Paulo Bernardo and Mikey Johnston were the unlikely goal heroes for Celtic at Dundee but Cameron Carter-Vickers was at the centre of an injury concern ahead of Saturday’s visit of Rangers to Parkhead.
Bernardo poked home the 52nd-minute opener at Dens Park to net his first goal for Celtic and substitute Johnston struck his first two goals for the Hoops since December 2019 to earn a comfortable 3-0 win at Dens Park.
But the sight of influential centre-back Carter-Vickers going off shortly after the opening goal dampened the Celtic fans’ Boxing Day celebrations.
Carter-Vickers immediately had words with manager Brendan Rodgers after the goal and the visiting supporters’ celebrations were almost silenced moments later when they saw the United States international walking off along with the physio.
Carter-Vickers missed two-and-a-half games with a hamstring issue earlier this month and Celtic fans will hope the move was purely precautionary.
It was Celtic’s seventh consecutive away game in the fixture immediately after Christmas Day and it produced a seventh win to ensure Celtic will go into the derby top of the cinch Premiership.
The champions lead by five points but Rangers have two games in hand including Wednesday’s Ibrox clash with Ross County.
Rodgers named the same team that started in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Livingston, while Dundee had Cammy Kerr in for the absent Ricki Lamie and Zak Rudden returned as one of two strikers.
Celtic quickly took control without carving Dundee open. Kyogo Furuhashi headed safely into Trevor Carson’s hands and Luis Palma fired over from a decent chance but Dundee also had their moments going forward.
Lyall Cameron fired a ball across the face of goal after great footwork and Rudden’s looping header was saved by Joe Hart.
Celtic began to create better chances after the first quarter. Liam Scales headed just wide from Palma’s corner and Matt O’Riley created a chance for himself but shot straight at Carson.
For all Celtic’s possession, it was a loose ball from a Dundee throw-in that led to the visitors’ best chance of the half. O’Riley played the ball forward and Furuhashi was clean through. The Japan striker dinked the ball over Carson with his right foot but the ball drifted just wide.
O’Riley and Bernardo were then off target from half-chances and Callum McGregor saw a shot blocked before setting up Palma for a free header that the Honduran sent wide.
The domination continued after the break as Furuhashi sent a weak shot wide and Bernardo headed over before making the breakthrough.
Dundee were on the back foot after Rudden was flagged offside and Palma threaded the ball through for Bernardo’s run. The on-loan Benfica midfielder stretched to get a toe on the ball and it bobbled through Carson’s legs.
Stephen Welsh replaced Carter-Vickers but it was Johnston who grabbed the headlines.
The winger cut in from the left in the 83rd minute and fired a 22-yard strike which Carson could only help into the net.
Carson saved from Oh and Benardo before Johnston played a one-two with O’Riley and drilled into the bottom corner from 16 yards in stoppage-time.
The Republic of Ireland international was not far away from his hat-trick when he curled wide in the closing seconds.
Howard Webb admits Forest should have had penalty in controversial Everton defeat
Howard Webb admitted officials got one of the big decisions wrong in Nottingham Forest's controversial Premier League defeat to Everton this month.
Forest were beaten 2-0 at Goodison Park on April 21 but were left fuming that referee Anthony Taylor did not award a penalty despite three separate calls involving Ashley Young.
Following the game, Forest released a controversial statement on the social media platform X - formerly Twitter - that hinted at the fact VAR Stuart Attwell was a fan of relegation rivals Luton Town and should not have been involved in the game.
Webb was speaking about the incidents on the Mic'd Up TV programme and claimed that while the first decisions were "really subjective calls", the third one , which saw Young challenge Callum Hudson-Odoi, should have resulted in a penalty for Nuno Espirito Santo's team.
"The referee waves away the penalty appeal. The VAR looks at it and asks himself the question, 'Was the non-award clearly and obviously wrong?' and came to the conclusion it wasn't," Webb said.
