Hibernian star makes huge claim about Celtic game

There must have been a few nerves when Celtic returned from the winter break to take on Hibernian. The two sides had last met in the Scottish League Cup final, when a Kyogo Furuhashi brace had handed the Hoops a 2-1 win and the first piece of silverware for the season. Thus, it is safe to say that Shaun Maloney’s side must have been extra motivated when they visited Parkhead.

Ultimately though, it proved to be quite a comfortable victory for Ange Postecoglou’s side. After an early scare, they look the lead when Daizen Maeda scored on his Celtic debut and then Josip Juranovic would make it 2-0 from the spot.

The first-half performance against Hibernian was one of their best in recent times. And although they were not as good after the break, it did look like they had taken their foot off the pedal. There is no doubt though that they looked comfortable throughout with Maloney’s side not registering a single shot on target.

But as reported by 67 Hail Hail, while talking to Hibs TV, Jake Doyle-Hayes said:

"“It’s tough to speak after that. I felt like we did play well in stages of the game. We dominated them and we did have chances. We had a chance where we hit the post and they score a few minutes later. I think we implemented a lot of the stuff he [Maloney] wants us to do.”"

Hibernian star makes huge claim about Celtic game

It is clear that Doyle-Hayes had a very different view of the game but Celtic must have looked like the much better side to most people.

The 2-0 scoreline does not reflect how good they were in the first half and one has to remember that Kyogo is unavailable at the moment and Jota has recovered from an injury recently and came on as a late substitute in the second half of the game.

Thus, this side will be expected to get even better when those two are back to full fitness. But even then, they were good enough to get a comfortable win against Hibernian, although Maloney’s side might have had a bit more possession.