Celtic’s Reo Hatate lifts lid on “symbolic” goal and unrivalled “passion” after derby heroics

Celtic’s Reo Hatate suggested that the second strike of the first half double he fashioned in the 3-0 thumping over Rangers could be the shape of things to come.

Celtic’s Reo Hatate celebrates his second goal in the 3-0 derby win over Rangers that he says was all about the style he wants to produce. Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

The composure and craft the 24-year-old demonstrated in finding the net from outside the box for a second time a minute before the interval - having opened the score only five minutes in - gave a nonchalant air to such sang froid in the white-hot environment at Celtic Park. However, the £1.4m signing from Kawasaki Fontale, now with three goals in four starts since his January move, gave the impression such moments are what he expects from himself. Not least in backing his manager Ange Postecoglou’s assessment that he has more to do to get up to speed fully.

“Both goals were very nice for me, especially the second goal,” he said. “It was pretty much my style because I controlled the ball and I finished. So this is very symbolic. In terms of the environment, there is a lot of difference between Scotland and Japan. With the food and the culture, but I try to improve more and more. I am not yet 100 per cent fit, but I really enjoy the style of Celtic. In each game, I can do more things and I want to keep improving and do what the manager wants from me.”

Hatate, only in his third season of playing senior football on a regular basis, confessed his first derby encounter provided him with an occasion of an intensity he hadn’t previously experienced. “I felt the passion of the supporters, it was higher than any other game I’ve played,” he said. “This was more than just an Old Firm, it was a game for first or second place, so it meant even more to everyone. Before the game, I didn’t imagine I scored goals like that. For us to score three as a team was incredible, but what we did was because of so hard we train, because of all the effort we put in as a team.

“In my professional career I’ve never played in front of this kind of huge crowd and it feels so good. I feel good that I was able to contribute to that victory. It was difficult to communicate because of so much noise, so this is why I would look carefully at my team-mates to try and read their movements, what they were doing and thinking and it was the same for them. This was the only way we could do it and it was very important in that situation.”

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