Celtic’s team, led by Wilfried Nancy, came from behind twice to beat Livingston 4-2 and close the gap on league leaders Hearts to three points.
After Hearts lost the Edinburgh derby to Hibernian, Celtic knew they could halve the gap if they held on and won the Scottish Premiership summit.
Despite falling behind twice in a chaotic opening 10 minutes that included four goals, Nancy’s team regrouped and earned their second straight win under their new coach.
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Cristian Montano scores first goal for Livingston
Any positive feelings that had existed for Nancy and co after their first win in charge against Aberdeen disappeared after Cristian Montano took advantage of poor defending to put Livi ahead within three minutes.
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Benjamin Nygren equalized for Celtic three minutes after Livingston’s opener.
Benjamin Nygren restored parity soon after with an equalizer from a corner kick, only for Montano to restore the lead for the hosts within 60 seconds of the restart.
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Montano scored again to put Livingston up 2-1 just eight minutes into the game.
Livingston was unable to extend their lead again, and Yang Hyun-joong scored his fourth goal in the opening 10 minutes to tie the score again.
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Celtic made it 2-2 after a chaotic first 10 minutes with Yang Hyun-joong’s equalizer.
As the dust began to settle, the visitors came out strong and Nygren took their first lead of the afternoon with a stunning shot from the uprights.
That lead was quickly doubled before half-time when Daniel Finlayson was adjudged to have taken care of within a penalty despite appearing to be pushed by Daenen Maeda.
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Benjamin Nygren’s goal puts Celtic ahead 3-2.
After a review, a spot kick was awarded, which Arne Engels converted to give Celtic some breathing room.
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Arne Engels’ shot puts Celtic ahead 4-2
Nancy’s side were unable to take the initiative after the break as Villami Sinisalo, who replaced Kasper Schmeichel between the sticks, held firm to deny Montano a hat-trick.
Celtic now have 38 points and are three behind Hearts. Livingston, on the other hand, remain at the bottom of the standings.
Nancy is ‘happy’ but demands more
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Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy insisted he wanted “more control” over his side after their 4-2 win over Livingston.
Celtic manager Wilfried Nancy told Sky Sports:
“Really good response. Obviously we came back from behind twice. That’s what I like to see because we didn’t give up. We found a way to come back and I like that.”
“We scored the goals we wanted to score. We scored a lot of goals, so I was happy. The second half could have been better. I want the team to have more control. We had possession of the ball, but in terms of control, we wanted to have good moments. At times we rushed a little bit.”
Nygren celebrates after tying the score.
“I liked the spirit we saw in the second half. They were pushing a little bit more, but the spirit was spot on. We just want to see better things with the ball overall.”
“We saw improvement in every game. I think we can be tougher today because I think we can do better. It’s part of the process. At times we were close to each other. It wasn’t easy because we were man-to-man all over the pitch. We found ways to create imbalances in certain moments.”
“Like I said, we could have improved our style a little bit and come into the next game fresher.
Jan scores Celtic’s second goal
“It’s a learning process for me to understand how the players behave when they’re behind, when we’re in the lead, when we need to control the game a little bit better. Every minute, every game, I get to see the players in different scenarios and it’s really good because I’m learning a lot about how I can deal with them better.”
In closing the gap with Hearts:
“It was good for the players. For me, nothing changes because I am more focused on work. Of course I am happy to be there.”
“It’s too early to say anything, but I’m happy that we were able to get a good result on a difficult pitch and in a difficult situation.”
Martindale regrets penalty decision
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Livingston manager David Martindale was unhappy with the decision to award a penalty for a handball on Daniel Finlayson in Celtic’s 4-2 defeat.
Livingston manager David Martindale told Sky Sports:
“I think we created enough chances to get something out of this game, I think it was a really soft penalty.
“I don’t want to stand here and talk about it, but this is going to put us on the back. I don’t think we’ll get that penalty.”
“I don’t think it was a penalty and the game would have been much closer.
“We need to defend better from two set-pieces. I don’t think one was a penalty, but the other was Nygren’s set-piece.
“There were a lot of positives in the game. I thought we posed a real threat. We created two chances ourselves and got two great goals. We had three or four really good chances in the second half, but we had two better chances in the first half.”
“There were some positives in the game, but the soft penalty was disappointing.”
McGregor: Celtic players are understanding Nancy’s system
Celtic captain Callum McGregor told Sky Sports:
“We have to focus on ourselves. The manager has changed and we have a lot to work on.
“These games will be intense over the Christmas period. We will recover and compete again on Wednesday.”
About Wilfried Nancy:
“It’s only been a few weeks, so we’re working hard to understand what the manager wants from us. We’ve got some great players with great quality, so if we can get them on the ball more and create chances, that will be a good thing.”
“As you can imagine, they’re working very hard. I’m really happy with the way we’re working. The players are being asked to do a lot and change a lot for what the manager wants.”
“It’s difficult because we have games every three days, but the players are working really hard. You can see that the team is starting to come together. A big credit to them. We need to thank them.”
“Every game we seem to be getting better. Even when we’re doing well, we have to keep trying. There’s a lot of things to improve on.
“We will continue to work hard and our goal is to win this league.”
