Celtic put the disappointment of defeat in their Champions League opener behind them by winning 3-0 at Livingston on Saturday.

Despite going down to ten men after half an hour at the Tony Macaroni Arena, following Joe Hart’s red card, Brendan Rodgers’ side saw out the second half in relative comfort with strikes from Matt O’Riley and Daizen Maeda adding to Reo Hatate’s first-half penalty.

Rodgers made just one change from the team that went down 2-0 to Feyenoord in Rotterdam last Tuesday, as James Forrest replaced Luis Palma. Forrest, making his first start since January, started on the right side of the Celtic attack and Maeda, an ever-present so far under Rodgers, took up position on the left.

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Sealing the three points with an outstanding strike late on, Maeda was heavily involved throughout what was an eventful match and played a particularly key role when Celtic went down to ten men.

Here, we break down some of the key moments from what was a truly vintage Daizen Maeda display…

First shot (24 mins)

Maeda’s first attempt at goal was the result of a passage of play which defined the first half hour of Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off in West Lothian – Greg Taylor inverting to exploit a huge amount of space in midfield.

The Scotland international was by far the most active on the ball in the opening period of the game. With acres of space in the middle of the pitch - due to the large gap between the home side’s forward and midfield lines - Taylor was able to jump inside to progress the ball centrally into the final third under little to no pressure.

This was what led to Hatate being brought down for the penalty award after 15 minutes, while Maeda’s first chance of the game also came as a direct result of this, Taylor exchanging passes with Hatate centrally before feeding the ball into Forrest in the box.

A nice first-time pass from Forrest cushioned the ball into the path of Maeda who sharply chopped onto his left, beating his man and creating space for the shot.

Livingston keeper Shamal George was able to smother the former Yokohama F. Marinos man’s angled effort though.

Celtic’s left-hand side continued to be a source of joy throughout the match, but particularly in that first half hour. Mostly coming before the red card, this was still highlighted by the fact Maeda and Taylor were the most common combination in the whole match with 16 passes exchanged between the two (StatsBomb).

Position change after Hart red (30 mins)

The red card for Hart of course changed the game soon after. However, manager Brendan Rodgers’ smart tactical tweak helped keep Celtic on track with Maeda playing a pivotal role.

Forrest was the man sacrificed for sub-keeper Scott Bain but rather than setting up in two banks of four with one forward, an often standard response to going a man down, Rodgers moved Maeda centrally alongside Kyogo and Celtic went 4-3-2 for the remainder of the game.

The benefit of this was on show just seconds after the restart, following Hart’s dismissal.

Livingston worked the ball across the right-back Jamie Brandon but after covering the central area, Maeda then jumped out to press the full-back, forcing him back to his centre-back. In this first example, the centre-back still ends up going long, despite having that one-man advantage.

With Kyogo doing a similarly effective job on the right, the home side continued to struggle to progress the ball effectively. When they did get forward, it was usually wider, deeper areas which invariably ended up with poor-quality crosses being bombed into the box, which Gustaf Lagerbielke and Liam Scales dealt with.

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Maeda, an elite-level presser, was so crucial in this as the game went on with Rodgers perfectly summing up his contribution of covering both centrally and out wide post-match.

He said: “It's not like playing with 10 men when you have him in the team because he covers so much ground.”

O’Riley goal (46 mins)

Maeda’s relentless effort off the ball was crucial but he was also involved in the second-half goals that took the game away from Livingston.

His involvement in O’Riley’s goal summed up a part of his game that often lets him down the most though, which is his composure in front of goal.

Picked out brilliantly by Kyogo, Maeda conspired to miss from just a few yards out. Seeing the ball most of the way, he didn’t seem to make any movement to connect, almost letting the ball hit him as he ran in on goal.

Thankfully for Maeda and Celtic, O’Riley - an impressive performer once again himself - was on hand to tap in and give the ten men Celts a two-goal cushion early in the second half.

Goal (90+5 mins)

The Japanese international completed a classic Maeda performance by then scoring a stunning goal from a far more difficult chance in added-on time, as Celtic wrapped up a statement win at what has been a notoriously difficult venue in the past.

As a result of his commitment to chasing every lost cause, Maeda could easily - especially in the 95th minute - have allowed a loose header back towards his own goal by Livingston’s Luiyi de Lucas to run through. Instead - in typical Maeda fashion - he made a nuisance of himself and managed to wriggle himself in front of defender Tom Parkes.

Sitting Parkes down with a brilliant chop back onto his left foot, Maeda then took another touch to set himself before whipping a stunning left-footed effort past the motionless George in the home goal.

After passing up that chance before O’Riley tapped in, statistically the ‘best’ chance of the game outwith Hatate's penalty (0.55 xG) and then another high-quality chance, from another Kyogo cross, midway through the second period (0.42 xG), Maeda of course netted a 0.07 xG chance with his weaker left.

It was almost reminiscent of his fabulous strike at Easter Road last season. Although on his stronger right that night, it also came after he passed up several much better chances.

StatsBomb Data

Data provider StatsBomb gives further insight into Maeda’s performance on Saturday, especially off the ball.

As is almost always the case, Maeda led the way when it came to pressures, exerting 33, over ten more than his average this season in the league (21.02 per 90) or last season (19.32 per 90). No other player on the pitch had more counterpressures (12) either, a pressure recorded within five seconds of the pressurising player’s team losing the ball.

His most intense pressures came on the left side but as the heatmap above shows, he pressed pretty much all over the pitch.

Maeda’s relentless work rate off the ball showed up in more traditional defensive metrics too, registering a combined total number of tackles (successful) and interceptions of eight, also more than any other player on the day.

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He wasn’t just a stand-out in the numbers defensively, no one got to a higher quality of chance than Maeda (1.18 xG from five shots) while he also completed more dribbles past an opponent (4).