Hibs 0, Celtic 4: Classy Celts sweep Hibs aside in Edinburgh

An Aaron Mooy double and goals from Daizen Maeda and Kyogo Furuhashi ensured a straightforward victory for Celtic against Hibs at Easter Road on Wednesday night.

Daizen Maeda goes close with a diving header in the first half of Hibs v Celtic

Mooy and Maeda both scored in the opening period, with the latter hitting the bar, while the Australian added a second from the penalty spot shortly before Furuhashi put some gloss on the scoreline.

Hibs started strongly, picking up where they left off on Saturday against Livingston. Part of the game plan appeared to be targeting Celtic’s stand-in right-back Reo Hatate and with barely 60 seconds on the clock Élie Youan burned past the makeshift defender and got a cross in that was only just cleared for a corner. The hosts did have the ball in the back of the net after three minutes but Chris Cadden was clearly offside, with a VAR check confirming so. Youan and Lewis Stevenson combined again moments later but Celtic again cleared for a corner with Kevin Nisbet lurking.

Ange Postecoglou’s side looked somewhat sluggish in the opening exchanges, with Maeda and Mooy both sending half-chances off target – glimpses, but not enough to really cause concern for Lee Johnson. Hibs maintained their pattern of attacking down the left without really threatening although they had a glorious chance on the quarter-hour, Ryan Porteous spiralling an inviting ball over the top to Cadden, who raced onto it but seemed caught in two minds about whether to shoot or cross and ended up doing neither and stumbled, allowing Celtic to clear their lines. Campbell dragged a shot wide from the edge of the area and at the other end, Maeda picked out Kyogo Furuhashi but his cheeky close-range backheel was comfortably saved by David Marshall.

Three minutes later Celtic did take the lead; Maeda the architect as he left Cadden trailing in his wake before popping in a centre that took a touch off Joe Newell and fell for Mooy who lashed in the opener. Maeda nearly made it two on 35 minutes when his header crashed back off the bar but the Japanese international forward made it two nearly immediately, carving open the Hibs defence before curling in a wonderful second from outside the area. A good strike, yes, but he wasn’t met with perhaps as much resistance as he might have expected and it would be an omen for what was to come.

Hibs did have a chance to reduce the deficit before half-time but Paul Hanlon’s header from a knocked-on long throw from Newell rebounded off Joe Hart’s right-hand post. And it was Hibs who had the first real chance of the second period, Newell picking out Nisbet but the forward’s header lacked power and accuracy and drifted harmlessly out for a goal-kick.

Just before the hour mark Celtic made it three, Stevenson penalised for handball which was confirmed after a VAR check for offside and the spot-kick itself. Mooy stepped up and sent Marshall the wrong way for his second of the evening.

On 64 minutes, Hatate picked out Furuhashi and the forward side-stepped Rocky Bushiri before slotting in past the onrushing Marshall. The Hibs custodian denied Matt O’Riley a fifth with a fine stop towards the end but of greater concern for Johnson will have been another decent start followed by a second-half crumbling.