St Johnstone 0-3 Celtic: Olivier Ntcham sparks first-half rout as leaders cruise
Celtic maintained their cushion at the top of the Scottish Premiership after sweeping aside St Johnstone in the opening half hour to win 3-0 on Wednesday.
Olivier Ntcham, James Forrest and Leigh Griffiths struck inside 27 minutes as Neil Lennon’s leaders overran the Perth side to maintain their five-point lead over Rangers, who also won.
Celtic now have an aggregate score of 30-0 against Saints in the past nine games.
Lennon lined up with Forrest and Greg Taylor as advanced wing-backs ahead of a back three with Griffiths partnering Odsonne Edouard up front and St Johnstone could not cope with the waves of first-half attacks.
The champions lost their intensity after the break but Tommy Wright’s side deserve credit for competing after earlier looking like they were headed for a repeat of the 7-0 thrashing they suffered at Parkhead on the opening day of the league season.
Celtic could have been ahead even before Ntcham’s sixth-minute opener. Edouard had a shot saved and Griffiths missed a good headed chance from left-back Greg Taylor’s cross.
But the opener came from the other flank as Forrest delivered a cross for Ntcham to head home unmarked from six yards out.
Celtic kept attacking. Taylor had a shot parried, Griffiths was denied by a good block from the follow-up and Callum McGregor fired just wide from 20 yards, while Zander Clark had to save a sliced clearance from team-mate Jason Kerr.
Michael O’Halloran and Ali McCann had shots comfortably saved at the other end but it was otherwise one-way traffic.
The second goal came in the 20th minute after McGregor fed Forrest inside the box. The wing-back took one step outside Scott Tanser and fired into the far corner.
Celtic’s intensity increased further. Griffiths forced a save, Edouard cut through the heart of the Saints defence and trundled a shot just wide, and McGregor mis-kicked after being set up by Forrest.
That was all in the seven-minute hiatus between goals before Griffiths volleyed home Taylor’s cross from 12 yards.
Celtic took off pre-match injury doubt Jozo Simunovic at half-time and brought on Moritz Bauer, moving Scott Brown further back.
Saints had the better of the chances in the second half. David Wotherspoon’s bouncing effort was parried wide by Fraser Forster and Kerr saw his header cleared off the line by Celtic substitute Patryk Klimala but the game was long won for the visitors.
Soccer Accumulator Bonus
Our fantastic Euro Soccer accumulator offer gives you the chance to earn a bonus of up to 100% on accumulators on the top domestic leagues in Europe along with the group and knockout stages of the Champions League.
This offer applies to returns on pre-match accumulators of 3 or more selections on Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for the English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga 1 or UEFA Champions League.
The maximum bonus that you can receive is ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. The bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based .on the remaining active stake. If a qualifying bet is edited .using our Edit Bet feature. The bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply. Double Chance bets or combination bets with bonuses. Such as Lucky 15’s or Lucky .31’s do not apply for this offer.
If your bet is successful, we will add the following bonuses to your returns:
Bet Type Bonus
14-folds and upwards 100% bonus
Terms and Conditions
Applies to straight pre-match accumulator bets on the Full Time Result or Result/Both Teams To Score markets for UEFA Champions League, English Premier League, Italian Serie A, Spanish Primera Liga, German Bundesliga .1 or Australian A-League matches. Maximum bonus ˆ100,000 or currency equivalent. Soccer Accumulator Bonus does not apply to Double Chance bets or combination. bets with bonuses such as Lucky 15’s, Lucky 31’s etc.
If any selections are postponed/void then the bonus will still apply, but the percentage bonus added will reflect the actual number of winning selections. For example, an 8-fold accumulator with 7. winners and 1 postponed match will receive a 30% .bonus to returns.
The bonus part of your returns will be added to your account within 24 hours of your final selection having played.
This bonus will not apply where a stake has been fully Cashed Out. Where a stake has been partially Cashed Out, the bonus will be calculated based on the remaining active stake.
If a qualifying bet is edited using our Edit Bet feature, the bonus will be calculated based on the new stake. Where a bet has been edited to include or amend a selection for an event that is In-Play, the bonus will no longer apply.
Where any term of the offer or promotion is breached or there is any evidence of a series of bets placed by a customer or group of customers, which due to a deposit bonus, enhanced payments, free bets, risk free bets or any other promotional offer results in guaranteed customer profits irrespective of the outcome, whether individually or as part of a group, bet365 reserves the right to reclaim the bonus element of such offers and in their absolute discretion either settle bets at the correct odds, void the free and risk free. bets or void any bet funded by the deposit bonus.
In addition bet365 .reserve the right to levy an administration charge on the customer up to the value of the deposit bonus, free bet, risk free bet or additional payment to cover administrative costs. We further reserve the right to ask any customer to provide sufficient documentation for us to be satisfied in our absolute discretion as to the customer’s identity prior to us crediting any bonus, free bet, risk free bet or offer to their account.
All bet365 offers are intended for recreational players and bet365 may in its sole discretion limit the eligibility of customers to participate in all or part of any promotion.
.
