@ahgaggerty10:
Is it fair to say that today was the epitome of: Rip-roaring. Free-scoring. Never-boring. Glasgow Celtic!

@Celtic1967.com: 9 points clear ✅ 78 league goals scored (1st) ✅ 19 goals conceded (1st) ✅ B2B wins over Sevco ✅ Unbelievable recruitment ✅ Clear identity to the side 🏆 League Cup

B.A. O’Neill @BigAlTheFifer · Apr 9 With the Old Firm not playing until tomorrow, Celtic have a great chance to go 9pts clear and pile the pressure on. 3 pts is a must. Mon the hoops

Teams

Celtic

Formation 4-3-3

15Hart
88Juranovic
20Carter-Vickers
4Starfelt
3Taylor
18Rogic
Substituted forO’Rileyat 45′minutes
42McGregor
Substituted forMcCarthyat 74′minutes
41Hatate

Substituted forTurnbullat 55′minutes

Substituted forat 90+2′minutes
17Neves Filipe
Substituted forFuruhashiat 74′minutes
7Giakoumakis

Substituted forAbadaat 27′minutes
38Maeda

Substitutes

6Bitton
8Furuhashi
11Abada
14Turnbull
16McCarthy
21Ideguchi
29Bain
33O’Riley
56Ralston

Goals:
Assists:

Celtic

Formation 4-3-3

15Hart
88Juranovic
20Carter-Vickers
4Starfelt
3Taylor
18Rogic
Substituted forO’Rileyat 45′minutes
42McGregor
Substituted forMcCarthyat 74′minutes
41Hatate

Substituted forTurnbullat 55′minutes

Substituted forat 90+2′minutes
17Neves Filipe
Substituted forFuruhashiat 74′minutes
7Giakoumakis

Substituted forAbadaat 27′minutes
38Maeda

Substitutes

6Bitton
8Furuhashi
11Abada
14Turnbull
16McCarthy
21Ideguchi
29Bain
33O’Riley
56Ralston

Goals:

Hatate (8′ minutes),
Giakoumakis (22′ minutes),
Maeda (36′ minutes),
Juranovic (52′ minutes pen),
O’Riley (70′ minutes, 73′ minutes),
Abada (78′ minutes)

Assists:

Taylor (8′ minutes),
Neves Filipe (36′ minutes),
Turnbull (70′ minutes),
Juranovic (73′ minutes),
Maeda (78′ minutes)

St Johnstone

Formation 5-3-2

1Clark
19Rooney
Substituted forSangat 45′minutes
2Brown
6Gordon
4McCart
24Booth
8Davidson
Substituted forMacPhersonat 45′minutes
29Hallberg
Substituted forButterfieldat 77′minutes
14Middleton
Substituted forMayat 64′minutes
21Crawford
22Hendry

Substituted forBairat 64′minutes

Substitutes

5Cleary
7May
12Parish
15Gilmour
16Mahon
17Bair
18MacPherson
27Sang
34Butterfield

Ref: Andrew Dallas
Att:

Articles

Match Report (see below)

Pictures

Match Pictures

Match Links

Stats

CelticAway TeamSt Johnstone

Possession: Home84%; Away16%

Shots: Home23; Away1

Shots on Target: Home10; Away0

Corners: Home7; Away2

Fouls: Home3; Away5

Articles

BBC
By Thomas DuncanBBC Scotland

Last updated on

9 April 20229 April 2022.From the section Scottish Premiership
Reo Hatate sweeps in Celtic’s opener after just eight minutes
Reo Hatate swept in Celtic’s opener after just eight minutes and set the tone

Celtic are “not going to let go” of their Scottish Premiership lead after demolishing St Johnstone to move nine points clear, says manager Ange Postecoglou.

Reo Hatate, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Daizen Maeda put the leaders in total control at the break.

Josip Juranovic, Matt O’Riley’s double, and Liel Abada completed the biggest win of Postecoglou’s tenure.

The victory puts the pressure on Rangers, who face St Mirren on Sunday.

Reaction & as it happened

“If anyone watched our training session yesterday they would have seen there’s definitely no complacency,” the Celtic boss told BBC Scotland.

“I’ve just got to hold them back a bit so we don’t go too hard in training.

“They want this, they can taste it. The players want to create something special for themselves and they’re not going to let it go now.”

Meanwhile, St Johnstone stay 11th having had their advantage over bottom club Dundee cut to five points.

Celtic took a big step towards reclaiming the league crown with victory at Ibrox last week, but Postecoglou dismissed any notion his side would let their guard down in the final six games.

