Celtic 5-0 Inverness Caley Thistle: On Top to Stay

By: JT | September 17th, 2007

Celtic spanked a spirited Inverness Caledonian Thistle side on Saturday 5-0, with the goals coming from a variety of sources, snatching top spot in the league along the way. It was the perfect warmup for the trip to Ukraine to take on Shakhtar Donetsk in the first match of the Champions League Group Stages.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was with the Dutch National team this week for their Euro 2008 qualifiers, but since Ruud is back with the Oranje, Jan found himself twiddling his thumbs on the bench. That left him plenty of energy to use up on Caley Thistle. He slotted home the opener from the top of the box after superb work from Scott McDonald and a great setup from Shunsuke Nakamura. His second, a bullet, one-hop header gifted to him from the boot of McDonald (again!), made it 4-0.

Massimo Donati, who is not quite back in the frame as of yet for Italy, added another to his Celtic goal tally. I don’t think too many people felt he was going to put the ball in the net this frequently for the Celts after his move from Milan, so its starting to look like he may have been underutilized in Italy. The man clearly has skills going forward. Wintess his smooth one-two with McDonald (again!), silky diss of the Caley defender, and cool, angled strike into the bottom right corner. Quite nice.

In the second half we got to see what Nakamura is all about. From about 35 he lined up a beautiful left footed rocket that was hit with unreal precision as it flew into the top left corner. Another peach from Naka as he’s beginning to look like he’s back on form.

The scoring was rounded out by an own goal created by a quick burst from Nakamura, and a run into the box by, guess who, Man of the Match Scott McDonald (again!).

This win, combined with Rangers’ appalling 4-2 loss to Hearts, puts the Bhoys back on top of the SPL where they belong, and where they’ll be staying until the end of the season.

All in all, you couldn’t have asked for a much more encouraging performance from the Celts as they prepare to head east to kick off what promises to be the best Champions League Campaign since, well, last year! I’ll get the preview to you sometime tomorrow morning.