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‘Voracious Celtic look unstoppable in 4-0 Old Firm win over Rangers’

The day started with Kyogo Furuhashi forced off with a shoulder injury and ended with the brilliant striker slipping on the pitch as he celebrated with his team-mates.

Between those two moments – and how Celtic will pray for his recovery before Real Madrid on Tuesday – it was a thunderous day for Ange Postecoglou and his team. They were, in a word, unstoppable. Even without their Japanese talisman, they blew Rangers to kingdom come.

Playing Celtic in their pomp must feel like that amusement arcade game where you whack one frog on the head only for another to pop up, whack that one out of the road and another one appears. It’s an endless and futile exercise, a joyless pursuit, which summed up Rangers’ day at an electrified Celtic Park.

Rangers must have thought that they were on a winner when Furuhashi had to leave the fray inside a few minutes. The ultimate dangerman gone. The scorer of 26 goals in 38 games out of the game.

No sooner had he exited, though, than Liel Abada started to torment them, then Jota, then Abada again, with the man tying it altogether as conductor-in-chief, Matt O’Riley. In that sensational first half, Rangers didn’t know where to look when Celtic came at them.

O’Riley is such a mature, classy and influential operator that we need to remind ourselves that he’s only 21. Celtic got for him washers. To call him value would be the understatement of the century.

The headlines on the back of this searing victory, laced with pace and huge entertainment, will be all about Abada – now 21 goals in 60 games with a dozen assists to boot – and Jota – 17 in 45 with 18 assists – and as good as they were, O’Riley was their equal, a key figure in the first three goals.

‘Voracious Celtic were loaded with menace’

You could be here all day cataloguing the differences between the sides in the first 45. Celtic had an intensity that Rangers couldn’t match. They had a speed of thought, a speed of movement, a ruthlessness that was way too much for the visitors.

We thought it would be a long time before we saw the kind of dominance Celtic had over Rangers in the February game, but here it was again, with bells on. Three goals in one half then, three in one half now. And Kyogo has played a total of five injury-interrupted minutes in those two.

Despite the blow of losing their deadliest finisher, Celtic didn’t bat an eyelid. Three minutes after he went off, they went ahead.

Ryan Kent got challenged in possession, then complained to referee Nick Walsh as the ball went into touch. Kent turned his back to the play to appeal for a foul or a throw-in. A very bad idea.

As he remonstrated, Celtic got busy. A quick throw-in from Jota, a quick delivery from O’Riley, a quick strike from Abada. Jon McLaughlin looked on forlornly as his best efforts to keep it out were just not good enough.

Celtic outstanding from start to finish – Postecoglou

Celtic were voracious, full of running and intent, loaded with menace. Time and again the eye was drawn to Giovanni van Bronckhorst on the touchline, turning away from the action as his side gave up yards of space to Celtic’s marauders, showing his angst at the way his team was being exposed down the flanks.

He would have done a world of work on how to stop Jota and Abada but, at times, it was as if his players had no concept of the danger they posed.

‘Abada’s wonderous return defies theory’

O’Riley’s ball to Jota for the second was sumptuous – taking out centre-backs James Sands and Connor Goldson – and Jota’s finish did it justice. One touch to tee it up, another to dink it over McLaughlin. Lethal.

Celtic Park went berserk, the decibel level ratcheting ever higher when two became three before the break.

Again it was Celtic reacting quicker than Rangers. The gulf that existed in quality was matched by the chasm in mindset. Jota had just tested McLaughlin but that scare didn’t make Rangers alert to the threat they were in once more. Seconds later, after another quick throw in, Greg Taylor drilled one across the penalty area, O’Riley touched it on and Abada knocked it in.

Abada is still only 20. He defies the theory that young players from abroad can struggle to adapt to the pressure of life at Celtic. Thirty-three goals and assists combined in 60 games is a wondrous return for a relative kid in a new team, a new league and a new country.

That’s five goals in two games for Abada. Kent, signed for £7m and considered one of Rangers’ go-to attackers, has scored three in his past 50.

You wondered at the break whether Celtic would have the energy to keep piling on the misery. Earlier in the year they declared at three. Here, they made it four – a gift from McLaughlin to David Turnbull, a sure sign that the goalkeeper’s head had gone.

The pass to Turnbull was a symbol of the job Celtic did on Rangers on the day. The visitors weren’t just beaten, they were routed. The last blast of Walsh’s whistle was a mercy to them.

The gap at top is five points. Painfully early in the season, for sure. A long way to go, no doubt about it.

The last thing Rangers would want is a game of catch-up with Postecoglou’s side, though. This was as empathic and as impressive as any Old Firm victory for an awfully long time.

Sourced From BBC

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