Celtic defeated Rangers 2-1 as Brendan Rodgers’ side moved within fingertips of reclaiming their Scottish Premiership title with an important home win at Celtic Park.

Goals from Matt O’Riley and John Lundstram (an own goal) were enough for Celtic to seal all three points, despite Cyriel Dessers halving the deficit just minutes after the home side went two goals ahead. Things would get from bad to worse for Lundstram, as his wild challenge on Alistair Johnston was upgraded to a red card following a VAR review just minutes before half-time. Celtic had the chance to extend their lead through an O’Riley spot-kick, though Jack Butland saved the Dane’s tame effort. Both sides huffed and puffed, but Celtic held on for a narrow but important victory, which moved them six points clear with two games remaining.

Using StatsBomb data and metrics, The Celtic Way brings you a match report unlike any other…

Match stats + race chart

As the match stats show, Celtic largely dominated proceedings, judging by their possession, shots and xG total at full-time. Indeed, 66 per cent possession and 23 total shots would suggest a one-sided game, but Celtic’s wastefulness in front of goal almost punished them late on. Rangers’ only shot on target was Dessers’ headed goal, in what was a poor afternoon offensively from the visitors. On another day – if some players had their shooting boots on – Celtic would have won this game at a canter.

The race chart highlights a close and cagey game concerning xG before Celtic started to dictate.  Despite going two goals in front, Rangers stayed close to the hosts in this metric before Celtic pulled away in the second half, perhaps helped due to the man advantage in personnel. With the chances created for both sides, Celtic were given an 85 per cent probability of winning this game, whilst Rangers were awarded just four per cent. A draw was measured as an 11 per cent chance in proceedings.

Team line-ups, positions and passing

Celtic, as usual, lined up in their traditional 4-3-3 formation, which has hardly changed throughout this campaign. Joe Hart started between the sticks, whilst Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liam Scales and Greg Taylor made up the backline for the home side. Captain Callum McGregor started in the six, with Reo Hatate and O’Riley joining him in the engine room, whilst Kyogo Furuhashi led the line, assisted by Daizen Maeda and James Forrest on each wing.

Celtic’s passing network – if you know what you’re looking for in these diagrams – was a very positive showing from the champions when it comes to team performance, as the illustration highlights a connected unit from top to bottom. Somewhat surprisingly, the ‘front eight’ made a return, despite this being a Glasgow Derby, as only the centre-backs and the goalkeeper were positioned mostly in their own half.

Concerning OBV, it is clear to see that Celtic get a lot of joy from the right-hand side, judging by the passing networks. Indeed, the further right a player is positioned, the higher the on-ball value will be, as is the case with Carter-Vickers, Johnston, O’Riley and Forrest. McGregor – though central – was also effective in this area.

When looking at the statistics concerning OBV, it is clear that Johnston had joy when in possession at right-back. Indeed, he led both sides in this metric with 0.49 for 33 passes. O’Riley and Carter-Vickers had 0.25 and 0.21 respectively for their efforts, as Celtic’s right side found so much joy in this game for the majority of proceedings.

Sticking with Johnston, the right-back played a massive part in Celtic’s overall productivity in this match, as the key passes table suggests. He managed five – again a game-high – with a combined xG of 0.45. McGregor had four of his own, whilst Forrest, O’Riley and Taylor had three to their name.

Shooting

Going off of Celtic’s shot map, it was a match littered with opportunities for the home side to set down a marker in the league. Despite this, their finishing was poor, as only one of their two goals was scored by a Celtic player on the day. 23 shots in total can indicate either an off day with shooting or letting Rangers off the hook with missed opportunities, perhaps a mixture of both in equal measures.

Unlike in previous wins, a lot of Celtic’s shots were outside the box, which are low-scoring opportunities due to both defenders in the way and distance to the goal. If they had worked their chances into the penalty area, then perhaps more joy could have been achieved.

Though O’Riley’s shot from just inside the box masked a number of opportunities he failed to take advantage of in the game, it was the best moment in the game by far regarding footballing quality. Great football from Johnston, Forrest and McGregor set up the Denmark international, who took a touch to steady himself and the ball before rifling it past Butland in the Rangers goal at his near post. A difficult shot calculated at 0.05 in xG, it rose slightly to 0.28 in PSxG following the strike leaving his boot. A top-class goal from a top-class operator.

O’Riley was tied for the most shots on the day, too, alongside McGregor with five respectively. Forrest had four, whilst Kyogo had three. Hatate had two speculative efforts at goal, though to no avail.

Pressing and defending

As expected, Rangers outpressured Celtic by a total of 166 to 77. Despite this, they only managed 19 pressure regains compared to Celtic’s 14, indicating that the home side made arguably better use of their pressurising opportunities.

In terms of statistics for pressures, O’Riley led the way with 13, whilst Maeda and Kyogo had 12. As is to be expected at this stage now, Maeda led the pack with four counterpressures. A low score, but this is down to the fact that Celtic did not need to pressure as much due to their dominance in possession.

For combined tackles and interceptions, the captain was top as McGregor had a combined four, whilst O’Riley and Johnston had three. Carter-Vickers led the way in clearances with seven, whilst Taylor had six to his name. The latter had seven aerial duel wins despite his height disadvantage, indicating that he was up for the defensive fight at the back. Carter-Vickers had five, as Scales managed four.

Summary

Overall, a big win for Rodgers’ men, who can almost taste the league success that awaits them this coming week. Not a vintage display by any means, but the desired result was achieved, which effectively makes Celtic primed for domestic glory. Rugby Park awaits the would-be champions, though it is up to Rangers to not allow it to happen any earlier 24 hours prior against Dundee.

Whether it's Wednesday or Saturday, that Scottish Premiership trophy will be staying at Celtic Park for another year, thanks to Rodgers and his players.