Livingston vs Celtic; Scottish Premiership
Livingston vs Celtic. Scottish Premiership.
Tony Macaroni ArenaAttendance8,861.
Livingston 2
- C Montano (3rd minute, 8th minute)
Celtic 4
- B Nygren (6th minute, 31st minute)
- H Yang (10th minute)
- A Engels (39th minute pen)
Livingston 2-4 Celtic: Wilfried Nancy's side overcome crazy start to close gap on leaders Hearts
Report as Celtic beat Livingston in the Scottish Premiership; Wilfried Nancy's side came from behind twice in chaotic opening 10 minutes to secure second straight win; the Hoops cut the deficit to league leaders Hearts to three points with a game in hand
Saturday 27 December 2025 20:39, UK
Celtic closed the gap to league leaders Hearts to three points as Wilfried Nancy's side came from behind twice to beat Livingston 4-2.
After Hearts lost their Edinburgh derby at Hibernian, Celtic knew a win would halve the deficit at the Scottish Premiership summit with a game in hand.
Despite falling behind twice in a chaotic opening 10 minutes that included four goals, Nancy's side regrouped to earn their second consecutive win under their new boss.
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Any positivity that Nancy and Co had after securing the first victory of his tenure against Aberdeen evaporated after Cristian Montano capitalised on poor defending to fire Livi in front within the opening three minutes.
Parity was restored when Benjamin Nygren equalised from a corner moments later, only for Montano to restore the hosts' lead within 60 seconds of the restart.
Livingston again failed to build on their lead, as Hyun-Jun Yang scored the fourth goal in the opening 10 minutes to again level proceedings.
The chaos began to settle and allowed the visitors to flex their muscles, with Nygren giving them their first lead of the afternoon with a spectacular effort that went in off the upright.
That lead was soon doubled before half-time as Daniel Finlayson was adjudged to have handled inside the penalty despite appearing to be pushed by Daizen Maeda.
A spot-kick was awarded after a review, which Arne Engels converted to give Celtic some breathing space.
Nancy's men failed to grab control after the break as Viljami Sinisalo, who replaced Kasper Schmeichel in between the sticks, stood firm to deny Montano a hat-trick.
Celtic move onto 38 points, three behind Hearts with a game in hand. Livingston, meanwhile, stay rooted to the bottom of the table.
Nancy 'happy' but demands more
Celtic boss Wilfried Nancy speaking with Sky Sports:
“Really good reaction. Obviously we came back twice from behind. This is something I like to see because we didn’t quit. We find a way to come back, so I like that.
“We scored the goal we wanted to score. We created a lot, so I was happy. The second half could have been better. I would like my team to have more control. We had possession but when I talk about control I wanted us to have good moments. Sometimes we rushed a bit.
“I liked the spirit that I saw in the second half. They pushed a little bit more, but the spirit was spot on. I would just like to see a better things with the ball collectively.
“Every game I have seen an improvement. Now today I can be more demanding because I think we can do better. This is part of the process. Sometimes we were disconnected. It was not easy because they were man-to-man all over the pitch. We found ways in certain moments to create an imbalance.
“Like I said, we could have been a little bit better to our style and be fresher for the next game we are going to play.
“It’s a learning process for me to understand the players with the ways they behave when they go behind, when we are ahead, when we need to control the game a bit better. Every minute, every game I can see my players in different scenarios is really good because I am learning a lot on how I can address them better."
On closing the gap to Hearts:
“Good for the players. For me it doesn’t change anything because I am more focused on the task. Obviously we are pleased to have been there.
“It’s too early to talk about anything but I am happy we were able to get a good result on a difficult pitch and difficult context."
Martindale rues penalty decision
Livingston boss David Martindale speaking with Sky Sports:
"I think we created enough chances to take something from the game. I think it's a really soft penalty.
"I don't want to be stood here talking about that but it's a push in the back. I don't think we get that penalty.
"I don't think it's a penalty and the game would've been a lot closer than it was.
"We need to defend better from two set-plays. The one for the penalty which I don't think was a penalty and for the one for Nygren.
"There were a lot of positives within the game. I thought we posed a real threat. We created two chances ourselves and took two fantastic goals. We had three or four really good chances in the second half, a couple of better ones in the first.
"There are positives within the game, but disappointed with the soft penalty."
McGregor: Celtic players getting to grips with Nancy's system
Celtic captain Callum McGregor speaking with Sky Sports:
"We just have to focus on ourselves. We've had a change of manager and there's lots to work on.
"These games come thick and fast over the Christmas period. We recover and we go again on Wednesday."
On Wilfried Nancy:
"It's only been a few weeks so we are working ever so hard to get to grips with what the manager is asking us to do. Some fantastic players with massive quality so the more that we can get them on the ball, creating chances, that will be good.
"They are working ever so hard, as you'd expect. Really happy with the way that we are applying ourselves. The players are being asked to do a lot and change a lot for what the manager is looking for.
"Every three days is a game so it's difficult, but the players are working so hard. You can see it's starting to come together. Big credit has to go to them.
"Game by game we seem to get better. We've got to keep working, even when things are going well. There's a lot to improve on.
"We will keep working and the aim is to win this league."
