Kilmarnock 1 – 4 Celtic
Ruthless Celtic raced into a four-goal lead inside 27 minutes against hapless Kilmarnock, eventually running out 4-1 winners to restore their 12-point gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Some calamitous defending compounded the home side’s woe, gifting Celtic an excess of chances, which were gobbled up by Kyogo Furuhashi, Daizen Maeda and Matt O’Riley during a rampant first period.
Fraser Murray’s ill-fated back pass was pounced on by Kyogo to open the scoring (7), before Maeda doubled the visitors’ lead with a well-timed header five minutes later.
Daizen Maeda wheels away after doubling Celtic’s lead at Kilmarnock
O’Riley’s superb double added gloss to the scoreline before the break, but the contest had run away from Derek McInnes’ struggling side far before the midfielder struck, despite registering a consolation goal of their own when Liam Donnelly showed impressive composure to round Joe Hart (45).
Celtic are now unbeaten in 24 league matches, notching their 30th victory of the campaign in record time. As a result, Ange Postecoglou’s side are sauntering towards back-to-back league titles, with nearest rivals Rangers 12 shy of their mammoth 91 points total.
More to follow…
What’s next?
Celtic’s next Scottish Premiership match is at home to Motherwell on April 22 and Kilmarnock are away to St Mirren on the same day. Both games kick off at 3pm.
