Celtic easily defeated Motherwell 3-0 at Fir Park in North Lanarkshire yesterday.
Goals from Luke McCowan, Alistair Johnston, and Adam Idah brought Brendan Rodgers’ side level with Aberdeen, following their 1-0 victory over Dundee United on Saturday night.
Motherwell’s bright new prospect, Lennon Miller, struck both the post and the crossbar in the first ten minutes of the encounter. McCowan did, however, open the scoring, before Johnston and Idah both added to Celtic’s tally after the break, as the visitors cruised to victory.
Motherwell’s day went from bad to worse right at the end, as Liam Gordon’s studs-up challenge on Idah was upgraded to a red card following VAR’s intervention – time will tell if the striker will miss any game-time due to this reckless lunge.
Using StatsBomb data and analytics, The Celtic Way’s Ryan McGinlay brings you a match report unlike any other…
Key stats + race chart
Unlike midweek in Italy, Celtic were an attacking force throughout this contest, which is shown in the attacking numbers. Indeed, 21 shots with nine on target makes for far better reading, though again you could point to a need for Celtic to be more clinical in front of goal. With 807 attempted passes (710 completed), 76 per cent pass completion and three goals scored, it was a good day at the office, especially away from home at a tough venue.
The race chart from Sunday’s match shows a very level game in terms of chances until the second goal, at which point the visitors pull away from Motherwell in terms of chances created. Celtic were clearly the more dominant offensive team by the time Idah scored.
Celtic were given a 64% chance of winning based on their opportunities, with a 26% chance of drawing. StatsBomb gave Stuart Kettlewell’s side a 10% chance of winning this one.
Formation + passing
Celtic set up in their normal 4-3-3 shape, with a few alterations from Wednesday’s 0-0 draw against Atalanta. Rodgers’ team was still led by Kasper Schmeichel in goal, with Liam Scales and Auston Trusty on defence; Cameron Carter-Vickers was named to the bench. Greg Taylor watched from the dugout while Alex Valle resumed play, with Johnston serving as a stand-in captain on the right side. Speaking of the captain, Callum McGregor was ruled out due to injury, therefore Paulo Bernardo took his position in the base of midfield, with McCowan and Reo Hatate in the advanced parts of the engine room. Idah led the line, with Daizen Maeda and James Forrest occupying each wing.
Looking at the passing network, which takes into consideration OBV (on-ball value), two of Celtic’s defenders, Trusty and Valle, had outstanding performances in terms of ball use and distribution. Scales and Forrest both had a good game in this statistic, while the midfield and offence were missing – as demonstrated by Kyogo’s solitary position at the top of the graph.
Looking at actual OBV figures, Valle had the greatest total of 0.34 for 67 passes, while Trusty’s 146 deliveries to his teammates earned him a 0.26. As a side note, Miller for Motherwell scored 0.60 in just 23 passes; Celtic should keep an eye on this young star.
The wide spaces supplied a decent amount of critical passes, with Forrest, Valle, and Nicolas Kuhn all completing three on the day. Bernardo supplied two, and late substitute Luis Palma had one.
Shooting
It was always going to be the case in this game because of the opponent, but Celtic put up a far more offensive display than the attacking non-event in Bergamo. This is depicted in the shot map, as visitors to Fir Park tried their luck from both long range and close-up in this game, with two goals arriving at point-blank range.
McCowan’s opener came from just beyond the penalty area, giving him his second goal for his hometown club in his first start since joining from Dundee on deadline day. After a bad touch by Kofi Balmer following McCowan’s excellent movement, the midfielder fired a well-weighted effort beyond Aston Oxborough in the Motherwell goal.
A difficult shot because of Gordon’s positioning as well as the goalkeeper being set, 0.12 xG rose to 0.65 in PSxG, underlining the quality of McCowan’s strike at goal – a well-taken finish from the 26-year-old.
Celtic would increase their lead just over ten minutes after the restart, as the team’s full-backs worked together to perfection. With a Taylor-esque cross into the box, Valle found his opposite in the area, and Johnston met the ball wonderfully with his head to guide it into the net.
After the game, Johnston stated that it would have been “easier to miss,” however he is doing himself a disservice here due to the underlying statistics around this goal. A challenging chance at 0.11 xG increased dramatically to 0.83 after the defender made contact with the ball. Long story short, he made this opportunity appear simple when it was anything but.
Now for the game’s abnormality, Idah’s last-second goal to make it 3-0. Kuhn drove forward before crossing the ball low into the Motherwell box, which was expertly handled by the Irishman.
When examining xG and PSxG, it makes for intriguing reading, as 0.26 dropped to 0.10 following Idah’s contact with the ball, which might be attributed to hitting the stroke directly at Oxborough. Regardless, it went through the goalie and into the net; Idah won’t be whining about xG after scoring his fifth goal in all competitions this season.
Hatate was Celtic’s top shooter on the day with five shots; how he never got on the scoresheet is a mystery. Kyogo had four shots, as did McCowan, and Idah had two. Palma contributed one, but he squandered the chance to score for Celtic for the third straight game at Fir Park late on.
Defending
McCowan, Maeda, Johnston, and Scales all tied for first in this metric for the club with nine, while Hatate and Forrest had eight and five counterpressures, respectively. Despite having less possession in the game, Motherwell outpressured Celtic by 144-91, regaining the ball at a rate of 27-18.
Despite playing deeper for the first time as a Celtic player, Bernardo showed up on the defensive side of proceedings with five tackles and interceptions combined in this game. Maeda managed four interceptions of his own – to be expected from the Japan international. In another dominating performance from Scales, he contributed five clearances and eight aerial duel wins – a win percentage of 73 – as Trusty won three of his own battles in the sky.
Final thoughts
After a promising defensive performance in the Champions League versus Atalanta in midweek, it was pleasing to see Celtic show off their attacking power while returning to their domestic duties over the weekend.
Though it wasn’t a perfect performance – better sides would have punished Celtic’s mistakes, undoubtedly – Rodgers’ side dominated the most of the game in North Lanarkshire. With a three-day turnaround for the home encounter against Dundee, greater rotation may be required, especially with the League Cup semi-final on the weekend.
Overall, the champions performed well at a venue that has previously caused Celtic issues. On to the next one.
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