Celtic Park, Glasgow
Sunday, February 20, 2011
CELTIC…3
(Hooper 17, 28, Commons 70)
RANGERS…0
CELTIC extended their lead over Rangers at the top of the SPL to eight points after destroying their city rivals 3-0 in Paradise.
Gary Hooper struck a double in the first-half as Neil Lennon’s side dominated from the off. The Hoops comfortably soaked up any pressure exerted by the Ibrox side after the break before Kris Commons sealed the victory with a swerving strike 20 minutes from time.
With Celtic going into the match on a 16-game unbeaten run it was little surprise that there was only one change to the Hoops’ starting XI from the team that beat Dundee United last weekend.
Perhaps mindful of his match-winning contribution when the city rivals met at the New Year, Lennon opted to select Georgios Samaras in attack at the expense of Anthony Stokes.
It was a typically frenetic opening to the match with both teams eager to deny one another space, leading to a congested midfield and few chances.
Scott Brown was soon involved in the thick of the action, bursting through the middle, only to be felled by a reckless lunge by derby debutant Kyle Bartley, resulting in the first booking of the afternoon going the way of the on-loan Arsenal youngster.
When Celtic did manage to string some passes together, though, they looked the more threatening, particularly when Hooper got on the ball.
And a piece of individual brilliance from the striker broke the deadlock in the 17th minute. Latching on to a powerful Kris Commons pass, he left David Weir standing with a sublime first-touch, before firing the ball past McGregor.
The Hoops threatened to double their tally with several dangerous forays forward before Rangers replied with their first shot of the game, Nikica Jelavic firing over from the edge of the area.
Just over 10 minutes later Celtic doubled their advantage. A fine sweeping move saw Samaras slide a pass through to the rampaging Emilo Izaguirre.
The Honduran beat the offside trap and picked out the outstretched Hooper at the back-post, who did brilliantly to steer the ball home.
Rangers were reeling and Commons should have done better when Ledley set him up at the edge of the area, the winger not connecting cleanly and dragging his effort wide.
For the remainder of the half, the Hoops looked content to protect their lead and utilise Hooper’s pace on the break. Accordingly, the visitors enjoyed more possession but did little with it. The best they could muster were tame efforts from distance from Steven Naismith and Jelavic.
Rangers came out after the break desperately looking for a way back into the match. From Davis’ cross, Jelavic should perhaps have done better than glance a header wide of the far post.
Yet, minutes later, the Hoops were agonisingly close to grabbing a third. Samaras did well to spin past Weir and dig out a cross to the far post. McGregor could only get a fingertip to it, allowing Scott Brown to loop a header towards the unguarded net, only for Papac to head off the line.
At the other end, El-Hadji Diouf then passed up the visitors’ best chance of the match. The on-loan forward found space on the box from Kyle Lafferty’s pass but his chip was pushed away from danger by Fraser Forster.
After that, however, Rangers struggled to make any impression as an attacking force whatsoever and Celtic sealed the points with another spectacular strike from Commons.
Collecting Hooper’s pass, he cut inside Madjid Bougherra before unleashing a swerving drive which deceived McGregor and found the net.
With Celtic Park bouncing in celebration, Ki, who had replaced the injured Beram Kayal nearly added number four with a fizzing shot which McGregor could only push over.
It would be the final effort of the match as Lennon’s side coasted to a vital victory in the title race.
CELTIC (4-4-2) Forster; Wilson, Majstorovic, Mulgrew, Izaguirre; Brown, Kayal (Ki 60), Ledley, Commons (Forrest 80); Samaras, Hooper (Stokes 85)
Not Used: Zaluska, Juarez, McCourt, Rogne, Forrest
RANGERS (4-5-1) McGregor; Whittaker, Bougherra, Weir, Papac; Diouf (Healy 75) Davis, Bartley, Edu, Naismith (Lafferty 46), Jelavic
Not Used: Alexander, Fleck, Foster, Weiss, Hutton
Website Man of the Match: Gary Hooper
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