The Celtic numbers: How Kyogo and his teammates won at Ibrox

Brendan Rodgers and his side came into this game off the back of two poor performances and results against Kilmarnock and St Johnstone respectively. It was to be third time lucky, however, as Kyogo Furuhashi would score the solitary goal in what was a frantic encounter between the two sides.

An even game in terms of possession, Rangers had plenty of opportunities to get on the scoresheet, but failed to capitalise on the chances presented to them. However, the visitors managed to cling on, in turn opening up a four-point gap between themselves and Rangers at this stage of the season.

Despite the late arrivals of Nat Phillips, Luis Palma and Paulo Bernardo, none of these players took to the field in any capacity. Liam Scales and Gustaf Lagerbielke were the makeshift defensive partnership for the away side, with Alistair Johnston fit enough to start again at right-back. Standout performer Matt O'Riley was deployed in a deeper role alongside Callum McGregor, with both playing their best game in months in what was an engine room tour de force from the pair. Despite Palma's high-profile arrival, Daizen Maeda played, with Liel Abada operating on the opposite wing. Kyogo led the line for Celtic, as his impressive goalscoring exploits against Rangers this year continued.

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

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Celtic had to ride their luck a little in this game, both in terms of chances missed by Rangers and disallowed goals due to the intervention of VAR. Indeed, it was the home side who had the ball in the back of the net in the first minute thanks to Rabbi Matondo, but an offside ruling in the build-up meant that a horror start was avoided in the case of Celtic. Because of this, the visitors to Ibrox had the first official shot at goal through Kyogo in the 16th minute. After good work from Abada down the wing - both in his run and cross to the striker - Kyogo attempts to backheel the ball goalwards past Jack Butland in the Rangers goal. There was not enough pace on the flick - both in terms of a shot or a flick-on to Maeda - and the chance was squandered by Celtic. This attacking moment from Kyogo had an xG score of 0.23, though the striker should have done better in this situation.

A further chance was to fall to Kyogo nine minutes later, which ought to have transpired in the deadlock being broken in all honesty. Following a weighted pass along the ground from O'Riley, Kyogo found himself 1v1 with Butland. He hesitates to get the ball out of his feet, before striking the ball past the keeper, with his defender Connor Goldson coming to his rescue in making a goal-line tackle to stop the ball from ending up in the net. 0.24 in xG, this was another good chance for the striker to open the scoring, though Goldson's last-ditch defending was commendable.

READ MORE: McGregor on why Celtic hero Kyogo is 'the best striker he's ever seen'

Almost directly following this chance, Rangers thought they had opened the scoring through Kemar Roofe. Lagerbielke - taking too much time to make a pass - was caught in possession by Cyriel Dessers, who took the ball off of him before passing to Roofe who made no mistake in powering a shot past Joe Hart. However, the goal was chopped off following VAR's intervention, due to contact on Lagerbielke from the intercepting Dessers. Couple this chance with Matondo's offside goal at the beginning of the game, and Rangers' low xG is slightly misleading due to these chances not contributing to their overall accumulation. 

As the first half came to a close, Rangers had two half-chances from Matondo and Roofe, which were both wide of the target (0.03 and 0.05 xG). They would come to rue missing these opportunities, though, As Kyogo officially opened the scoring just a minute later.

Hart sends the ball upfield, which is headered by Goldson in the opposite end of the park. The clearance with his head is low enough for O'Riley to latch onto, who deftly steers his own header into the path of Kyogo. The striker allowed the ball to bounce in front of him before he composed himself and struck the chance on the half-volley, leaving the former England international with no chance in the Rangers goal. Before the chance was taken, Kyogo's shot was 0.06 xG, highlighting the difficulty of scoring the opportunity from that position and standing. In terms of PSxG (post-shot expected goal), that figure rose to 0.53, indicating the sheer quality of the half-volley Kyogo managed to drive goalwards. Big games call for big names, and Celtic's talismanic figure was at it again, as the visitors went in at the break 1-0 up.

into the second half, where Celtic were under the cosh for large parts as they looked to maintain their slender lead. Abada had the first chance for either side following the restart (0.05 xG), though this chance was saved by Butland. That was to be one of only four chances by Celtic in this half, as Rangers looked for an equaliser to level up proceedings.

Three minutes after Todd Cantwell put the ball well over the bar (0.02 xG), Kyogo would squander another chance to effectively seal things for the visitors on the fast break, though his shot went over the bar too (0.14 xG). Substitute Odin Thiago Holm was next to register a chance for Celtic, with the Norwegian midfielder having his shot saved once again by the impressive Butland, who was one of the best players on the day (0.05 xG).

Up until the 87th minute with Maeda's saved shot (0.19 xG), there was an onslaught of constant attacks from the home side. Summer signing Danilo was the most dangerous player, contributing several chances, though it was Sam Lammers who had the best opportunity to tie the game with a massive opportunity in the 75th minute.

Midfielder Nicolas Raskin spots Lammers making a run into the box and finds him with an intricate cross. After a great first touch from the attacking midfielder, he manages to beat Hart and round the goalkeeper, before inexplicably hitting the side netting of the gaping goal. By far Rangers' best chance of the game, both literally and in terms of xG, with 0.75 indicating that the Dutchman really should have taken this opportunity when presented to him.

