Scottish Premiership
Saturday, April 12, 2025
Celtic Park

CELTIC… 5
(Hatate 8, 24, Maeda 10, Carter-Vickers 20, Ralston, 90+2)

KILMARNOCK… 1
(Armstrong 29)

Celtic returned to winning ways in style with an emphatic 5-1 victory over Kilmarnock.

Goals from Daizen Maeda, Cameron Carter-Vickers, Anthony Ralston and a double from Reo Hatate delivered three points for the Hoops, and the win puts Brendan Rodgers’ side on the verge of securing a fourth consecutive Premiership title.

It could be argued that the game was over after just 10 minutes as Celtic produced a blistering opening which saw them score twice, first through Reo Hatate and then Daizen Maeda.

The opening goal was a thing of beauty as Hatate combined with Greg Taylor before firing an unstoppable shot into the top corner from the edge of the area.

Just two minutes later, Brendan Rodgers’ side doubled their lead as Maeda scored his 31st goal of the season.

Arne Engels and Alistair Johnston combined well down the right-hand side, with the latter firing a low ball into the six-yard box. It landed at the feet of Maeda at the back post and he tapped it in to make it 2-0.

Celtic were carving Kilmarnock open at will, and Liam Scales had a 20-yard effort well saved by Kieran O’Hara.

However, there was nothing the Killie keeper could do in the 20th minute when Cameron Carter-Vickers unleashed a 25-yard shot from the inside-right area that flew into the top corner.

Four minutes later, Reo Hatate scored his second of the afternoon following some great interplay between Engels, Johnston and James Forrest, with the Canadian again the provider.

Hatate kept his composure inside the area to steer the ball home and make it 4-0 to Celtic.

Just before the half-hour mark, the visitors did reduce the deficit when Danny Armstrong curled in a shot from the edge of the box that evaded Viljami Sinisalo.

Celtic thought they’d scored a fifth goal just before the break when Daizen Maeda had the ball in the back of the net following some great play involving Adam Idah and Reo Hatate, but a VAR review ruled the goal out due to the Irish striker being in an offside position when he received the ball.

Dominant Celtic deliver emphatic victory over Kilmarnock