Venue: Celtic Park Date: 08/01/25 Time: 19:45pm
Celtic continued their canter towards the title as they put Dundee United away with little difficulty, extending their lead at the top to 16 points.
United’s resistance was broken all too easily as Jack Walton’s parried Luke McCowan’s curling effort into the path of Daizan Maeda for the opener.
Having kept the score to one down with less than ten minutes to go, United were punished by Reo Hatate in their hunt for an equaliser when Maeda played a neat pass that Paulo Bernardo let slide through his legs for the Japanese midfielder to finish.
In truth, United were fortunate to not have conceded sooner after Auston Trusty’s header from a pinpoint Arne Engels corner crashed off the crossbar.
Slightly less accurate with his first opportunity on goal, Engels could do no better than fire an effort well over the bar following a good lay off from Adam Idah.
The Belgian was however unlucky to see his next long range effort deflected over the bar as United struggled to break out of their own half.
Jim Goodwin’s side face more of the same in the second half but Engels continued with his struggles for a goal, firing another effort off target from outside the penalty area.
Substitute Kyogo Furuhashi at least tested the keeper as his header from a corner stung Walton’s palms.
It would be over an hour but eventually the visitors managed a shot on target, sensing an equaliser was within reach, Glenn Middleton forced Kasper Schmeichel into a relatively comfortable save.
Having subsequently gone two down, Sam Dalby was denied a consolation goal by the Dane who held on for a clean sheet.
Despite a second consecutive defeat, Dundee United remain third, level on points with the struggling Aberdeen as they travel to St Mirren on Saturday.
Celtic meanwhile travel up to Dingwall to face Ross County.
Line-Ups:
Celtic (4-3-3): K. Schmeichel, G. Taylor, A. Trusty, C. Carter-Vickers, A. Johnston, A. Engels (Paulo Bernardo 80’), C. McGregor (c), L. McCowan (L. Palma 76’), D. Maeda, A. Idah (K. Furuhashi 62’), Yang Hyun-Jun (R. Hatate 62’)
Substitutes: K. Furuhashi, Paulo Bernardo, R. Hatate, N. Kuhn, L. Palma, A. Ralston, L. Scales, V. Sinisalo, Alex Valle
Dundee United (4-4-1-1): J. Walton, W. Ferry, R. Graham, D. Gallagher (c), E. Adegboyega, G. Middleton, V. Sevelj (R. Docherty 46’), R. Odada (L. Stephenson 59’), K. Fotheringham, K. Trapanovski (S. Dalby 60’), J. van der Sande (M. Thomson 78’)
Substitutes: S. Harding, S. Dalby, R. Docherty, D. Richards, L. Stephenson, O. Stirton, R. Strain, M. Thomson, M. Ubochioma
Referee: Kevin Clancy