Reo Hatate stars as Celtic beat Old Firm rivals Rangers to go top of the table

Celtic leapfrogged Rangers to the top of the cinch Premiership with a 3-0 thumping of their Old Firm rivals at Parkhead.

In a frenetic first half, Reo Hatate marked his Old Firm debut by grabbing a stunning brace with Liel Abada adding a third with a skilful flick and had it not been for Rangers keeper Allan McGregor the rampant Hoops would have inflicted more damage.

With no travelling supporters inside the ground, Rangers looked a beaten lot at half-time and despite some improvement after the break a comprehensive and sobering defeat was confirmed by the final whistle.

It was a first loss for Rangers boss Giovanni Van Bronckhorst since he took over at the end of November and it was a sore one.

Ange Postecoglou’s side are one point ahead of their fellow Glasgow giants and will look to motor on while Rangers, after losing three goals in a 3-3 draw at Ross County last weekend, have problems to solve.

The usual pre-match guessing games about team selections had to take into consideration injury, suspension and international duty.

Hoops captain Callum McGregor returned from a facial injury wearing a mask and Daizen Maeda was on the bench after returning from international duty but Kyogo Furuhashi, Nir Bitton, David Turnbull, Yosuke Ideguchi, Albian Ajeti and Tom Rogic were all missing, not that it mattered much in the final analysis.

Rangers striker Kemar Roofe came in for Cedric Itten but the visitors were without Alfredo Morelos, Ianis Hagi and Filip Helander.

Aaron Ramsey, who Rangers snapped up in a stunning transfer deadline loan deal from Juventus, was not considered.

The first midweek fixture between the two sides in just over 10 years and it took less than five minutes for Parkhead to explode with a noise that