Celtic 4 - 2 Inverness CT

League Match
Saturday, August 15th, 2015, 3:00 PM at Celtic Park, Glasgow
Attendance: 42,727
Referee: Craig Thomson
Celtic Inverness CT

Goalscorers
Mikael Lustig (8)
Leigh Griffiths (12)
Stuart Armstrong (55)
Stuart Armstrong (69)
Ryan Christie (71)
Dani Lopez (78)

Team Managers
Ronnie Deila John Hughes

Starting Eleven
Craig Gordon
Mikael Lustig
Dedryck Boyata
Virgil van Dijk
Emilio Izaguirre
Nir Biton
Scott Brown
Gary Mackay-Steven
Stefan Johansen
Stuart Armstrong
Leigh Griffiths
Owain Fon Williams
David Raven
Daniel Devine
Carl Tremarco
Iain Vigurs
Liam Polworth
Greg Tansey
Ross Draper
Danny Williams
Lewis Horner
Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo

Bench
Logan Bailly
Anthony Stokes
Tomas Rogic
Charlie Mulgrew
Saidy Janko
Callum McGregor
James Forrest
Ryan Esson
Ryan Christie
Jason Brown
Alasdair Sutherland
Nat Wedderburn
Dani Lopez

Substitutions
Saidy Janko -> Mikael Lustig (62)
Charlie Mulgrew -> Scott Brown (62)
Callum McGregor -> Stuart Armstrong (70)
Ryan Christie for Liam Polworth (49)
Dani Lopez for Carl Tremarco (67)
Nat Wedderburn for Iain Vigurs (68)

Bookings
Scott Brown (47)
Leigh Griffiths (72)
Nir Biton (79)
Gary Mackay-Steven (85)
Ross Draper (15)
Carl Tremarco (26)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Owain Fon Williams (GK) 6 apps -
David Raven 120 apps2 goals
Carl Tremarco 38 apps -
Daniel Devine 44 apps1 goal
Liam Polworth 37 apps1 goal
Danny Williams 71 apps4 goals
Ross Draper 125 apps7 goals
Greg Tansey 108 apps16 goals
Iain Vigurs 27 apps3 goals
Lewis Horner 6 apps -
Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo 4 apps -
Ryan Christie (sub) 65 apps9 goals
Nat Wedderburn (sub) 5 apps -
Dani Lopez (sub) 6 apps1 goal

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Liam Polworth (20 years 312 days)
Oldest Player:Danny Williams (2017 years 17 days)
Average Player Age:26 years 102 days
Domestic Players:6 (54.55 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Alasdair Sutherland (18 years 334 days)
Oldest Player:Greg Tansey (2017 years 17 days)
Average Player Age:25 years 212 days
Domestic Players:12 (70.59 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones
Dani Lopez scored his first goal for the Club.

Hooped:

Celtic swamped Inverness to race into a four goal lead before they took the foot off the gas and Inverness made the score more respectable by scoring a brace in the last twenty minutes through subs Ryan Christie and Dani Lopez, who notched his first goal for the club with a crisp strike from twenty yards.

Christie and Lopez were benched with Iain Vigurs and Carl Tremarco in the starting X1. Celtic had captain Scott Brown fit enough to start but there was no place for Kris Commons as Celtic celebrated 100 years of hoops.

And the hoops got off to a flier with two headers before the thirteenth minute as Mikael Lustig and Leigh Griffiths punished the rattled makeshift Inverness defence who were unable to cope in a frenetic opening spell. Celtic tore the struggling visitors apart time and time again and it was a relief to go in at half time only two goals down.

Mutombo provided the only spark from Inverness as he turned brilliantly on the edge of the box just on the break and forced Craig Gordon to tip over his fierce effort. The only other effort of note had come earlier when Vigurs surged forward but elected to shoot from outside the box and his shot whistled wide.

That was however, the only moment of respite for the injury ravaged Highlanders in a torrid first half. Stefan Johansen had smashed a shot off the bar and Ross Draper cleared the rebounded shot from Stuart Armstrong off the line as Celtic piled on the pressure. Griffiths was being a constant threat and could have notched a hat-trick in the first half but at 2-0 down there was still a glimmer of hope, albeit a very faint one.

Half-Time:- 2-0

Inverness started the second period brighter, but with ten minutes gone, Inverness loon Stuart Armstrong scored an impressive goal firing high beyond Fon Williams from a cut back supplied by Griffiths. Super stuff from Celtic and game over for Inverness.

Armstrong grabbed his second of the game when Devine's attempted clearance found the former Arab and he duly knocked the ball home to put Celtic four up and Inverness could have no complaints.

Hughes introduced Ryan Christie at the start of the half and Nat Wedderburn and Dani Lopez had replaced Vigurs and Tremarco just before the fourth goal.

Christie scored what looked to be a consolation goal after Wedderburn set him through and Dani Lopez scored a cracking goal from around twenty yards to get the fans heads up. Inverness were enjoying a good spell and Draper almost got a header on target as the home defence began to look more vulnerable as Inverness gained in confidence.

Full-Time 4-2

In the end it was too little too late, a recurring theme from Inverness, but they will get a boost given the late revival that made the last quarter a bit tetchy for the hoops. Overall, Inverness were chasing the game at the break and were lucky to be only two adrift. At four behind we were fearing the worst, but a determined finish gave us some respectability given our injury situation and good for Lopez to get off the mark with a quality goal.

Match report written by tm4tj



Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Hearts 4 4 0 0 10 5 5 12
2. Celtic 4 3 1 0 10 4 6 10
3. Aberdeen 3 3 0 0 5 1 4 9
4. Ross County 4 1 1 2 4 5 -1 4
5. Motherwell 4 1 0 3 2 6 -4 3
6. St. Johnstone 4 0 2 2 6 8 -2 2
7. Dundee 4 2 1 1 9 5 4 7
8. Hamilton Academical 3 1 1 1 4 2 2 4
9. Dundee Utd 4 1 1 2 4 7 -3 4
10. Partick Thistle 4 0 3 1 2 4 -2 3
11. Inverness CT 4 0 2 2 3 6 -3 2
12. Kilmarnock 4 0 2 2 4 10 -6 2

* - Table split into two divisions of six.