Why Ibrox was Kyogo Furuhashi's final Celtic frontier

Kyogo Furuhashi's 16th goal of the season, and number 15 in the Scottish Premiership, could prove to be one of his most important strikes for Celtic even though it wasn't a match-winner. 

Not only did it salvage a point for the Hoops in a game which looked like it was going to end in defeat but it also allowed the 27-year-old to get a historical monkey off his back.

Scoring against Rangers is part in parcel of being a successful Parkhead striker and, while the Japan international has enjoyed an excellent 18 months since joining from Vissel Kobe in the summer of 2021, before the recent Glasgow Derby he had yet to find the net against Celtic's main domestic rivals.

In his first four derby appearances, Kyogo was unlucky in a variety of different ways. Against Rangers in August 2021 he was played out on the left wing to accommodate Odsonne Edouard and he then missed the following two derby victories due to a hamstring injury. 

After that he struggled, like most players did, in the Scottish Cup semi-final defeat last season before again having a quiet game when the two sides drew 1-1 at Parkhead in May.

And he went off with a shoulder knock only four minutes in to the thrashing the Hoops dished out at home in September.

However, his equaliser at Ibrox with two minutes left to play of normal time allowed him to tick yet another box. Historically, forwards at Celtic have added to their aura by being able to convert chances against Rangers.

Recent examples of players cementing themselves with derby goals include Moussa Dembele's hat-trick in the 5-1 trouncing in 2016 and Odsonne Edouard's dramatic curling effort at Ibrox to win a 2018 iteration of the fixture 3-2.

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For Dembele, it kick-started a season in which he went on to score 32 times in all competitions as they clinched an invincible treble as well as giving a mostly steady account of themselves in the Champions League.

He then followed that up with a less successful - but still fruitful - second campaign which led to him finding the back of the net 16 times and picking up another three trophies in the process before ultimately moving to Lyon at the end of the 2018 summer transfer window.

While Edouard had scored a few times before his first Glasgow Derby winner at Ibrox, the Frenchman properly arrived in the eyes of Celtic supporters when he netted that goal.

It would lead to him becoming the club's record signing that summer, moving from Paris Saint-Germain for £9million, where he would go on to win a further two trebles at Parkhead and would eventually leave for the English Premier League having scored 87 times and provided 38 assists across 179 appearances.

While Kyogo is more established than both of these men were before their first derby strikes due to his age and first-season League Cup final heroics, it is still an important monkey for him to get off his back. 

Earlier in the season some fans felt that the 25-year-old was not performing to his previously set high standards, despite his favourable goal return. Ange Postecoglou addressed criticism levelled at his centre forward recently, feeling it was unwarranted.

"I have just got to check and research when his lean spell was,” the Australian said. “There must have been 20 minutes I missed because all I know is that from the moment he arrived the guy has just been scoring goals and causing headaches for opposition teams.

"I don’t get this lean spell stuff. Maybe he set the bar high when he first started but there hasn’t been any time when I have felt that he has been struggling with form or confidence or impact because his impact goes beyond just the goals that he scores.

READ MORE: How Aaron Mooy swung derby v Rangers back in Celtic's favour

"But if you are just measuring it on goals? Mate, I would love to see his goals-per-minute ratio and see who matches up to it."

Nobody does. Kyogo is scoring a goal every 81 minutes in the league this season. He also leads all forward players in xG per shot and goals per 90 minutes.

There is no doubt about the forward's form now, with four goals in the last three games demonstrating he is back to his best, but there is also no longer the old adage of "he owes us a performance in these types of games" surrounding him when it comes to derbies.

There is, importantly, no chance of an Alfredo Morelos-esque statistic of going literally years without finding the net in a derby.

It is somewhat unfair that a striker is less likely to receive plaudits for a season that does include a strike in a derby, but that is just the way things are in Glasgow sometimes.

The former Vissel Kobe man was already on track for a successful campaign before his late equaliser at Ibrox but, if recent history is anything to go by, then that goal has just given him a real platform to make it a truly unbelievable season.

This piece is an extract from the latest Celtic Digest newsletter, which is emailed out every weekday evening with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from The Celtic Way team. 

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