How Celtic harassed Hibs in fantastic Premiership return... and where they must improve

Goals from debutant Daizen Maeda and Josip Juranovic were enough to see off Shaun Maloney's Hibees, who did pass up a great chance to take the lead early on.

Maeda's fellow January signing Reo Hatate started the match while James Forrest played for the first time in over a month and Jota's late cameo marked his return from six weeks out.

Here, The Celtic Way highlights some of the StatsBomb data from the game to give you a match report experience like no other.

Trendline/xG

The early Kevin Nisbet chance aside, Hibs offered virtually nothing in a creative sense. Indeed, the Scotland striker's miss made up almost 70 per cent of Hibs' cumulative xG.

Celtic, by contrast, kicked into gear straight after Nisbet's chance. Maeda put them ahead by converting the first of a quartet of chances before the 20-minute mark.

Juranovic's penalty made it 2-0 in the 25th minute and the Hoops had time for five more attempts before half-time (albeit all low quality).

Two chances stand out in the second 45: Hatate's effort three minutes after the break and Liel Abada's chance from a corner in the 56th minute. The latter, at 0.67 xG, was the best non-penalty chance of the game.

In terms of chances created, Celtic would have won this match 91 per cent of the time.

Shots 

Not for the first time this season, Celtic accumulated 20 non-penalty shots on goal.

Of those, Abada's chance was the highest-rated while Postecoglou's post-match reference to "wasteful" shooting is reinforced in the fact half of their attempts were outside the box and low-quality along with the more than a goal underperformance in xG.

Celtic's chances created as a result of corners

Two of Celtic's four best non-penalty chances took place in the box as a result of corners; the other two came directly after effective high-pressing (with one, naturally, Maeda's opener).

Nisbet's early miss was one of five shots Hibs managed to get off. All were in the Celtic box but none of the other four were quality chances.

Individually, Forrest and Abada tied for most shots with four. Directly following them was Hatate and Tom Rogic (three) with Juranovic (two) rounding out the top five.

Possession, passing & positions

Celtic's attacking intent and progressive nature is reflected in the average positioning resembling more of a 2-4-4 than 4-3-3 due to how high Rogic played and the advanced full-backs.

Maeda led the line ably on his bow (with his pressing, in particular, but more on that later) but actually spent the first half occupying spaces closer to the midfield than as a focal point. This changed after the break with the Japan international ensuring he was often high and central for his team-mates.

Hibs adopted a 3-4-3 and largely stuck to this shape throughout, even if it was probably much deeper than Maloney would have liked.

The visitors managed to out-pass Celtic (531-443) and enjoyed 56 per cent possession. The latter figure is notable as the first time since January 2021 that a domestic opponent saw more of the ball than the Hoops while it is the first time it has happened at Parkhead since the 3-1 win over Hearts in April 2016.

In terms of key passes, Juranovic and Hatate topped the charts with three although impressively the debutant's were all from open play. Greg Taylor was next up with two, both from open play, while Juranovic topped the overall xGChain.

Pressing

Unsurprisingly the flanks saw the most intense action with Celtic's left wing, in particular, a battleground.

That said, the half-spaces saw their fair share of combat as well as the central attacking areas. Indeed, Maeda's goal arrived directly as a result of effective pressing and although Hibs did pass the ball well the persistence of Celtic conjured up a few opportunities across the game.

The Hoops exerted more pressures and made more pressure regains than Hibs while, individually, the standout was Maeda. The 24-year-old registered 33 pressures, almost double that of any other player, as well as topping the lot for total duration too. 

Maeda was the main man for counter-pressing as well (this time more than twice that of anyone else) though it must be said Celtic's high and swift actions in that regard were impressive in general as the above counter-pressure heatmap suggests.

Defending

With Hibs offering very little going forward and Celtic stepping up to the plate to snuff them out when they did, there are plenty of positive defensive contributions to pick through.

Carl Starfelt earned a match rating of 9 from TCW's Tony Haggerty behind a tally of four tackles, four interceptions, seven aerial wins (88 per cent overall success), eight clearances and not allowing an opponent to dribble past him all evening.

His defensive partner Cameron Carter-Vickers equalled the latter statistic - as did six other Celts - with the American adding three tackles, six interceptions, four clearances and three aerial wins to his stat-sheet too. 

Elsewhere, Juranovic clocked up four tackles and four interceptions to go with his goal and set-piece creativity while Hatate (two tackles, three interceptions), Callum McGregor (three interceptions, one tackle) and Taylor (three interceptions) also enjoying positive displays.