Every aspect of their performance showed he was right as they set a ferocious tempo from the start.

Hatate was denied brilliantly by Zander Clark just a minute before firing in the first goal from Greg Taylor’s cutback, and the chances kept coming as Tom Rogic shot straight at the St Johnstone goalkeeper from seven yards out.

But it wasn’t too long before Callum Booth gifted Celtic a second goal by passing straight to Giakoumakis, who rounded Clark and squeezed the ball in from close range.

Unfortunately for Celtic, the Greek striker limped off with a muscle injury minutes later but his absence did not check their momentum as Jota whipped in a fantastic cross for Maeda to nod in a third before half-time.

Despite making a double change at the interval St Johnstone were powerless to resist Celtic, and one of the replacements, Tom Sang, bundled over Hatate to give away a penalty just five minutes into the second half.

Juranovic converted with confidence to make it 4-0, and after a 19-minute lull, Celtic struck three goals in eight minutes to pile the misery on their toiling visitors.

Half-time replacement O’Riley headed in David Turnbull’s cross then curled a beautiful shot into the top corner three minutes later.

And Abada thumped in Celtic’s seventh after Maeda latched on to a pass over the top and touched the ball into his path.

The league leaders could have easily hit double figures as they racked up 23 shots and attempted over 950 passes in an emphatic message about their title intentions.
Man of the match – Reo Hatate
Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate
It could easily have been Matt O’Riley for his brilliant performance from the bench, but Reo Hatate was outstanding in everything he did before being withdrawn after the break
What did we learn?

It is hard to overstate just how dominant Celtic were. Nearly 1000 passes, countless good chances to win by more, and just one shot for St Johnstone all match. It was the type of performance which sets the tone for the run-in.

During the week Postecoglou emphasised he had a full squad desperate to play their part with no complacency allowed to set in after their derby win, and his players proved him right.

O’Riley was outstanding off the bench and could have had a hat-trick while Abada was also terrific after coming on for Giakoumakis. David Turnbull got an assist, and Kyogo Furuhashi made his first appearance since Boxing Day. Every single player contributed.

On this performance, the league title is only heading in one direction.

As for St Johnstone, this is the kind of hammering that could seriously affect confidence over the final five games. Plenty of teams take heavy defeats to the Glasgow giants but they could not lay the merest of touches on Celtic.

They’re five points clear of the automatic relegation spot but six adrift of guaranteed safety. Davidson will need to get his players together to quickly shake off this performance as they prepare to scrap with the teams around them after the split.
What they said

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou: “I think the scoreline reflected our dominance. We knew it was a dangerous game – they have been in good form. It was important we started well.

“Like a lot of our games at home, we got on top early, but what was pleasing today was we finished off our work in the second half and made it a convincing performance for the whole 95 minutes.”

St Johnstone manager Callum Davidson: “It’s never nice to suffer that kind of scoreline, but Celtic were relentless for 90 minutes. It’s a very hard place to come and get any points, so we’ve got to look beyond this to the next five games. It is a huge five games for the club to stay in this league.

Match ends, Celtic 7, St. Johnstone 0.
90’+2′

Full Time

Second Half ends, Celtic 7, St. Johnstone 0.

90’+2′

Post update

David Turnbull went off injured after Celtic had used all subs.
90’+1′

Post update

Attempt missed. Liel Abada (Celtic) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high. Assisted by Matt O’Riley with a through ball.
88′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by Liam Gordon.
87′

Post update

Attempt missed. Matt O’Riley (Celtic) right footed shot from the right side of the box is too high. Assisted by David Turnbull.
84′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by James Brown.
81′

Post update

Attempt missed. Liel Abada (Celtic) right footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the right. Assisted by Daizen Maeda.
79′

Post update

Attempt missed. Kyogo Furuhashi (Celtic) right footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Liel Abada.
78′
Goal!

Goal! Celtic 7, St. Johnstone 0. Liel Abada (Celtic) right footed shot from very close range to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Daizen Maeda.
77′

Substitution

Substitution, St. Johnstone. Jacob Butterfield replaces Melker Hallberg.
74′

Substitution

Substitution, Celtic. James McCarthy replaces Callum McGregor.
74′

Substitution

Substitution, Celtic. Kyogo Furuhashi replaces Jota.
73′
Goal!

Goal! Celtic 6, St. Johnstone 0. Matt O’Riley (Celtic) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the top left corner. Assisted by Josip Juranovic.
70′
Goal!

