Celtic vs Falkirk; Scottish Premiership
Celtic vs Falkirk. Scottish Premiership.
Celtic Park.
Celtic 2-1 Falkirk: Camilo Duran's double earns Scottish Premiership win to ease Hoops' Champions League heartache
Report as Celtic beat Falkirk in the Scottish Premiership; Camilo Duran scored a first-half double; Colby Donovan's own-goal pulled one back for the visitors; the Hoops have won their opening three league games; Falkirk remain winless
Saturday 29 August 2026 20:24, UK
Camilo Duran's double saw Celtic recover from their Champions League heartache to maintain their winning Scottish Premiership start.
After throwing away a four-goal lead to crash out of Europe's elite competition, Martin O'Neill had told his players to show their true "character" against Falkirk.
The players emerged to a banner reading "world-class embarrassment" but Camilo Duran soon had the Hoops support cheering when he pounced on a horrible mistake by Bairns goalkeeper Scott Bain to put them in front.
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The Colombian striker then turned Kieran Tierney's cross into the net to double Celtic's lead before the break.
Benjamin Nygren passed up a number of chances to put the hosts further in front and Colby Donovan put the ball in his own net after Jacob Murrell was denied by Viljami Sinisalo to make the final period more nervy than it should have been.
Celtic were without captain Callum McGregor and Kasper Hogh through injury as they made it three wins from three in the Scottish Premiership. John McGlynn's Bairns remain without a victory in the league.
The key moments from Celtic Park
1: CHANCE! Falkirk with an early chance, but Carter-Vickers diverts the ball past before Parkinson can tap in.
4: GOAL CELTIC! A terrible mistake from former Hoops goalkeeper Bain gifting Duran the opener, given after a VAR check.
29: GOAL CELTIC! Tierney's cross finds Duran unmarked, and he sweeps the ball into the bottom corner.
33: OVER! Nygren gets on the end of a cross, but he sends his header over the crossbar.
34: OVER! It's Nygren again. He bursts into the box, but strikes over the bar.
38: SAVE! Nygren tries again, but he is denied by the Falkirk keeper who pushes it over the bar.
48: CHANCE! Parkinson brings down the ball in the box, turns and fires over the bar.
50: SAVE! Bain denies Nygren at close range after a lovely pass from Oxlade-Chamberlain.
52: OVER! Nygren again! This time a curling shot from just inside the box, which is inches over the bar.
72: GOAL FALKIRK! Murrell's low shot is saved by Sinisalo, only for Donovan to put the ball into his own net.
65: OVER! Scales heads over from Yang's cross as Celtic look to restore their two-goal lead.
76: CHANCE! Nygren sends the ball high over the bar - Baur is fuming, believing he should have left it for him.
86: SAVE! Osmand's low effort is straight into the arms of Bain.
O'Neill: Winning was vital
Celtic manager Martin O'Neill speaking to Sky Sports News:
"I always felt this was going to be tough as well, Falkirk were probably the last side I wanted to see here, because we'd done the 120 minutes and then the disappointment on top of that on Tuesday night.
"But we created a lot of good chances. We could have had the game out of sight.
"And when you're 2-0 and then suddenly Falkirk get the goal, then it's a worrying last 10 or 15 minutes of the game.
"Overall, I was pleased with a lot of things that we did. But just to win after the disappointment of Tuesday night was really important."
Asked about injuries, he added: "Kieran [Tierney] is a bit of a concern for us really because I thought it was cramp that he had, but he was complaining about his hip a little bit.
"At this minute, I genuinely don't know who might be available for Wednesday [against Aberdeen] but we've got a couple of days in which to think about it."
McGlynn takes positives after gifting opener
Falkirk manager John McGlynn speaking to Sky Sports News:
"We got off to the worst possible start. We gifted Celtic a goal, there should have been absolutely no danger whatsoever.
"We make a mess of it and the ball ends up in the back of your net. The absolute last thing that we wanted to happen.
"Perfect for Celtic to settle them down after the midweek, where they've maybe come under a little bit of pressure after that for a bad defeat in Europe and they needed a quick start and we've managed to oblige them.
"We played some really good football. Maybe not always penetrating enough, but enough to show that we were capable and good on the ball.
"We didn't quite have enough in our armoury to get a second goal and take a point, but I'm very pleased with the second-half performance."
