Dundee were beaten 3-0 by Celtic in the Boxing Day fixture at the Scot Foam Stadium. Celtic dominated throughout, but the Dark Blues were able to hold out until early in the second half when Paulo Bernardo’s opportunist finish put the visitors ahead. Substitute Mikey Johnston came on to score two late goals, a shot from outside the area, and a neat finish after prolonged pressure on the Dee goal. Dundee were forced on to the defensive for almost the whole match and Celtic dully deserved their victory.
The Dark Blues made two changes to the team that beat Ross County. Cammy Kerr came in for Ricki Lamie and played at right wing back with Jordan McGhee moving to central defence. Zak Rudden returned in attack replacing Zach Robinson who was on the bench.
Celtic hogged the ball from the start and dominated possession through the match. For all Celtic’s attacking there was little urgency or intensity about their play in the first half and Dundee defended well to stay in the match.
The first goal threat came from the Dee ater 11 minutes when Lyall Cameron drove into the penalty area and neat footwork gave him space to send a low ball across the face of goal.
After that Celtic settled back into attack with Dundee only occasionally able to venture over the half way line. The Dark Blues pulled everyone back into defence. Both strikers, Amadou Bakayoko and Zak Rudden, were often as close to their own penalty area as the half way line.
Dundee’s dogged defending prevented Celtic from creating any real chances until the 25th minute, when Liam Scales rose well at a corner and headed narrowly wide. Three minutes later Celtic wasted their best opportunity of the first half. A fine long pass by Cameron Carter-Vickers sent Kyogo clear, but the Japanese striker clipped his shot past Trevor Carson and wide of the post.
Despite their relentless attacking Celtic found it difficult to get a clear sight of goal. Time and again Dark Blue bodies hurled themselves into the path of shots.
Paulo Bernardo’s glancing header from a corner drifted past the post. A prolonged Celtic attack ended with Callum McGregor’s fierce shot being blocked and Luis Palma shooting wide. Palma then headed wide at the far post from the second ball in following a corner.
The Dark Blues were happy to reach half time on level terms, but the second half brought no respite. Dundee were able to hang on for only seven more minutes before Celtic broke through.
Palma sent a teasing low cross from the left to the near post and BERNARDO nipped in to slip his shot through Carson’s legs and over the line.
Dundee responded with their only convincing attacking spell of the second half, but sadly it lasted no more than a couple of minutes. Celtic cleared a free kick messily and there was a VAR review for possible handball. The decision went in Celtic’s favour, almost certainly correctly. Luke McCowan then dribbled into the penalty area and his shot was deflected wide for the Dee’s only corner of the match.
That was the last we saw of the Dark Blues as an attacking force and the rest of the match was a matter of hanging on and keeping the game tight. Dundee defended well for a long spell, but when they won the ball they could never keep possession for long enough to build an attack that could worry Celtic.
Zach Robinson and Scott Tiffoney replaced the strikers who had worked hard with no reward. The change made no difference to the game.
Celtic kept rolling forward and the Dee players kept throwing themselves in the way of shots. Zach Robinson picked up an injury and limped off after treatment. While the Dee were down to 10 men Celtic grabbed the second goal that snuffed out any faint hope that Dundee might steal a point.
With 83 minutes gone Celtic substitute Mikey JOHNSTON cut in from the right and sent a shot from 22 yards across Carson and inside the far post. The Dee keeper has been in superb form, but he will be disappointed he didn’t do better with that shot.
Ryan Howley replaced the injured vRobinson, and Mo Sylla also came on for Malachi Boateng.
Carson saved well from a curling effort by Mikey Johnston. It was a more difficult shot for a keeper to deal with than the one that brought the opening goal.
The Dee keeper was helpless as the game moved into added time when Celtic scored number three. The Dark Blues couldn’t clear a sustained attack. The ball broke to JOHNSTON and he slotted his his second goal home from 12 yards.
Dundee were well beaten today and were never able to make the game uncomfortable for Celtic. The Dark Blues’ midfield and attack were could never play their way into the match and were always dominated by their opponents. The defence did very well to keep Celtic out for long periods, but the constant pressure was bound to tell in the end. The scoreline might suggest that Celtic ran away with the game in the closing minutes, but in truth they fully deserved their margin of victory.
Dundee FC 3-5-2
Carson
Shaughnessy (c), McGhee, Donnelly
Kerr, Cameron (Robertson 73), Boateng (Sylla 84), McCowan, Beck
Bakayoko (Robinson 68 (Howley 84)), Rudden (Tifffoney 68)
Unused substitutes: Legzdins (gk), Ashcroft, Mulligan, Pineda.
Booked: Beck (foul on Yang).
Celtic FC 4-3-3
Hart
Alistair Johnston, Carter-Vickers (Welsh 54), Scales, Taylor
O’Riley, McGregor, Bernardo
Maeda (Yang 65), Kyogo (Oh 65), Palma (Mikey Johnston 78)
Unused substitutes: Bain (gk), Kwon, Turnbull, Forrest, Ralston.
Goals: Bernardo (52), Mikey Johnston (83, 90+1).
Booked: Scales (foul on Kerr).
Referee: Don Robertson. Assistants: Ross Macleod, Sean Carr. Fourth Official: Chris Fordyce. VAR: Greg Aitken. Assistant VAR: David Roome.
Attendance: 9,144.
Report: James Christie.
