Dundee 3-3 Celtic – If you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose

The Celtic Star

·15. Januar 2025

Dundee 3-3 Celtic – If you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose

There’s a saying in football that goes ‘if you can’t win, make sure you don’t lose, and that was the case for Celtic at Dens park last night…

Arne Engels prepares to take the penalty. Dens Park, Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

A late Arne Engels spot kick rescued us a point on a night we were quite frankly rank rotten. From back to front we were all over the place, especially in defence, with Auston Trusty the main culprit.

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It’s a major disappointment not to take the three points, especially in the way which we started the game when we took the lead in the 4th minute thanks to a fine header courtesy of Luke McCowan. It really was a fine goal, assisted superbly by Greg Taylor, a beautiful Celtic goal made in Greenock.

Luke McCowan celebrates with teammates. Dens Park, Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

We had further chances to increase our lead with Adam Idah blowing a great opportunity, one that he should have hit the back of the net with as his poor form in front of goal continues. Paulo Bernardo was also culpable as he hit the bar with a header, and just like Idah he should have done a lot better. It really should have been 3-0 and the game out of sight for Tony Doherty’s injury hit side.

Dundee levelled the game just before half time after catching us on the break, and it’s a goal that won’t go down well with Brendan Rodgers especially as it arrived 17 seconds after a Celtic corner.

Dundee equalise. Dens Park, Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Yang put us back in front eight minutes into the second half after a great ball by Kyogo, but our lead was short lived as Dundee instantly responded due to an unfortunate Cameron Carter-Vickers own goal after Trusty failed to deal with the situation.

After that Dundee imposed themselves and looked the more likely team to score with Celtic second to every ball against the fully committed players in Dark blue.

Dundee celebrations. Dens Park, Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

They did get that thirrd goal and sadly it didn’t come as a surprise. It’s a moment the Celtic defence won’t want to see again with Auston Trusty the main culprit as he was out-muscled by Dens youngster Aaron Donnelly who headed into the net much to the delight of the home crowd, but not himself as he refrained from celebrating after scoring against the team he supports.

It was a lead the Dens side had undeniably deserved, or more accurately Celtic deserved to be behind as we played a big part in the proceedings due to our frailties especially in defence.

Just as it looked like we were heading for our second league defeat of 2025 (we only had one in 2024) , we got a lifeline when just at the start of added time Dundee midfielder Mo Sylla stopped a goal bound Nicolas Kuhn effort with his hand in the box resulting in a stonewall penalty kick. Not even Andrew Dallas on VAR could find an excuse not to allow the spot-kick.

Arne Engels scores. Dens Park, Dundee v Celtic. 14th January 2025. Photo Vagelis Georgariou

Substitute Arne Engels made no mistake under pressure to save us from defeat and rescue a point with a competent spot kick. A point is not what we wanted, but it’s a result we will gladly accept. In the cup final last month Brendan changed his centre-back pairing at the interval. There were signs even in that first half that Trusty wasn’t at the races. Brendan let it go but Dundee exploited it to the full in that dreadful second half.

Liam Scales should have been brought on for the battle as he’d have been more up for the fight that Trusty who had a night that will be for the Celtic supporters, hard to forgive of forget.

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