Dundee lost 2-1 to Celtic in a tight match at The Scot Foam Stadium this afternoon. Hoops legend James Forrest scored midway through each half to give Celtic a two goal lead. The second was against the run of play after an impressive 20 minute spell from the Dark Blues at the start of the second half. Antonio Portales quickly pulled a goal back and Dundee had a real go at saving the game but Celtic hung on to take all three points.
There were two changes to the Dee’s starting eleven. Antonio Portales kept his place after coming on as a replacement for the injured Joe Shaughnessy against Rangers. Lyall Cameron was also injured so Josh Mulligan started in his place.
Celtic started full of aggressive intent and tried to blow the Dark Blues away in an opening 10 minutes of relentless attacking. Jon McCracken had to be at his best to keep Celtic out. He saved twice from tricky 18 yard shots by Nicolas Kuhn. Reo Hatate cracked a vicious low cross into the goalmouth which the keeper did well to push away before a Celtic attacker could reach it. McCracken’s best save was to block Greg Taylor’s close range header after Liam Scales nodded a corner to the back post.
Dundee held out against the onslaught and from the 10 minute mark began to take the game to Celtic. Without initially posing any serious threat to Joe Hart’s goal the Dee began to play their way up the park and into promising positions.
Midway through the half the Dark Blues had another scary moment when Celtic’s short corner led to a scramble and Hatate stabbing his shot wide.
The Dee responded with their best move of the first half, moving the ball smoothly through the Celtic half and out to the left wing. Owen Dodgson whipped over a dangerous cross and Jordan McGhee couldn’t make contact with his attempted header; Amadou Bakayoko failed to make a clean connection with his volley at the far post, allowing Hart an easy save.
After a quiet spell from Celtic the visitors took the lead after half an hour with a goal of the highest quality. The ball broke to James FORREST on the edge of the penalty area and he reacted instantly to bury a magnificent volley into the corner of McCracken’s net. Obviously it would have been better if he’d shanked his effort deep into the travelling support but sometimes you just have to say “aye, that was pretty good”.
Dundee remained competitive for the rest of the first half ensuring Celtic could never relax but neither keeper was called into serious action.
At the start of the second half the Dark Blues had a right good go at repeating Celtic’s trick in the first half and threw themselves at the Hoops with high tempo attacking. Dundee won a series of corners and free kicks which gave Celtic some nervous moments.
Celtic’s central defenders were allowed too much time to set up attacks from the back in the first half, but were hounded by relentless pressing to stop them doing the same after half time. That played a large part in Celtic’s inability to manage the game the way they wanted.
Antonio Portales stretched to connect with Owen Dodgson’s free kick, couldn’t get any power in his shot and Hart saved. Dundee’s best chance came from a fine inswinging corner by Dodgson which found Mo Sylla six yards out, but the midfielder headed narrowly wide. McGhee found space at another Dodgson corner but sent his header straight at Hart.
After an uncomfortable 20 minutes in which Celtic had looked slack, and at times complacent, the visitors stepped up their game, clearly realising that if they tried to stroll to the final whistle they would be seriously embarrassed.
Sadly it was the Dee defence who got egg on their faces when they served up a disappointingly soft second goal to Celtic. Trying to play out from the back Portales lost possession, Lamie and McGhee collided as they tried to cover, and FORREST was left all on his own to smash his shot past McCracken.
Dundee sent on Fin Robertson and Dara Costelloe for Malachi Boateng and Scott Tiffoney as they tried to dig their way back into the game. Hatate almost put the match beyond Dundee’s reach but he shot against the post from 18 yards after lovely footwork to make space.
A minute later Dundee pulled a goal back to make the last 20 minutes very interesting. The Celtic defence couldn’t clear Dodgson’s corner and Antonio PORTALES’ shot from 12 yards deflected off Adam Idah to leave Hart helpless. It was the Mexican defender’s first goal for the Dee, so there’s no chance of it going down as an own goal!
Aaron Donnelly came on for Josh Mulligan, with the Dee switching to three at the back for a spell with a front two in Costelloe and Bakayoko. A further striker, Michael Mellon, replaced Owen Dodgson for the last 10 minutes of play as Dundee pushed for an equalizer with real intent.
The Dark Blues kept playing their way into the final third, winning set pieces and putting Celtic under pressure. Celtic were happy to hear the final whistle, which came after Joe Hart had picked up a yellow card for annoying the referee with some pretty obvious time-wasting.
Celtic were outstanding for large parts of the first half but Dundee stood up to them impressively and took the game to the champions in a way that should give the players confidence.
Today’s match stats showed that Celtic haven’t faced more shots on target in any previous league game this season. This was a game that Dundee could well have taken something from and the narrow defeat was disappointing. However, the Dark Blues showed today that they belong in the Premiership’s top six and should take pride from that.
Dundee FC 4-1-4-1
McCracken
McGhee, Portales, Lamie, Dodgson (Mellon 86)
Sylla
Mulligan (Donnelly 75), Boateng (Robertson 68), McCowan, Tiffoney (Costelloe 68)
Bakayoko
Unused subs: Sharp (gk), Astley, Main, Robinson, Howley.
Goal: Portales (74).
Booked: none.
Celtic 4-3-3
Hart
Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Scales, Taylor
O’Riley, McGregor (c) (Iwate 62), Hatate
Kuhn, Kyogo (Idah 62), Forrest (Palma 72)
Unused subs: Bain (gk), Yang, Nawrocki, Bernardo, Kelly, Ralston.
Goals: Forrest (30, 67).
Booked: Hart (time-wasting).
Referee: John Beaton. Assistants: David Roome, Dougie Potter. Fourth Official: Peter Stuart. VAR: Andrew Dallas. Assistant VAR: Graeme Leslie.
Attendance: 9,120.
Report: James Christie.
