Celtic began their title defence with a dominant 4-0 victory over Kilmarnock which sent them top of the Scottish Premiership.
The champions eased to their first three points of the season on the opening weekend – and are already two points ahead of Rangers after their draw with Hearts – once Reo Hatate fired into the bottom corner from just inside the box in the 17th minute.
Celtic had already seen Kyogo Furuhashi denied by an excellent goal-line clearance before he was kept out by Robby McCrorie, who dived high to his right to parry a bending effort.
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Reo Hatate gets Celtic up and running against Kilmarnock
Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn was inches away from doubling the lead after seeing his rebound clip the top of the crossbar, having initially been kept out by McCrorie, but Celtic made sure they took a two-goal cushion into the break when Liam Scales out-muscled Lewis Mayo at a corner to head in off the right post.
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Liam Scales scores to put Celtic 2-0 up before half-time against Kilmarnock
Scales nearly doubled his tally at the start of the second half as his effort was cleared off the line by Oliver Bainbridge, although Celtic soon netted a third when Kuhn’s shot deflected over McCrorie.
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Nicolas-Gerrit Kuhn’s deflected shot puts Celtic 3-0 up against Kilmarnock
Kyogo was unable to get on the scoresheet, side-footing wide a decent opportunity from Hatate’s cross, having a goal ruled out for offside, a penalty appeal turned down and a last-gasp shot kept out by McCrorie with the rebound turned home by Anthony Ralston in added time.
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Anthony Ralston nets Celtic’s fourth and final goal against Kilmarnock.
‘Kilmarnock wanted this game out of the way’
Sky Sports’ Kris Boyd:
“It’s difficult enough for Kilmarnock coming here with their strongest XI. They don’t have their strongest XI.
“They were well beaten by the better team today, but they had a huge game on Thursday night that they put everything into and came up a little bit short. They’ve got another one on Thursday.
“He [McInnes] is never going to write today off. You’ve been on the end of a 4-0 defeat, it could have been a lot better, but Kilmarnock are at the start of their season as well.
“It’s a game you want it out of the way. It’s sandwiched in between two huge European ties.
“The key thing for Derek McInnes now is these players remember what they did last season. They’ll regroup and they’ll go again.”
