Yang at the double as Celtic take all three points against Motherwell | OneFootball

Scottish PremiershipSaturday, March 14, 2026Celtic Park

CELTIC…3(Yang 38 & 79, Cvancara 72)

MOTHERWELL…1(Just 32)

 Celtic have taken all three points from a thoroughly entertaining match against Motherwell at Celtic Park, with a brace from Yang and a converted penalty from Tomas Cvancara giving Martin O’Neill’s men a 3-1 victory over the Fir Park side.

The visitors started quickly, moving the ball around at pace and with purpose as has become their style this season, and with less than five minutes played, Benjamin Arthur, making his first home start today, produced a good block to prevent a Tawanda Maswanhise shot from troubling Viljami Sinisalo.

Celtic’s first big chance of the match fell to Benjamin Nygren who was presented a golden opportunity just yards out from goal after a failed clearance from the Motherwell defence, but the Swede could not convert the chance.

Sebastian Tounekti then saw a curling effort from the edge of the box go wide of the target after Nygren had picked him out with a nice ball out towards the left wing.

Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain looked like he had put Celtic ahead with just shy of 20 minutes gone when he unleashed a powerful effort towards the bottom corner from outside the box. Motherwell keeper Calum Ward threw himself down towards the shot and pushed it on to the post before the ball trundled along the goal line, Celtic coming agonisingly close to taking the lead.

Benjamin Arthur was the next Celtic man to go close with his headed effort from a Benjamin Nygren corner creeping just over the bar.

Motherwell took the lead just after the half-hour mark when Reo Hatate was caught in possession at the edge of the Celtic box, giving Elijah Just a chance to take a shot on goal. His effort flew in to the bottom corner of the net, giving Motherwell a 1-0 lead.

The Hoops were level five minutes later when a Benjamin Nygren cut back in to the box was cleared only as far as Yang, who swept in to the box and slammed a shot in to the bottom corner to make it 1-1.

Just before half time, Motherwell had a big chance to take the lead again, but Callum Slattery’s effort from just inside the area drifted well wide of the target and the sides went in level at the break.

Martin O’Neill made one change at half time, bringing Tomas Cvancara on for Sebastian Tounekti, with Daizen Maeda moving out to the left.

Celtic worked themselves in to good shooting positions early in the second half, but both Benjamin Nygren and Tomas Cvancara seemed to hesitate in taking their shots. When Nygren did fire a shot towards goal early in the second period, it took a deflection on its way and rattled the base of the post, the woodwork once again coming to Motherwell’s rescue.

Vil Sinisalo was called in to action in the opening exchanges of the second half, producing a strong stop to deny Ibrahim Said, who got a shot on target from outside the penalty area.

With an hour gone, Martin O’Neill made another change, bringing Luke McCowan on for Benjamin Nygren, and shortly after coming on, a corner from McCowan resulted in a penalty for the Hoops, as Daizen Maeda was hauled to the ground at the back post.

After being sent to the VAR monitor, John Beaton pointed to the spot and showed a red card to Emmanuel Longelo before Tomas Cvancara, the penalty hero at Ibrox last week, stepped up and smashed his spot-kick in to the back of the net to make it 2-1 to Celtic.

With 15 minutes of the match left, there were three further changes for the Hoops as Marcelo Saracchi, Anthony Ralston and Paulo Bernardo were brought on for Kieran Tierney, Colby Donovan and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Celtic gave themselves some vital breathing space with just over 10 minutes to go, with Viljami Sinisalo proving that route one football isn’t a forgotten art. The Finnish keeper launched the ball forward towards Yang, who took it in his stride before producing a brilliant finish to make it 3-1 to Celtic and claim his second goal of the afternoon.

In stoppage time, Anthony Ralston fired a shot towards goal from distance, but his effort drifted wide, however the Hoops knew that, with an unassailable lead, the three points were safe.