Celtic ease to 3-0 win over Rangers in first Old Firm game of Premiership season

Celtic have eased to a home win over Rangers in the first-half Old Firm game of the Premiership season.

The Hoops continued their impressive recent run against their rivals with a 3-0 victory to make it five wins and one draw in the last six games between Glasgow’s big two.

Celtic took a two-goal cushion into the break after a commanding first-half and the one-way traffic continued in the second.

Daizen Maeda put them ahead after a frantic start in the east-end of Glasgow on Sunday before Kyogo Furuhashi doubled the lead at the end of the first 45.

Callum McGregor added to that in the second-half with a fantastic long-range strike that flew past Jack Butland.

Rangers had the first opportunity inside the first minute when they were awarded an early free-kick that was floated into the area before being headed across the face of the goal by Robin Propper in his Old Firm debut.

Reo Hatate then tried his luck up the other end but his optimistic effort was well wide of the target.

It was end-to-end in the opening stages and Rabbi Matondo would have felt he should have handed the visitors a lead when he found himself in space just in front of goal but his header was off target.

Celtic had the ball in the net just a few moments later when Kuhn burst up the right hand side before cutting it back to Kyogo who tapped it into the net.

But the goal was ruled out for offside after VAR found the German winger to have strayed just beyond the last defender before the ball came to him.

The Hoops were in-front soon after when Maeda turned a cross from Alistair Johnston past Jack Butland to make it 1-0 on the 17th minute.

Celtic then started to get a real foothold of the game, with Kuhn looking particularly impressive, as Rangers struggled to hold on.

Hatate should have had a goal when the ball fell to him inside the box but he fired well wide from an awkward angle.

Then Kyogo, just as he has done so often in this fixture, found the back of the net again with a fine finish into the bottom corner from outside the box to make 2-0 five minutes before the break.

It was nearly three in first-half injury time after Paulo Bernardo had a jinking run into the box but his shot was well saved by Butland.

Celtic continued to have the lion’s share of possession after the break and Kyogo came close to adding to their lead when he raced on to a Hatate through-ball to get a one-on-one with Butland before attempting to chip the Rangers goalkeeper but failed to hit the target.

Cyriel Dessers and Ross McCausland both had chances for Rangers but it was the champions who stayed on the front-foot and looked increasingly likely to add to their lead.

Brendan Rodgers then made his first change of the match when he brought on the club’s record signing Arne Engels on for his debut in the place of Bernardo for the last half-hour.

McGregor then secured all three-points for the champions with his stunning strike that made it 3-0 with 15 minutes remaining.

Kasper Schmeichel made a good save in the closing stages to keep up his early clean-sheet record in the Premiership.

Celtic now move back to the top of the league ahead of Aberdeen on goal-difference and go five points ahead of Rangers after just four games.