Goal! Celtic 5, St. Johnstone 0. Matt O’Riley (Celtic) header from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by David Turnbull with a cross.
67′

Post update

Attempt missed. Matt O’Riley (Celtic) left footed shot from the right side of the box is close, but misses to the right. Assisted by Jota.
64′

Substitution

Substitution, St. Johnstone. Stevie May replaces Glenn Middleton.
64′

Substitution

Substitution, St. Johnstone. Theo Bair replaces Callum Hendry.
62′

Post update

Callum McGregor (Celtic) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
62′

Post update

Foul by Alister Crawford (St. Johnstone).

62′

Post update

Cameron Carter-Vickers (Celtic) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
62′

Post update

Foul by Callum Hendry (St. Johnstone).

61′

Post update

Attempt missed. Josip Juranovic (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right from a direct free kick.
60′

Post update

Greg Taylor (Celtic) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
60′

Post update

Foul by Tom Sang (St. Johnstone).
58′

Post update

Attempt missed. Liel Abada (Celtic) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Greg Taylor.
57′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by James Brown.
55′

Substitution

Substitution, Celtic. David Turnbull replaces Reo Hatate.
54′

Post update

Foul by Liel Abada (Celtic).
54′

Post update

Cameron MacPherson (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
52′

Post update

Goal! Celtic 4, St. Johnstone 0. Josip Juranovic (Celtic) converts the penalty with a right footed shot to the bottom right corner.
51′

Post update

Penalty Celtic. Reo Hatate draws a foul in the penalty area.
51′

Post update

Penalty conceded by Tom Sang (St. Johnstone) after a foul in the penalty area.
47′

Post update

Matt O’Riley (Celtic) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
47′

Post update

Foul by Melker Hallberg (St. Johnstone).
46′

Post update

Attempt missed. Jota (Celtic) left footed shot from a difficult angle on the left is close, but misses to the left.
46′

Post update

Attempt blocked. Jota (Celtic) right footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
45′

Substitution

Substitution, Celtic. Matt O’Riley replaces Tomas Rogic.
45′

Substitution

Substitution, St. Johnstone. Tom Sang replaces Shaun Rooney.
Second Half

Second Half begins Celtic 3, St. Johnstone 0.

45′

Substitution

Substitution, St. Johnstone. Cameron MacPherson replaces Murray Davidson.
45’+1′

Half Time

First Half ends, Celtic 3, St. Johnstone 0.

43′

Post update

Corner, St. Johnstone. Conceded by Josip Juranovic.
41′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by Jamie McCart.
41′

Post update

Attempt blocked. Liel Abada (Celtic) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked.
36′
Goal!

Goal! Celtic 3, St. Johnstone 0. Daizen Maeda (Celtic) header from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Jota with a cross.
33′

Post update

Offside, Celtic. Greg Taylor tries a through ball, but Jota is caught offside.
31′

Post update

Attempt missed. Jota (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Greg Taylor.
27′

Substitution

Substitution, Celtic. Liel Abada replaces Giorgos Giakoumakis because of an injury.
25′

Post update

Foul by Carl Starfelt (Celtic).
25′

Post update

Shaun Rooney (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
25′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by James Brown.
22′
Goal!

Goal! Celtic 2, St. Johnstone 0. Giorgos Giakoumakis (Celtic) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal.
21′

Post update

Corner, St. Johnstone. Conceded by Carl Starfelt.
20′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by Murray Davidson.
16′

Post update

Foul by Tomas Rogic (Celtic).
16′

Post update

Murray Davidson (St. Johnstone) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
13′

Post update

Attempt missed. Jota (Celtic) left footed shot from outside the box is just a bit too high.
13′

Post update

Attempt saved. Tomas Rogic (Celtic) left footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Cameron Carter-Vickers.
10′

Post update

Attempt missed. Giorgos Giakoumakis (Celtic) header from the centre of the box is high and wide to the left. Assisted by Jota with a cross following a corner.

10′

Post update

Corner, Celtic. Conceded by Zander Clark.
10′

Post update

Attempt saved. Reo Hatate (Celtic) right footed shot from outside the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Giorgos Giakoumakis.

8′
Goal!

Goal! Celtic 1, St. Johnstone 0. Reo Hatate (Celtic) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. Assisted by Greg Taylor.
7′

Post update

Attempt saved. Reo Hatate (Celtic) right footed shot from the centre of the box is saved in the centre of the goal. Assisted by Josip Juranovic with a through ball.
4′

Post update

Attempt missed. Melker Hallberg (St. Johnstone) left footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses the top left corner. Assisted by Shaun Rooney.
Kick Off

First Half begins.
Posted at 15:58 9 Apr

Post update

Lineups are announced and players are warming up.