"He doesn't see a clear action by Young that he considers to be worthy of intervention, one that reaches the threshold of being very clear.
"But we would have preferred an intervention for the referee to go to the screen to make a judgement for himself in this situation and probably would have come out with a different outcome if that would've happened."
"The game is played by human beings, it's officiated by human beings. And obviously our job is to try to ensure that we have a positive impact on the game by identifying correct decisions on the field. This wasn't one.
"But of course they're humans making judgements as well, so we always are trying to reduce the number of errors that we that we make."
Webb also said referee Michael Oliver will have been "really disappointed" to have not originally spotted a foul by Declan Rice on Ben Davies as Arsenal beat Tottenham 3-2 in the North London derby on Sunday, with a VAR intervention eventually awarding a spot-kick.
"I know Michael [Oliver] will be really disappointed," added Webb.
"He had a really good game. He's one of our top referees and one of the top referees in the world."
'It's time for a magical night at home,' says Vinicius ahead of Bayern Munich second leg
Vinicius Junior is eyeing "a magical night at home" when Real Madrid welcome Bayern Munich for their Champions League semi-final second leg next week.
The two European heavyweights shared a 2-2 draw in a pulsating first leg at the Allianz Arena, setting up a grandstand climax when the battle resumes at Santiago Bernabeu.
Vinicius opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Madrid found themselves 2-1 behind in the second half after Leroy Sane levelled and Harry Kane slotted home from the penalty spot.
However, the Brazil international was also on target from the penalty spot to ensure a share of the spoils with his 31st direct goal involvement in the Champions League since the start of the 2021-22 season - more than any other player in that time.
"We always want to win, but we know that this competition is like that, you can't give away balls because teams score the chances they have," he said, as reported by Reuters.
"We have to keep our heads calm, rest until next week, and we know that we and the fans are going to leave everything at the Santiago Bernabeu to qualify.
"Now it's time for a magical night at home to win and secure our place in the final."
Vinicius' first goal saw him calmly slide home from Toni Kroos' delicious throughball, with the latter playing 15 line-breaking passes in the first half - at least 10 more than any other player on the pitch.
Rodrygo, who was fouled by Kim Min-jae for the penalty that led to Madrid's second goal, paid tribute to the 34-year-old.
"We all keep telling him to keep on playing for not just one more season, but many seasons to come yet," he told Movistar. "He's genuinely a maestro with talent which people love to watch, and we all love to play with.
"If we couldn't win, we were determined not to lose. Given what went on, a draw's a good result. We know the Champions League. We're accustomed to matches like this.
"I believe that teams think they've killed us off, and that's when we are at our most dangerous."
Ancelotti lauds Real Madrid goalscorer Vinicius after first-leg double
Carlo Ancelotti believes Vinicius Junior is constantly developing his attacking output, after the Real Madrid forward delivered again in the Champions League.
Vinicius scored twice as Madrid drew 2-2 with Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday.
Those strikes took Vinicius to 31 goal involvements (16 goals, 15 assists) in the Champions League since the start of the 2021-22 campaign, which is more than any other player in the competition in the same time period.
Vinicius' opener came when he cut inside and latched onto an exceptional pass from Toni Kroos, and Ancelotti pointed out how the Brazil international is beginning to change how he attacks.
Speaking to TNT Sports, Ancelotti said: "Vinicius is starting to understand how important it is for him to move inside the pitch and not only close to the line.
"He's learned really well how to move. It was a fantastic pass from Kroos but a fantastic run from Vinicius."
Reflecting on his team's performance, Ancelotti said: "It was an interesting game, an open game of course – as it has to be for a semi-final. I think we could play better, I don’t think we played our best and we had problems in the first half.
"We started to put pressure on in the second half to level the game – it was much better.
"We are comfortable with a low block but we didn’t play with intensity. With a low block you have to have intensity, you have to win duels, second balls. We were too low. We tried to change something.
"The game was difficult at 2-1 down, but then we had the energy and character to equalise – the second part of the second half was really good."
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