Despite Danilo (0.29) having a good chance near the end, Celtic managed to hold on, in what was a massive statement victory for Rodgers and his club, the biggest since his box-office return in the summer.

Celtic only had seven shots in this game, though they scored the only goal of the game with a total xG accumulation of 0.96 of all the chances they created. Despite their lack of chances, the ones they did manage to create were mostly in the 18-yard box, with four out of the seven shots coming on the right-hand side. Ironically, their goal was one of the two taken outside of the box, again highlighting Kyogo's quality from long-range as well as up close.

Celtic average 14.75 shots per game, so this was a lower-than-average attacking performance from the side, though they still managed to score the all-important goal in proceedings despite this lack of creativity and firepower on the day.

Rangers, on the other hand, had 17 shots in this game, with a much higher xG of 1.96 accumulated during the match. A variety of areas were locations of attack for the home side, though many of their opportunities like Celtic were found on the right-hand side of the goal. Manager Michael Beale will be perplexed as to how his side drew a blank in this game with the chances created.

The home side take an average of 20.50 shots per game, so Rangers made nearly as many chances as expected. Their wastefulness in front of the goal was their downfall on the day, with several big chances not taken throughout proceedings.

There was a lop-sidedness about Celtic's top shooters on the day, with Kyogo way ahead in volume with four shots in the game, three more than any other teammate of his. His four shots accumulated just 0.53 in xG, with Maeda, Holm and Abada all contributing one shot each.

For Rangers, it was a busy substitute appearance for Danilo in terms of shooting, with five shots in just 25 minutes of action. These five chances, along with Lammers' four opportunities off the bench, accumulated 1.52 xG between the two players. Cantwell had three shots at a lower xG of just 0.10.

Possession, passing and positions

In what was an even game in terms of possession, Celtic had 50 per cent of the ball at Ibrox, completing 399 of their 528 passes at a rate of 76 per cent. Rangers shared the other 50 per cent of the ball, making 406 of their 519 passes at a higher success rate of 78 per cent.

The passing network gives a rough idea of where the majority of the game was played and who was the most involved. Remember that the warmer the colour, the more influential the player was in the game, and 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 of which can be read here).

The passing networks for both teams in both the first and second half indicate how the game changed in terms of what transpired. In the first half, Celtic were the better passing side, as is shown in the passing network lines. Rangers on the other hand looked disjointed, with the home side struggling to get any sort of rhythm in their game in the opening 45 minutes.

READ MORE: Celtic instant analysis as Kyogo and O'Riley run the show

Following the restart, the roles reversed, with far warmer OBV values from Rangers, whilst Celtic faced the same problems that their hosts had in the first half. Despite this upturn in performance from a passing and OBV point of view, Celtic still managed to come away with a win and clean sheet, meaning these patterns never amounted to any goals or adversity in the grand scheme of things.

In terms of statistics with the OBV metric, Celtic's values were low as a whole, in both halves. Their best contributor to OBV was Lagerbielke, with 0.10 off of 58 passes. His defensive partner Scales was just behind him on 0.08 OBV from 61 passes. six of Celtic's players contributed negative OBV in this game, with David Turnbull the worst culprit for the away side with -0.05 on 21 passes, nine passes fewer than Johnston with the same total in terms of this metric.

For Rangers, their best OBV contributor was Cantwell with 0.17 - the highest for both teams - on 37 passes. The home side also contributed the worst OBV value for an individual on both sides, with Dessers scoring -0.11 with six passes, the captain James Tavernier the next worst on -0.09 OBV from 42 passes.

Celtic had two players contributing two key passes in O'Riley and Abada, though Abada's xG off of these passes was higher at 0.37. Kyogo made just one, in what was a quiet game in this particular metric for Celtic.

Rangers were far more creative in their key passing, with James Tavernier topping both sides in this regard with three at an xG accumulation of 0.17. Cantwell had two, but had the joint-highest xG for his team with these passes at 0.24, though the same figure was reached by Goldson off of just one pass.

Pressing and defending

Celtic initialised 157 pressures in this game to Rangers' 160, with the home side regaining the ball 30 times to the visitors' 27.

Maeda completed the most pressures in the game for both sides, managing 30 in what was a busy afternoon for the winger. He also completed seven counterpressures for the side, which was again the highest for both teams.

Dessers completed 21 pressures in total for Rangers, whilst Matondo and Raskin contributed 20 each, with the latter completing the most counterpressures for his team with five, jointly shared by Tavernier.

READ MORE: Celtic's Gustaf Lagerbielke insists team 'sticks together'

On the defensive end for Celtic, it was a very impressive day for O'Riley, with nine total tackles and interceptions in total, which was a game-high statistic. Dujon Sterling put in an impressive defensive performance for Rangers despite playing out of position, with six total tackles and interceptions.

Perhaps the most eye-catching defensive statistic comes from Scales, who cleared the ball 11 times in total, coupled with four aerial due wins for the stand-in defender. A great day for the Irish defender.