Slow-burning Celtic end up having a brilliant Boxing Day - but one player failed to impress
Celtic celebrate convincing Boxing Day victory after first half struggle
What had been shaping up as a frustrating Boxing Day for Celtic ultimately proved to be a satisfying one as Motherwell found to their cost that a solid first half guarantees you nothing at the home of the champions.
When the clock struck 45 minutes, the away side had every reason to feel content with how they had contained the league leaders, surviving just one scare - when goalkeeper Aston Oxborough made a brilliant double save from Daizen Maeda - as Stuart Kettlewell's men looked set to head into the interval with a clean sheet.
In the home dugout, Brendan Rodgers would have been contemplating how to solve the puzzle of a third straight half of football without a goal for his side following the stalemate at Dundee United on Sunday.
That was until the game swung on a debatable penalty decision in first-half injury time, which was inflated to four minutes by VAR checks and a stoppage in play due to a medical emergency in the crowd.
Greg Taylor's deflected cross caused uncertainty in the Motherwell defence which winger Yang Hyun-jun seized upon, sprinting inside from the right to reach the ball ahead of outrushing goalkeeper Oxborough before hitting the deck.
The contact appeared both brief and minimal - not too dissimilar to an incident in the Celtic penalty box earlier in the first half where Tawanda Maswanhise earned a yellow card for diving under Yang's challenge - but referee Ross Hardie felt a penalty was merited on this occasion and VAR Steven McLean chose not to intervene.
It left Arne Engels with the chance to break the deadlock, which he did unerringly by firing home low and hard, while sending Oxborough the wrong way, to make it four from four from the spot for Celtic.
It was a happy ending to a half that had been a frustrating one for Celtic, and in particular for South Korean winger Yang, who could not be faulted for effort but was too often guilty of running the ball out of play as he struggled to win his individual battle with Scotland Under-21 full-back Ewan Wilson. Winning the penalty may well have saved him from the half-time hook.
The failure, marginally, to get to the break with their goal intact, could have spelt the end for Motherwell. Yet they had a huge chance to level the game 10 minutes after the restart. Maswanhise's header from a corner was on its way into the net until it struck teammate Tony Watt and deflected over. The ex-Celtic man inadvertently doing his former side a massive favour.
From a let-off at one end, Celtic effectively put the game to bed 90 seconds later. Engels provided another major contribution in only his second start in seven appearances with a wicked corner kick delivery to the near post that Liam Scales flicked on for Maeda to leap onto with a close range diving header.
Celtic specialise in demoralising the opposition and having gone 2-0 up without a vintage performance, they then brought Nicolas Kuhn, Kyogo Furuhashi and Reo Hatate off the bench on the hour mark.
Two of the star trio managed to get on the scoresheet with deflected strikes from both Kuhn and Hatate ensuring no way back for Motherwell. By the end Celtic were playing football that was drawing oohs and aahs from the crowd but the search for a fifth proved elusive.
Given Rangers lost 2-1 at St Mirren to a stoppage-time strike, Celtic ended the day 12 points clear at the top of the Premiership - a very welcome late Christmas present.
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