Celtic reaction: Postecoglou’s men eclipse last season’s Rangers in one notable measure already; Giakoumakis now nearing Furuhashi strike rate; dizzying derby scheduling

Celtic's Giorgis Giakoumakis and Callum McGregor applaud the fans following the 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter final victory away to Dundee United which has exalted the double-scoring Greek striker and his now 30 domestic games without a defeat team. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Celtic’s ability to see off all-comers in the domestic scene for the past six months has taken them to giddy heights.

Postecoglou’s men eclipse last-season’s Rangers in one measure already

It is easy to become blase about adding a digit to Celtic’s domestic unbeaten run each time they play. But in that tally now standing at 30 games following their 3-0 Scottish Cup quarter-final victory away to Dundee United, some serious context and appreciation is demanded. The rarity in a sequence of such longevity from a Scottish club is best illustrated by the fact that, even as they enjoyed a title-winning romp last season achieved without a single league loss, Rangers didn’t come close to a domestic unbeaten 30-game run. Their failures in both cups restricted their best such total to 20 games. Indeed, outside of Celtic’s miraculous 2016-17 treble winning campaign that earned the invincibles tag because they didn’t lose any of their 47 domestic games, the current sequence is the best for almost three decades. Not since Rangers strung together 36 domestic games unbeaten - as part of a 44 all competitions sequence as they came within a whisker of the Champions League final - has Celtic’s current six-month renaissance been outstripped.

Giakoumakis now nearing Furuhashi levels

The predatory instincts of Kyogo Furhashi that earned him 16 goals in the opening four month sof the campaign appeared to make the £4.6m summer capture from Kissel Kobe indispensable. Few considered, over his early outings of an injury-interrupted start to his life at Celtic following his £2.5m move from Dutch club VVV-Venlo, that Giorgos Giakoumakis could fill the void. Yet the double by the Greek at Tannadice doesn’t just means he now has struck nine times; eight of these netted in 2022, and eight of the total one-touch finishes by a bustling forward that betray him as an archetypal penalty box goal sniffer. Giakoumakis boasts a strike rate of a goal every 118 minutes. Furuhashi, in having missed almost half the campaign with hamstring problems sidelining him since Boxing Day - and causing him now to have been absent for 25 of Celtic’s 51 games - has bagged a goal every 118 minutes. The anything-but-elegant Giakoumakis is stepping up for his club in fine style where it counts.

Dizzying derby scheduling

The pairing of Celtic and Rangers in the Scottish Cup semi-final that looks likely for Easter Sunday, April 17, sets up an intriguing or, for many in positions of authority, terrifying prospect. With the title rivals already facing off at Ibrox on April 3, there is every chance the month will bring three derbies upon which the entire complexion of the campaign could rest. The first two rounds of the post-split fixtures are set for April 23 and April 30. If the SPFL were to push back the final derby beyond that, they could set up the possibility of the game being a title decider. Of course, with Celtic currently holding a three-point advantage, all is dependent on how their trip to Govan, and the cinch Premiership encounters they, and Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men, have either side of their next inter-city joust, pan out. Owing to potential for social disorder - shamefully - all efforts are made to avoid a confrontation between the pair being a title decider. That fact makes the chances of three derbies in the month of April appear very real, at present anyway. They have never met three times in a calendar month in games within the three national competitions, though in the post-war days of the old league cup sections between the late 1940s and 1970s often met three times in the opening four weeks of the season. Never has such a sequence encompassed all three possible venues that would host the fixture, though. The adversaries did meet four times in six weeks between early February and mid-March in 2011. And, in case anyone has forgotten, with a Scottish government summit being the fall-out, that familiarity bred more than contempt. As if any more contempt was possible between followers of the two clubs…

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