BEAMING Brendan Rodgers hailed two-goal Daizen Maeda and £11million man Arne Engels after Celtic’s landlside 5-1 triumph over Aberdeen at Parkhead last night.
The Japanese speedster started and finished the rout to boost his strike tally to an astonishing 25 in a prolific crusade.
And the cultured Belgian produced a midfield masterclass as the champions thundered SIXTEEN points ahead in the relentless pursuit of their 55th crown.
A BIG HAND…Brendan Rodgers cheers on his players from the touchline.
Rodgers reflected on a good night’s work and said: “Daizen’s a real symbol of the team in what I want – his pressing, his honesty, his humility, and then his quality and his hunger to want to score goals.
“Wherever he plays, he will score goals, whether he plays wide or he’s central.
“His contribution this season has been incredible.
“Arne’s intensity and his familiarity now with the team and how we play is there. He has comfort in that and just his work-rate and quality is such a high level.
“I’m really pleased for him.”
The hosts did not come out of the blocks firing on all cylinders and there were a couple of anxious moments for Kasper Schmeichel before Maeda pounced on a deflection to hook the breakthrough goal past the helpless Ross Doohan in the 24th minute.
PICK IT OUT…Daizen Maeda gets the show on the road.
Filipe Jota and Callum McGregor added to the tally before the interval and there was no danger of the points escaping the Hoops when they trooped out for the second-half.
Yang Hyun-jun, who had replaced Jota just before the hour mark, worked a splendid one-two with Luke McCowan, on for Reo Hatate at the same time, before sliding No.4 past the Dons keeper in the 72nd minute.
Schmeichel’s wonderful shut-out record of nine successive home league games came to an end in the 90th minute when Shayden Morris beat the Danish keeper at his near post with a low, angled drive.
Two minutes afterwards, it was merchant of menace Maeda again on target when he thumped in an inviting right-wing cross from Alistair Johnston.
Rodgers, speaking to Celtic TV, continued: “It was a very good result for us and there were lots of moments within the game where we showed real quality in the goals and a big effort by the team.
JOY BHOYS…Arne Engels congratulates Daizen Maeda after another goal for the Japanese ace.
“I said to the boys at half-time that, obviously, the goals were very good, but it was wee bit similar to the League Cup semi-final where we were 3-0 up, scored very good goals, but we weren’t there in our pressing.
“And I can understand it because we’ve played relentlessly for three-and-a-half months, so we’re going to have periods within games where we’re just not quite there.
“But in the second-half, we controlled much of the game, the pitch was much shorter for us and we scored two more outstanding goals.”
