Celtic maintained their place at the top of the Scottish Premiership table, on goal difference, with a 2-0 win over Dundee at Parkhead on Wednesday night.
The Hoops came into the game off the back of a 3-0 win over Motherwell in the top-flight on Sunday, and secured all three points yet again, with their ninth win in ten league games.
Alistair Johnston came off the bench to open the scoring for a much-changed Celtic XI, before Arne Engels doubled the team’s advantage from the penalty spot.
Brendan Rodgers elected to go with Anthony Ralston from the start but needed his first-choice right-back to come on to break the deadlock against Dundee.
Alistair Johnston's performance against Dundee
The Canada international came on for Ralston in the 57th minute of the match and played the last 33 minutes at Parkhead, scoring the opener in the 60th minute.
With one of his first touches of the ball, Johnston prodded his finish into the back of the net after Hyun-jun Yang’s ball into the box fell his way.
The former MLS star also created one ‘big chance’ for his teammates and completed 94% of his passes, which shows that he was reliable and creative in possession after coming on.
However, Johnston did lose all three of his ground duels and was dribbled past twice without making a single tackle or interception, suggesting that there was some rust on him from a defensive perspective.
Despite him coming on to open the scoring, there was one player who was even better than Rodgers against Dundee on Wednesday night – Engels.
Arne Engels' performance against Dundee
The Belgian whiz came back into the starting XI after being rested from the start against Motherwell last time out and showed Rodgers what he is all about.
Of course, he was directly involved in the second goal in multiple ways. The former Augsburg man played the through ball to send Kyogo Furuhashi into the box to be fouled, before stepping up to take the penalty and score to make it 2-0.
His involvement in the second goal for the Scottish giants was far from his only contribution to the game, though, as Engels put in a fantastic all-round display in the middle of the park.
Touches
91
Key passes
4
Big chances created
1
Duels won
6
Tackles made
3
Dribbled past
0x
As you can see in the table above, the Belgium international was involved in and out of possession and was effective in everything that he did.
The 21-year-old star, who was handed a player rating of 7/10 by 67HailHail, showcased his creativity, with four key passes, but also made three tackles without being dribbled past, as he made it difficult for opposition players to get the better of him.
Therefore, Engels was even better than Johnston as he showed his quality in and out of possession, whilst also playing the full 90 minutes and influencing the play throughout the entire game.
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