How clinical Celtic relied on basics to wreck Rangers' derby hopes

Daizen Maeda's early effort put the Hoops ahead before counters from Ryan Kent and James Tavernier - via a penalty kick - put Michael Beale's hosts ahead.

With time ticking away, Kyogo Furuhashi calmly placed home his 17th goal of the campaign to rescue a point for the champions and maintain their nine-point and plus-20 goal difference lead at the top of the division.

Ange Postecoglou sprung a couple of surprises with his team selection for the match. Recent signing Alistair Johnston started at right-back ahead of Josip Juranovic while James Forrest got the nod at right wing with Liel Abada and Jota both on the bench. Reo Hatate returned to midfield after a stint as a full-back.

Juranovic saw game-time midway through the first half when Greg Taylor was forced off with a hamstring injury, while Abada, Jota, Giorgos Giakoumakis and Aaron Mooy were all utilised in the second half.

Here, The Celtic Way rounds up the best StatsBomb data from the game to give you a match report like no other...

xG/trendline

Rangers created the first chance of the match but it was a low-quality one. Celtic's first attempt was also the 'best' of the match from open play - Maeda's opening goal rated at 0.47 xG.

Despite the champions enjoying a fairly robust possession and territorial edge for much of the half, the hosts still garnered more chances with seven to Celtic's three post-opener. 

Of those seven, their two mid-to-high-quality opportunities were both from corners: headers from Malik Tillman in the 35th minute and Alfredo Morelos in the 47th.

After the break Rangers enjoyed four spells of chance creation without reply and scored from two - Kent's leveller (0.04 xG) and Tavernier's penalty.

The race chart shows that going behind spurred Celtic slightly and they themselves then created three opportunities without conceding one, albeit all three rated 0.07 xG.

Rangers offered little more attacking threat before the game finished but, conversely, Celtic registered theirs and the game's second 'best' chance with Kyogo's composed equaliser in the 88th minute (0.26 xG).

The final cumulative totals were 1.83-1.02 in favour of the hosts, suggesting both teams overperformed to varying degrees by scoring twice and that Tavernier's penalty had a massive impact on the result.

Our data provider estimates that, based on the chances each side created, Celtic would have lost this match 60 per cent of the time.

Shots

Celtic managed eight shots on this occasion - their fewest of the season in any competitive game and the second-fewest in the last calendar year (behind the six they managed against Bodo/Glimt in Norway).

Half of their attempts came in the Rangers box with half again in what could be termed close, central areas. Maeda's opener, given the positional context of the situation, could also be termed such.

Despite the much smaller sample size in shots taken, it is worth noting 50 per cent of Celtic attempts came from distance compared to the 40 per cent against St Johnstone (albeit of 20 shots) and 10 per cent against Hibs.

Regardless, as mentioned the champions still managed to manufacture the best two open-play chances of the match and took them both. 

The full breakdown of their efforts was as follows: two were on target, two missed and four were blocked. Allan McGregor made one save.

The hosts managed to create 15 attempts with 12 coming inside the Celtic box (including the penalty) and four in close, central areas.

Despite this dominance in terms of shots taken, they also could manage just two mid-to-high-quality chances with one of those being the spot-kick; the other, Tillman's header, was saved.

Eleven of Rangers' 15 shots were created from open play but, markedly, this includes none of the four close, central area attempts.

Those were all from set-pieces (three corner kicks and the penalty) while overall they had five on target, six off and four blocked with Joe Hart making three saves.

Fashion Sakala was the most regular shooter in the match with four attempts but his xG per shot was outdone by five other players including two Celts. 

Maeda and Kyogo - having enjoyed good chances and scored them with their only shots - were top dogs for open play xG per shot. Reo Hatate and Callum McGregor took the most shots in the Celtic team with two apiece.

READ MORE: Tony Haggerty's detailed Celtic player ratings from Ibrox

Passing, possession & positions

Celtic completed 467 of 570 pass attempts for an 82 per cent success rate - 10 per cent higher than Rangers (281 of 389) but also among the champions' worse returns so far this season and reinforcing Postecoglou's post-match verdict of 'slackness'.

The Hoops dominated possession to the tune of 60 per cent, less than usual in domestic football but not unexpected against the Ibrox side.

The pass network below gives a sense of where the game was played and who was most involved. The warmer the colour the more influential the player, while the thicker the passing lines the more passes between the players.

StatsBomb measures pass contributions in on-ball value (often referred to as OBV, a term breakdown can be read here).

The general 2-4-4 shape with Matt O'Riley pushing high is not an unfamiliar one but how congested the middle areas are in context with the depth of the frontline is notable.

Most Celtic nodes are a shade of blue - denoting a lack of true influence on proceedings - and in this regard debutant Johnston's contribution is impressive.

He emerged as the match's foremost starting player in terms of on-ball value (0.21), double that of the next best in Rangers full-back Borna Barisic although Mooy's impressive half-hour cameo did log 0.22. 

Both Cameron Carter-Vickers and Carl Starfelt - who also had the most touches in the game with 200 - joined Johnston and Mooy in returning a positive OBV score while eight of the Ibrox players did.

The Rangers network has been divided into first half vs second half. While individually there are no standouts - and no red nodes, given more credence to Johnston's performance - the notable point is the contrast between the two.

Amid the crowded maps (because they include the substitutes and the starters in the second network) the Ibrox side's second-half trend of going long to overload with Tavernier and Sakala out on the right wing against an underperforming Juranovic is clear. 

The thickness of keeper McGregor's node when it comes to direct balls out to that area reinforces this while they did not have much of a central focal point in the second 45 with this tactic bearing fruit for much of it.

After a match in which 11 different Celts played at least one key pass, there was a dearth of them in this one. Maeda and Hatate both managed two apiece with Mooy helping himself to one in his substitute's appearance.

Conversely, seven home players played at least one with Tavernier leading the game with four (two from open play).

Pressing and defending

Celtic made 135 pressures to the hosts' 179 and also made marginally fewer pressure regains (25 vs 28). Much of the intense battlegrounds were on the flanks.

Sakala was the game's most persistent presser with 33 followed closely by Kent (31) and Tillman (29). Maeda led the way for Celtic with 26 and also came in as the team-leader for total pressing duration.

Kent (eight) and Sakala (six) were the top two counter-pressers with Johnston (five) the leading Celt in both raw amount and total duration.

Johnston's defensive actions map vs Rangers (Image: StatsBomb)
In the traditional defensive metrics, Hatate and Johnston stood out. The former made a match-high six tackles to go with two clearances while the Canadian debutant made five tackles, a clearance and won his only aerial duel.

Elsewhere, Maeda (three tackles, two interceptions, two clearances and an aerial win) put in a good defensive display from the front and Carter-Vickers (an interception, nine clearances and six out of six aerial duels) was also in good form.