Celtic 6-0 Dundee: Emilio Izaguirre strikes twice in Hoops romp

Celtic returned to winning ways by thrashing Dundee 6-0 at Parkhead, keeping them five points behind Scottish Premiership leaders Aberdeen.

Tom Rogic and Leigh Griffiths scored in the first half with Emilio Izaguirre, who was sent off against Ajax in midweek, on target twice after the break before missing a penalty for a rare hat-trick.

Scott Brown and Nadir Ciftci's first goal in a Celtic shirt rounded off an emphatic win for the Bhoys.

Griffiths should have put Celtic ahead early on when he blasted straight at 'keeper Scott Bains from six yards out before Dundee's Greg Stewart saw a long-range effort turned behind by Craig Gordon in the home goal.

Celtic took a deserved lead in the 14th minute when Scott Brown sent Izaguirre clear down the left and his cross picked out Rogic, who volleyed home in style.

Rogic turned provider for Celtic's second goal 90 seconds later, capitalising on a defensive error from Dundee to play Griffiths in on goal. The 25-year-old steadied himself after a heavy touch to slot past Bain and go top of the goalscoring charts with his seventh league strike this season.

Bain was called into action again shortly afterwards, first turning away Brown's long-range strike and then denying Rogic his second of the game.

Dundee went close to pulling a goal back when Gary Harkins' drilled free-kick was parried by Gordon, with Kane Hemmings unable to latch onto the rebound.

Kris Commons and Rogic forced saves from Bain on the stroke of half-time, moments after James Forrest was denied after gliding away from two Dundee defenders only to see his shot take a deflection and come off the crossbar.

Bain tipped over from Rogic straight after the break but Celtic only had to wait until the 54th minute to extend their lead further.

Izaguirre burst forward and played a delightful one-two with Commons before calmly tucking the ball past the on-rushing Bain.

And on the hour-mark the Izaguirre grabbed his second when he snuck in unnoticed at the back post to turn in a deflected cross from Saidy Janko.

The left-back should have had a hat-trick when he was handed the spot-kick after substitute Callum McGregor was brought down in the area by Gary Irvine, but the Honduran rocketed his penalty high over the crossbar.

Dundee brought on Riccardo Calder and Rhys Healey and the pair combined well to create a headed opportunity for the latter, but 20-year-old Healey was unable to find the target.

Brown had a curled right-footed shot from the edge of the box tipped over by Bain before Ciftci thought he had made it 5-0 to Celtic six minutes from time, only for his strike to be disallowed by the referee.

Brown got on the scoresheet two minutes later with a neat side-footed finish after Ciftci's cut-back and in the 87th minute Ciftci scored his first goal for the club with a composed finish through Bain's legs.

Aberdeen's 3-1 win at Hearts means Celtic, who face the Jambos next weekend, remain five points behind the league leaders.