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Celtic regain Scottish Premiership title in Ange Postecoglou’s first season in charge

Celtic have regained the Scottish Premiership title following a 1-1 draw against Dundee United on Wednesday.

Needing just a point to be sure of the title, Georgios Giakoumakis gave Celtic the lead, before Dundee United grabbed an immaterial equalizer through Dylan Levitt.

Celtic all but secured the SPL title after recording a 4-1 win over Hearts on Saturday that saw them end the weekend six points clear of Rangers with two games remaining and a vastly superior goal difference to their Glasgow rivals.

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The Hoops have clinched the league title for the 10th time in 11 seasons and Australian Ange Postecoglou has steered them to glory in his first campaign at Celtic Park.

Postecoglou has led Celtic to an impressive Double after winning the Scottish League Cup with victory over Hibernian in December.

“It’s been a hell of a season. Our starting point was a fair way back and the way this group of players and staff has risen to the challenge — I couldn’t be more proud,” he said.

“It’s fairly overwhelming. It’s taken every ounce of me to get us where we are and when you get to the finish line, you just want to collapse.

“It almost feels like two seasons in one. We’ve jammed in a rebuilding season and a season to win. We had a lot of work to do, and with the support of everyone at the club, we got there.”

The Australian left Japanese side Yokohama F. Marinos to replace Neil Lennon at Celtic in June but endured a tough start to life in Scotland.

Celtic were dumped out of the Champions League qualifying stages in his first games in charge while they also lost the opening SPL match of the season at Hearts.

The team’s struggles in Europe continued after they were knocked out of the Europa League group stages and subsequently knocked out of the inaugural Conference League.

After losing the first Old Firm derby of the campaign to Rangers in August and a shock loss at Livingston a month later, Celtic started to find form.

Celtic have remained unbeaten in the league since September and leapfrogged Rangers into first place in the table with a stunning 3-0 victory in the Old Firm derby in February.

Another win at Rangers last month extended Celtic’s lead at the top and they maintained that level of consistency to finish the season as champions.

Information from Reuters was used in this report.

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