Celtic close gap at the top
Celtic beat Dundee 1-0 at Parkhead to move level on points with Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts, trailing only on goal difference and still holding a game in hand.
It was the Hoops’ seventh win in eight matches under interim boss Martin O’Neill, who returned 20 years after his first spell and now steps aside for new head coach Wilfried Nancy.
Early Maeda goal decides tight contest
The only goal arrived on 11 minutes. Reo Hatate picked out Hyun-jun Yang, whose effort was saved by Jon McCracken, and Daizen Maeda followed in with a brave header to convert the rebound.
Maeda was clattered by Luke Graham as he scored, taking a heavy blow to the head. Celtic briefly played with 10 men while he received treatment, before the Japanese forward returned with a bandage and a black eye.
Celtic start fast but can’t kill the game
Inspired by O’Neill’s front-foot approach, Celtic pushed hard in the opening half-hour. Maeda and Hatate both threatened from range, while Yang continued his resurgence with another lively display on the right.
Arne Engels and Yang went close again, and left-back Marcelo Saracchi forced a smart save before limping off with what looked like a hamstring recurrence. Kieran Tierney came on as a like-for-like replacement.
Dundee grow into the match
Dundee nearly levelled before the break when Simon Murray clipped the bar after a short headed pass-back from Liam Scales. Kasper Schmeichel saved Cameron Congreve’s follow-up before the offside flag went up.
After the interval Celtic again started brighter, with Maeda unable to guide a rebound on target and Hatate denied after a slick move through midfield.
Late pressure and Schmeichel’s composure
Midway through the second half Dundee began to apply more pressure. Substitute Ashley Hay got in behind from a long ball, shrugged off Scales and shot from a tight angle, but Schmeichel blocked his tame effort.
Finlay Robertson then tried an audacious lob from around 50 yards after Schmeichel had sliced a clearance outside his box, only for the keeper to race back and claim comfortably.
In stoppage time Maeda almost wrapped it up on the break, striking the post before Celtic saw out the win.
Tense night in a fractured atmosphere
The performance could have given O’Neill a calmer farewell – Celtic failed to turn their dominance into a bigger margin and Dundee’s late surge kept home fans on edge.
The atmosphere was also coloured by off-field tension. A section of the standing area remained closed, with the bottom rows blocked off following the extended and indefinite ban on the Green Brigade. Anti-board chants mixed with tributes to O’Neill throughout the game.
Nancy inherits a divided but competitive club
Wilfried Nancy’s appointment was confirmed less than an hour before kick-off, and he now takes over a Celtic side right in the title race and alive in the Europa League, with a Premier Sports Cup final to come in what will be his third game in charge.
His first two tests are brutal: Hearts in the league and Roma in Europe. O’Neill leaves him a strong platform in terms of results, but the fractured relationship between some fans and the board means Nancy arrives at a club that is competitive on the pitch, but far from united off it.
