Celtic ease their way past Brechin City
By Nick McAdam
The break in Scotland is officially over for Celtic as they returned to Paradise for a Scottish Cup fixture against Brechin City. As expected, the Bhoys cruised to victory by a score of 5-0.
Goals came from an array of players including James Forrest, Olivier Ntcham and Odsonne Edouard. Craig Gordon didn’t have to do much of anything in this one as Brechin only notched 4 shots.
On the other hand, the Celts were able to amass 25 impressive shots on the Championship side which proved to be too much for City.
It all started 2 minutes in as Scott Sinclair made a move down the wing and sent a pass at the touchline towards Forrest. A first-time hit stumped Graeme Smith who watched the ball roll into the bottom right for the early Celtic lead.
Nobody could really figure out what Paul McLean was doing in the 10th minute. Pressure from Sinclair should’ve resulted in the defender lobbing the ball away, but instead, McLean sent an errant pass towards Callum McGregor who fed Sinclair for the second goal.
Mikael Lustig proved his worth today despite the numerous rumors away from Glasgow in the transfer window. Lustig made a sprint down the wing and sent a dink of a cross that met with Ntcham’s head for the smooth third goal.
A corner moments later was sent home by the 6’2” Dedryck Boyata who made it 4-0. It was all but over for Brechin at this point, and the Hoops knew that they would be on to the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.
Edouard smashed the ball home from a tough angle in the 86th minute after Lustig made another nice pass to set up the play. The result was known before the first whistle blew, and Celtic only proved that today by the time the final whistle sounded.
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The contest proved to be a very good exercise for the Bhoys after a long break. Brendan Rodgers went with a 4-2-3-1 formation in this one, which only seemed to give more freedom to the attacking midfield of McGregor, Sinclair and Forrest.
Kristoffer Ajer got a run today alongside Kieran Tierney for the back-line. It only looks more likely that both Ajer and Tierney are important puzzle pieces for the Celtic defense in the future.
The tough second-half of the campaign got off to a great start for the Bhoys today. Next time, Rodgers and the rest of the squad can only hope for more of the same as they travel to play Partick Thistle on the 23rd of January.
It will only get a bit more difficult in terms of the schedule as the next three opponents after the Partick fixture are sides in the top six of the Scottish Premiership. Celtic will have to take it one step at a time, and today’s dominating result only proves that they might be on their way for more glory by the end of the season.
Next: Back in Action – Celtic vs. Brechin City preview
What were your thoughts on the performance today? Was it a good warm-up for the tough domestic fixture list ahead? Let us know in the comments section below.