THE best is yet to come…that’s the emphatic and stirring prediction from Celtic skipper Callum McGregor as the champions continue their all-conquering sequence.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have not lost a domestic game since the inexplicable 2-0 defeat to St Mirren in Paisley on September 18, a run which has now extended to 27 games with the only slight hiccup coming in the 2-2 draw at Ibrox on January 2.
The League Cup was won last month for the second successive year, the Parkhead pacesetters are nine points clear at the Premiership pinnacle with 10 games to play and they will discover their Scottish Cup fate this evening when the semi-final draw is made after the Falkirk v Ayr United tie.
MIDFIELD MASTER…Callum McGregor tussles for possession with Hearts’ Toby Sibbick as Celtic ease to a 3-0 win at Tynecastle.
McGregor, like his manager, refuses to discuss the distinct possibility of a silverware clean sweep, but warned: “Our football is always evolving, the players are understanding more and more about how to play the system and you can see them working it out even every day in training.
“We find different solutions to what we face in a game. You see them now starting to think: ‘Right, where do I need to be?’ in relation to where the ball is.
“That’s the way we play football, you need everybody moving in relation and keeping the distances good to connect the game. As soon as you do that you have three guys at the top of the pitch with quality, pace, and who score goals.”
Influential midfield leader McGregor, speaking to the Daily Record, added: “You can definitely see what we are trying to do coming together, but by no means are we the finished article.
“We keep going and we always try and take the small details to learn and push ourselves as a group.
UP FOR THE CUP…Callum McGregor holds aloft the newly-won silverware as Celtic celebrate the 2-1 derby victory at Hampden last month.
“We believe that if we play our best game every time we go on the pitch, we will be very difficult to stop.
“The reason this group has got so much better so quickly is because we work so hard every day in training.
“We listen to the manager, we listen to each other and we just keep trying to improve individually and as a group.
“And when we get the chance to play games we just try to come together and show all that and attack each game as it comes.”
It certainly clicked into place at Tynecastle on Saturday as Postecoglou’s side swept Hearts aside with a ruthless ease after Aaron Mooy walloped in the breakthrough strike inside two minutes.
Kyogo Furuhashi, with his 26th strike of the campaign, doubled the advantage on the stroke of half-time and Cameron Carter-Vickers, with his first goal of the season, headed in the third and final counter 10 minutes from the end.
Now we await to see who blocks the champions’ path to Hampden for the showpiece showdown on June 3.
