Despite making eight changes to their Starting XI Celtic enjoyed a 3-0 home win over Livingston to move two points clear at the top of the SPFL Premiership table with Hearts drawing 3-3 at home to Motherwell.
Callum McGregor, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kieran Tierney, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda were left on the bench with Dane Murray and Hayato Inamura both coming in to start their first SPFL Premiership matches.
Celtic could have opted out from playing today but the decision to press on appears to be justified even though the picture won’t be clearer until mid-afternoon next Sunday, following trips to Almaty and Ibrox.
Livingston offered little other than stuffy resistance, their chances and corners were concentrated into the final 15 minutes when Celtic eased off with Colby Donovan joining the rookies in defence.
There was a bit more zip and variety to Celtic’s early play but the lack of width kept chances to a premium.
Livingston survived fairly comfortably, a ‘goal’ from Shin Yamada was rightly disallowed for offside, in stoppage time a close range headers from Yang Hyun-jun was instinctively pushed clear by Jerome Prior with the Celtic winger injuring himself against the post in his follow through.
Two minutes into the second half the relief was obvious as Ben Nygren broke the deadlock. The Swede showed great control on the right, switched play to the left then continued his run to net when Prior parried Yang’s shot.
For £1.5m Celtic have acquired a real quality addition to their team, while kicking into touch the notion being put around that players won’t move until Celtic’s Champions League destiny is known.
Offer 80% of players across Europe a significant pay rise, the stage of playing in front of 60,000 fans and most players will jump at the chance.
If they are confident in their ability they can follow Matt O’Riley and Nicolas Kuhn to the richer leagues, one thing for sure is that Celtic will be very happy to sell players on.
In the 71st minute Nygren again demonstrated his goalscoers instinct to pick up a loose ball 12 yards from goal, drilling his shot high into the net.
That goal settled the destination of the points, seven minutes later Johnny Kenny popped in a striker’s goal from a Daizen Maeda cut-back.
At half time there were some concerns about how the match was developing, by full-time a few questions had been answered with the squad depth for domestic matters increased by the displays of Murray and Inamura while Nygren played an influential role while taking his SPFL goal tally to three in three.
Google statistics from today’s match
Listening to Rodgers on Radio Scotland, the Glasgow Times reports Rodgers saying:
Livingston, very tight, very compact, very strong. 5-4-1, so space is limited. But I thought we made a really good start in the game. We’re obviously playing Benji (Nygren) out of position so sometimes we were missing that width on that side which we would normally have.
But I thought still first half, we we created opportunities, should have been ahead at half time. But I think our patience was important and the crowd were terrific today, because you can come in at halftime and it’d be, you know, a little bit of anxiety. But I think the crowd could see what the players were trying to do and the players that were out there.
And then second half, they get the reward for that because we started the half really well and were really dominant in the second half, like we were in the first, but got the goal second half.
Celtic: Schmeichel; Ralston (Donovan 79′), Murray, Scales, Inamura; McCowan (Forrest 58′), Paulo Bernardo (McGregor 58′), Engels, Nygren; Yamada (Maeda 58′), Yang (Kenny 69′)
Subs: Sinisalo, Carter-Vickers, Hatate, Tierney
Great clean sheet! More like it up front too. 🫶☘️
— Andy Murdoch (@AGM60) August 23, 2025
— St Vincent (@pedro188867) August 23, 2025
That’s why that game was worth playing today – minutes in the legs, a few goals and build some confidence ahead of Tuesday! Delighted with that!
— rmc9413 (@rmc9413) August 23, 2025
Great win for the reserves, the board still needs sacked!
— Marty Chara 🇮🇪 – Hostage of an Involuntary Union (@martybhoy1979) August 23, 2025
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