Liel Abada the last-gasp hero as Celtic lose another midfielder for Rangers clash

Maybe it is meant to be for Celtic this season.

The euphoria, the utterly volcanic eruption across the club’s stadium - and which had manager Ange Postecoglou buried by a mountain of coaching staff - greeting Liel Abada’s 90th minute winner over Dundee United betrayed that those of a Celtic disposition certainly believe as much.

How could they not, when the Parkhead team came so perilously close to blowing a gilt-edged opportunity to move within two points of Rangers ahead of Scottish football’s behemoths squaring up on Wednesday. Oh, those barely perceptible margins. Were football encounters 89 minutes dead, Rangers would not have been pegged back to 3-3 at Dingwall and Celtic would have been held to a scoreless draw desperately damaging in - if following through that scenario - allowing the Ibrox men to extend their cinch Premiership lead to six points.

Instead, Postecoglou’s men are right on their rivals’ tails, and will go top if, for the first time in more than two years, Celtic can emerge victorious from the fixture.

Yet there are absolutely no certainties about what can be expected in that confrontation when considering what their United scrape reaffirmed. For all their flourish and attacking intent, Celtic within their own environs can be peculiarly lacking in penalty area conviction. They have rarely posted any straightforward league wins on their home patch these past four months. And in their 21 game unbeaten run, their most sumptuous displays have almost all come when teams have been more willing to make a game of it in their own surrounds.

Moreover, the success over a Tannadice opponent impressively obdurate - and from whom keeper Benjamin Siegrist produced two outrageous saves - had to be sealed with 10