Celtic's 30-minute Kilmarnock blitz & Rocco Vata's underrated cameo

Kyogo Furuhashi put the Hoops ahead in the seventh minute after capitalising on a Fraser Murray mistake before Daizen Maeda doubled the advantage with a cushioned header from Alistair Johnston's cross to the back post.

Matt O'Riley grabbed a brace of his own to double his goal tally for the season before half-time, with Liam Donnelly grabbing a consolation for the hosts just before the whistle sounded.

Ange Postecoglou made three changes to his starting XI for the trip to Ayrshire. Yuki Kobayashi, Tomoki Iwata and Sead Haksabanovic came in for Cameron Carter-Vickers, Aaron Mooy and Jota.

Mooy was among the substitutes and featured from the 69th minute alongside David Turnbull and young prospect Rocco Vata.

Oh Hyeon-gyu was given a full half in place of Furuhashi with South Korea national boss Jurgen Klinsmann watching from the stands, while B-team midfielder Ben Summers made his debut in the dying stages.

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

xG/trendline

"Outstanding first half," Postecoglou said post-game. "The boys were bringing their football, our attitude and our intent.

"Second half we got a bit sloppy, never really got into any sort of rhythm, lot of stop-starts."

The Celtic manager rarely calls it wrong in the immediate aftermath of a match and this one was no different. The trendline reflects the champions' electric start, with the biggest spike coming as a result of Furuhashi's missed penalty in the 22nd minute. That's the 'outstanding' part.

'Sloppy' came later. The race chart shows Celtic had a shot in the 40th minute but then did not manage to create another until the 76th; the result is the long period of flatlining.

Kilmarnock's flurry of shots near the end of the first period - including Donnelly's goal - accounted for almost 40 per cent of their cumulative xG and they too had long periods of flatlining (one in each half, in fact).

Statistically, Celtic's 'best' chance was the Kyogo penalty but from open play that honour went to Maeda's rebound effort which was valued at 0.57 xG. That was the highest xG chance of the match from open play, followed by Donnelly's goal at 0.37.

StatsBomb records the final cumulative xG totals at 2.32-1.35 in Celtic's favour, giving the hosts just a 15 per cent chance of victory based on the respective chances the sides created.

The data provider's figures suggest that, although Killie performed about as expected by scoring once, Celtic overperformed slightly by scoring four times.

Shots

The champions garnered 16 attempts in total, including the penalty. They scored four from six on target, missed seven and saw a further three blocked.

Celtic managed to create 13 chances inside the Killie penalty area and managed a clutch from the close, central danger zone. Four efforts - including the penalty - were classified as mid-to-high-quality xG chances.

In total, 13 shots were manufactured from open play. Otherwise, they had one from the penalty spot, one from a direct free-kick, and two from corners. Sam Walker made two saves.

Kilmarnock managed 14 shots in total. Of those, 12 were in Celtic's penalty area and four were mid-to-high-quality xG opportunities. 

Ten of the 14 were from open play with one chance coming from an indirect free-kick, one from a throw-in and two from corners. Joe Hart made three saves.

Individually, O'Riley finished level with Killie's Kyle Vassell and Danny Armstrong with four shots apiece. Vassell's four attempts carried the highest accompanying xG (0.46) but only O'Riley actually scored a goal out of the three players.

Passing, possession & positions

Celtic enjoyed 77 per cent possession and completed 675 of 763 pass attempts for an 88 per cent success rate, back up to to above their league average for the season after an 80 per cent showing against Rangers last time out. 

The Ayrshire side managed 143 successful passes from 225 attempts (64 per cent completion).

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).

Two starting players shine through with red or dark red nodes in this one: centre-back Kobayashi and left-back Greg Taylor.

Kobayashi led the way in OBV with a 0.20 rating, though Taylor was just 0.03 behind the Japanese defender.

After the break, 17-year-old Vata stood out to such an extent that his OBV rating would have usurped Taylor and placed him second behind Kobayashi by just 0.01.

Kobayashi took the most touches in the match with 277 but it was Maeda, Starfelt and Iwata who occupied the top three spots in the xGChain.

Killie's network suggests a lack of cohesion in terms of shape. Most home players retain ice-cold blue nodes, underlining that struggle to impact the game despite the relatively impressive number of shots they generated.

Armstrong and David Watson tied as their standout players in OBV with 0.06.

Tied at the top for key passes, as they were in shots, was O'Riley and Armstrong. Substitute Turnbull was the only other player two play more than one.

Notably, Vata's one key pass - his cross for Oh - carried the highest accompanying xGAssisted in the Celtic team (0.14).

Pressing and defending

Celtic made 167 pressures to Killie's 297 but made just five fewer pressure regains (45 vs 50). The hosts were active all over the park while the Hoops' most intense actions were on the flanks.

Killie players were well ahead in individual pressing numbers - led by Donnelly with a massive 45, Armstrong (36), Watson (35) and Vassell (35) all stood out.

Haksabanovic was the leading Celt with 22 with O'Riley next on 20. The former also led the team in total pressing duration.

Iwata was the game's top counter-presser with seven (plus a total pressing duration more than double that of any other player). He was followed by team-mate O'Riley and Kilmarnock's Armstrong.

While Donnelly also stood out in the traditional defensive metrics (six tackles, six interceptions, three clearances and two out of two aerial duels won for the concession of two fouls) there were also Celts who shone too.

Foremost among them was Taylor. The Scotland international matched Donnelly's game-high tackles and wedded them to two interceptions, two clearances, two aerial wins (though only at 29 per cent success) and not being dribbled past. He did concede one foul.

Elsewhere, Kobayashi managed a tackle, four clearances and six aerial wins while conceding two fouls with Haksabanovic fairly active defensively too (three tackles, an interception, a clearance, an aerial win and two fouls).