Celtic thrashed Sunderland 5-0 on Saturday afternoon.
Eboue Kouassi of Celtic
Celtic’s disappointing 0-0 Champions League draw with Rosenborg was momentarily forgotten on Saturday afternoon as they hammered Sunderland 5-0.
The Bhoys travelled to the Stadium of Light for a pre-season friendly, and Brendan Rodgers will have been delighted with such a convincing victory having failed to break down Rosenborg in midweek.
Callum McGregor bagged an early brace to put Celtic 2-0 up, and Sunderland then saw James Vaughan’s penalty and subsequent rebound saved by Bhoys goalkeeper Dorus de Vries.
Jonny Hayes made it 3-0 before half time, with McGregor completing his hat-trick and Stuart Armstrong sealed the win in a convincing victory for the Scottish champions.
Eboue Kouassi
Rodgers handed opportunities to some fringe players given that his key players had been in Champions League action just days earlier – and one player who took his chance was Eboue Kouassi.
Ivorian midfielder Kouassi, 19, joined Celtic from Russian side Krasnodar in January, but made just one appearance as Rodgers gave him time to settle in Scotland.
The signing of Olivier Ntcham may have pushed Kouassi a little further down the pecking order, but he started against Sunderland on Saturday – and drew huge praise for his performance in the Celtic engine room.
Fans took to Twitter during and after the game to react to Kouassi’s performance, labelling him ‘exceptional’ and ‘an absolute general’ in the middle of the park, tipping him for a bright future and even as a possible successor to Scott Brown in the Celtic midfield one day.
What did you think of Kouassi’s display against Sunderland?
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