After Celtic’s 6-0 thrashing of Dundee, which featured a string of brilliant goals, manager Brendan Rodgers has singled out his favourite strike of the night—and it’s no surprise that he picked Daizen Maeda’s stunning chip.
Celtic were in scintillating form, scoring goals that would make this month’s Goal of the Month competition a nightmare to judge. However, for Rodgers, Maeda’s delicate dink over Trevor Carson stood out as the best of the lot.
Speaking after the match, Rodgers praised the build-up play and the composure under pressure, which started deep in Celtic’s own half.
“I think Daizen Maeda’s was a great goal,” he said, as quoted by TCW.
“Why? Because it starts right in the very corner.
“We’re under pressure. Dundee are there. They want to press.
“We stay calm. We connect the game, take it out, get it out the other side. Arne’s pass and then probably no one would see Daizen scoring a goal like that.
“But what a finish it was. So, yeah, that was a great goal, as was Nicolas’. And in fairness to Trevor Carson in their goal, you can’t really do anything about all the goals.
“The goals were of the highest quality.”
The goal was a perfect example of Celtic’s ability to play through the press. Starting from Greg Taylor’s corner flag, Celtic moved the ball with precision and composure, eventually working it across to Arne Engels, who played a defence-splitting pass to Maeda.
From there, Maeda produced a moment of pure class, dinking the ball first-time from the edge of the box over Carson—a finish that even the Dundee goalkeeper could do nothing about.
Maeda’s brace takes him up to 8 goals in the league this season, 18 goals in all competitions. He’s been in fine form this campaign, and will be looking to continue his goal-scoring as Celtic push into the second half of the season. [Transfermarkt]
