How even off-colour Celtic still had too much quality for dogged Dundee

Ange Postecoglou's men took full advantage of closest rivals Rangers' slip-up at Tannadice earlier in the day as a Giorgos Giakoumakis hat-trick accounted for bottom-of-the-table Dundee at Parkhead.

Danny Mullen and Ryan Sweeney's goals made a contest of it, with both Dark Blues strikes coming via set-pieces.

The Hoops manager made three changes from the midweek defeat to Bodo/Glimt with Giakoumakis, Anthony Ralston and Reo Hatate coming in for Liel Abada, Greg Taylor and Tom Rogic.

Here, The Celtic Way picks out the most important StatsBomb data from the game for you...

xG/shots

Celtic's cumulative xG crept up steadily enough throughout the first half, though primarily with a clutch of low-quality chances. That changed in the 10 minutes up to half-time with two goals and five of the Hoops' best seven chances coming in that spell.

Giakoumakis stole the headlines with three poacher's finishes - all his trademark one-touch conversions from the centre of the box. Despite the net being found five times in the match, Daizen Maeda's 36th-minute miss was rated the game's best chance at 0.85 xG.

Dundee scored twice from four shots, with Sweeney's goal clocking just 0.05 xG. In terms of chances created, the Hoops would have won this game 96 per cent of the time.

Individually, Giakoumakis led the way with six shots. He was followed by Maeda (five) and Hatate (four).

Possession, passing and positions

Celtic's average shape was generally in keeping with seasonal trends to date, with the full-backs pushed up, wingers staying wide and the striker providing a clear focal point. In the seocnd half, virtually every outfielder pushed up higher on average as the Hoops kept up the pressure and Dundee offered little going forward.

All of the starting XI got heavily involved in play (dark red and thick nodes) while individually Jota played the most key passes with five, albeit three were from set-pieces. Callum McGregor's four, conversely, were all from open play.

Pressing and defending

As usual, the most intense battlegrounds were on either. Jota nudged out Maeda and Ralston for most persistent presser while Celtic's high counter-pressing is reflected in both wingers tying - perhaps surprisingly with Carl Starfelt - at the top of that chart.

Defensively, Jota's five tackles were a team high total with Cameron Carter-Vickers and Ralston following him for defensive contributions with four combined tackles and interceptions. Ralston allied his numbers to a 100 per cent aerial duel success and an assist for the winner, while Carter-Vickers did not allow himself to be dribbled past but clocked a poor 40 per cent success rate for aerial duels.

Elsewhere, Josip Juranovic's latest outing at left-back featured relatively subpar numbers both in terms of shackling his man and aerially (where he was often targeted by Dundee long balls) but he did finish second to Ralston in the xGChain, while Carl Starfelt's four fouls might have drawn some ire but the Swede generally continued putting up solid numbers with eight clearances and eight aerial wins.