Celtic moved level on points with Scottish Premiership leaders Hearts after a hard-fought 3-1 victory over Falkirk at Celtic Park.
Martin O’Neill’s side successfully took advantage of playing before their title rivals by piling the pressure on Rangers and Hearts – who are not in action until Sunday.
Daizen Maeda and Kieran Tierney provided two excellent first-half finishes as the Bairns were punished for passing up some big opportunities.
Kyrell Wilson’s sublime half-volley in the second period gave the visitors some hope of a comeback, but Maeda then added his second of the evening seven minutes from time to secure three crucial points in the race for the title.
The Champions have now won four matches in a row and have four games left to defend their Premiership crown.
Sixth-place Falkirk now face an uphill battle to get among the European spots, having won just one of their last five in all competitions.
Daizen Maeda was back to his best with a brilliant brace.
How Celtic bested spirited Falkirk
It was always going to a tough afternoon for the visitors after losing three key players in Scott Bain, Filip Lissah and Liam Henderson to injury in last weekend’s Scottish Cup semi-final defeat by rivals Dunfermline Athletic.
However, they actually started the better of the two sides.
Captain Brad Spencer had an excellent volley from distance pushed wide by Viljami Sinisalo at full stretch before Dylan Tait headed wide following a neat corner routine.
But as John McGlynn’s side have learned in their four matches against Celtic this campaign, you must be ruthless against the champions.
Maeda, just as he did in Sunday’s semi-final win over St Mirren, again displayed his freakish pressing abilities for the opening goal.
Kieran Tierney’s spectacular strike put Celtic 2-0 up in the first half
The Japan international pounced on Keelan Adams’ heavy touch on the halfway line before catching goalkeeper Nicky Hogarth off his line with a clever first-time finish.
Tierney then stretched their advantage to two on the stroke of half-time as he thumped a sixth goal of the season in off the crossbar to complete a swift Celtic counter-attack.
O’Neill’s men controlled much of the second period and Yang had a third goal ruled out for offside before Falkirk got themselves back in it with 20 minutes to go.
Substitute Kyrell Wilson took Leon McCann’s cross-field pass on the chest before unleashing an unstoppable half-volley to find the top corner from an acute angle.
Wilson continued to look a threat as Falkirk went in search of an equaliser, but all hope of a precious point was extinguished with seven minutes remaining when Maeda popped up with his second of the afternoon.
Last season’s ‘Player of the Year’ looked like his old self and got on the end of Sebastian Tounekti’s cutback to roll in his third goal in two matches – after going his previous 17 without scoring.
Perhaps hitting form at the right time? O’Neill will hope so.
Four games to go and just one point between the top three. For now…
What the managers said
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Martin O’Neill describes Daizen Maeda as “phenomenal” after his match-winning performance for Celtic.
Celtic manager Martin O’Neill:
“The result was the most important thing.
“Daizen Maeda was phenomenal today… I thought he was tremendous today. I’m delighted with the result and delighted with quite a number of performances.
“There’s been a lot of adversity, but the players have shown immense character. We’ve got flaws like everybody else, but you cannot dispute the character of the team.
“I will pay attention to what’s happening [on Sunday], absolutely, I’ve always done that.
“I remember going back years and years ago worrying about what Rangers might do the next day. Hearts have shown great resilience, it’s a three-horse race.”
Falkirk manager John McGlynn:
“I’m really pleased with the performance; it was a big test for us today mentally after losing the late goals against Rangers and the penalty shoutout last week against Dunfermline.
“We gave that as good a go as anyone could have given… there’s not a lot in the stats.
“We tried to play a couple of times and lost the ball, Celtic punished us. Celtic were very much at it and were pressing with great intensity.
“I’m really proud of them because there was a big question about how we’d respond to that last week. Yeah, we’re beat, but the mentality of the team was great.”
