As the season starts to wind down Celtic have pretty much secured their sixth straight league title as they would roll over the competition and continue the unbeaten streak alive.
For the Bhoys Valentines Day was one of intrigue with the battle with PSG. It did not go as planned but the team can still be proud against a hard team. Moussa Dembele had this to say about the PSG match:
"Yeah, it was a disappointing game and sadly I did not score against them but we as a team played the best we could against one of the best attacks in Europe this season. I hope we can make a dent next month in Paris."
In transfer business Brendan Rodgers is proud to announce that 18 year old Norwegian defender
Morten Tønsberg Andresen was signed on a pre-contract and will be joining us on June 7th for a transfer of £1.9M.
It was a clean sweep of awards as Celtic took all honors of the Month. Moussa Dembele was awarded the SPFL Player of the Month, SPFL Young Player of the Month and the Goal of the Month for his strike against Motherwell. Brendan Rodgers also picked up the SPFL Manager of the Month award for February.
Here is your spoiler free recap of February
February began with a 4-0 victory over Aberdeen. In the third meeting of the season it was all
Stuart Armstrong as he scored two goals.
Patrick Roberts and
Leigh Griffiths also collected goals late in the game.
Celtic continued league action, St. Johnstone our opponents, for the first and only away league game of the month. This was the first of two encounters with the Saints in February. Once again we put in a strong attacking display storming to a 3-1 win and three fairly routine points. Goals were scored by
Scott Sinclair and
Leigh Griffiths who scored in his second straight match.
Murray Davidson scored twice of the Saints on this day one was an own goal twenty-four minutes in and then St. Johnstone's only in the thirty-third minute.
The second of two meetings with St. Johnstone was next, this time in the William Hill Scottish Cup Fifth Round. Unlike the previous week the Saints gave Celtic a fight and narrowly won it but Celtic had the upper hand again. Captain
Scott Brown got things underway three minutes in with a goal from outside the box and
Moussa Dembele added his first of the month.
It was not the best day for Celtic as they fell 4-0 to the vising Paris Saint-Germain, in their first ever meeting, in the Champions League Round of 16. Despite a slip for ten minutes when the visitors had scored all four goals, the Bhoys had played hard and kept PSG from increasing the score. Several key saves by
Craig Gordon kept the visitors form scoring even more.
Matchday 25 was a meeting with Motherwell. This was much more like the Celtic we all, as the Bhoys put in a very good attacking display full of fast flowing football. Striker
Moussa Dembele had an amazing game with a hat-trick, while
Stuart Armstrong had opened the game scoring three minutes in, his best friend and our favourite,
Gary-Mackay-Steven scored his first goal of the year!!! It was a routine 5-0 victory, but considering the quality of our opponents but Celtic could have easily scored more.
The final game of February, saw us take on Hamilton, in Premiership Action. Earlier on in the season, we walked over the Accies with a 1-2 combined scoreline in the previous two meetings. Once again we were dominant in this game, but not as dominant in the score line with a 3-0 win the final outcome. For the second match in a row
Moussa Dembele score a hat-trick and is now the league leader with 19 goals.
For the third time this season the Dafabet Player of the Month award goes to Moussa Dembele. The French striker hit home 7 goals in 6 games, including two hat-trick in the final two matches of February. He created opportunities for his team mates in addition to scoring goals, and was looking much more like the player he was at the start of the season. His play in the final three domestic matches of the month granted him a sweep in the league awards.
Competitions
March will be another busy month for the Celts as the season is winding down. Five matches are to be played including the Scottish Cup fifth Round on the 4th against Partick Thistle and the second leg of the Round of 16 in Paris on the 8th. In the Premiership Celtic begin the month away in the Highlands at Inverness tomorrow. After the two cup matches Celtic will face Rangers one last time before the split at Celtic Park for a noon kickoff on the 12th Finally Celtic travel to Dundee to face Dundee FC on the 19th. Celtic will then take a break due to the international break. Also our development squad will inake several new players.
