Celtic overcame relegation-threatened Livingston to book their place in the last four of the Scottish Cup on Sunday.

Brendan Rodgers’ side made hard work of the quarter-final tie though and were twice pegged back by the Premiership’s basement club before Daizen Maeda completed his hattrick and substitute Kyogo Furuhashi added a fourth. Not helped by the absences of captain Callum McGregor and Cameron Carter-Vickers, Celtic flattered to deceive for spells and gave their visitors far too much encouragement with a series of sloppy individual moments.

However, there were positives further up the pitch. Maeda looked sharp on the left and could have had more than three on his 100th Celtic appearance. On the opposite flank Nicolas Kuhn, handed a start in place of the suspended Yang Hyun-jun, produced his best performance since his January arrival. The 24-year-old German winger has had a fairly quiet start to his Celtic career but impressed, giving Livi left-back Cristian Montano in particular a torrid time.

Here, we pick out the key moments and standout stats from what could well be a breakout performance for the £3.5m signing from Rapid Vienna…

Cross (1 min)

Kuhn wasted little time in making his presence felt on the tie, producing a lovely bit of skill to get in behind the Livingston backline after just over 30 seconds.

Taking his initial touches of the game as he came off the line, he was involved in the build-up play before taking up a central position as Celtic’s first attack of the game progressed into the final third.

Drifting back across to the right, he then left Montano for dead with a slick dummy from Alistair Johnston’s ball forward.

Finding himself in behind in the opening seconds, Kuhn looked to pick out Adam Idah who made a front post run. Michael McGovern in the Livi goal was able to pounce on the ball though but it was a very encouraging first involvement from the German.

Assist (7 mins)

Just over five minutes later, Kuhn was again involved as he provided the pass that unlocked the West Lothian side’s defence and allowed Maeda to open the scoring.

Initially in a wide position 1v1 against Montano, Kuhn carried the ball into the centre of the pitch. Often guilty of turning back and dropping the ball off in his early displays, Kuhn lifted his head to spot the run of Maeda in behind the visitor’s right-back Michael Nottingham.

His perfectly weighted lofted ball in between Nottingham and right centre-back Ayo Obileye then picked out the Japanese forward to finish past McGovern and give Celtic the perfect start.

Involvement in the second goal (22 mins)

Daniel MacKay’s 12th-minute finish tied the game not long after Maeda’s opener in a frantic opening period to the game.

However, it was Kuhn’s poise and decision-making that helped nudge Celtic back in front shortly after. Following a Livingston corner, Kuhn received the ball out wide and showed nice balance to evade two challenges before finding Portuguese midfielder Paulo Bernardo breaking through the middle of the pitch.

The former Ajax and Bayern Munich prospect was then sharp to pick up the loose ball as Nottingham challenged Bernardo.

Driving forward after picking up the ball, Kuhn made the right, albeit obvious, choice in playing the ball to the right side where Celtic had a huge overload, mostly due to Nottingham being out of position.

From there O’Riley’s shot was saved, Livingston turned the ball over on the edge of the box and McGovern spilled a second O’Riley shot into Maeda’s path to finish. A messy goal in the end, Kuhn’s initial involvement was key though.

Through ball (52 mins)

Kuhn had an equally bright start to the second half as he did in the first. With Celtic looking for an early third goal that could have killed the tie, he first drove the outside of Montano to give Idah the chance to tap home from just a few yards out.

The Norwich City loanee striker passed up that chance before Bernardo also failed to make the most of more brilliant set-up play from Kuhn a few minutes later.

Again, leaving the tormented Montano for dead, Kuhn drifted inside to the edge of the box before demonstrating nice variation in his chance creation with a chipped ball over the top of the Livingston defence and picking out Bernardo in behind.

The on-loan Benfica man failed to convert, firing his effort into the side netting of McGovern’s goal. 

Wyscout data

Data from the scouting platform Wyscout provides further insight into Kuhn’s breakout display.

Although Celtic generated most of their xG through the centre of the pitch (2.57 xG) on Sunday, Kuhn’s side, the right, was responsible for the most attacks and generated much more xG (2.08) compared to the left (0.29 xG). With Maeda grabbing a hattrick from the left wing, it was very much created on the right, and finished on the left.

Kuhn’s individual performance data from the weekend is even more revealing though. Before Sunday’s Scottish Cup tie, in 255 minutes of football in a Celtic shirt, the German had managed to provide a total of just three shot assists/key passes worth a meagre total of 0.09 xA (0.03 xA per shot assist). On Sunday alone, he generated 0.67 xA. Split over four shot assists, these were much higher quality chances too (0.17 xA per shot assist).

Admittedly his longest appearance (79 mins), he was generally much more involved, receiving more passes (30) than in any other outing with his other attacking numbers backing up the impressive level of productivity already seen in his xA. 

According to Wyscout’s data, he completed twice as many dribbles as he had done in any other appearance (19/10, 53 per cent) and had more accurate crosses too, finding a teammate with three of his six deliveries. His nine touches in the penalty area were also the most he’s had in any Celtic performance.

Conclusion

Just as 200-odd minutes was far too early to be writing Kuhn off, one impressive 79-minute display, at home to the poorest side in the Premiership this season, is equally much too soon to declare him a resounding success.

Based on what he has offered to date though, this was a much, much more encouraging performance and one that should give him a boost in confidence after a shaky opening to his Celtic career.

Replicating this consistently between now and the end of the season is now the challenge for the former Rapid Vienna man. If he can indeed regularly hit similar levels to what he showed on Sunday in the coming weeks then he may well yet end up playing a pivotal role in the run-in.