Luck played a big part in two of Celtic’s goals, but there was no great fortune about the overall result at Tannadice.
Dundee United had their moments, however this was a pretty comfortable afternoon for the Premiership champions, with an early Leigh Griffiths strike, a Mark Durnan own goal and a deflected Callum McGregor effort doing the damage.
Chris Erskine scored a stoppage time first half spot-kick for the Tangerines, to make it 2-1 at that point, and there was another good penalty shout for Jackie McNamara’s men.
But the Hoops deserved their win.
On paper this had the look of a Celtic B team, with nine changes made by Ronny Deila from their midweek clash with Malmo.
But you wouldn’t have known it from the way the visitors started the match.
In the early stages one of the more familiar names on the team-sheet, Griffiths, narrowly missed the target with a back post header.
Celtic came even closer to scoring on five minutes when Kris Commons had a worrying amount of time to turn and shoot in the box (that would become a recurring theme) and Durnan cleared his effort off the line and on to the bar.
Charlie Mulgrew tried to catch Luis Zwick out with a shot from a free-kick when a cross would have been expected. But the strike was just wide and Zwick probably had it covered anyway.
It took until the 13th minute for United to get ball into their opponents’ box for the first time. Unfortunately all that came of the free-kick delivery was a Robbie Muirhead swipe at fresh air.
On 17 minutes Celtic took the lead.
Durnan wasn’t able to cut out an Emilio Izaguirre pass and Griffiths took the ball round Zwick and slotted it home.
Commons should have made it two a couple of minutes later but was denied by a fine Zwick save.
Debut Hoops keeper Logan Bailly got himself into a mess when he poorly controlled a harmless back pass and ended up in a race for the ball with Muirhead. They eventually came together on the edge of the box. United claimed a penalty (or even a free-kick) but neither were given.
United got their act together in the last five minutes of the opening period and Ryan McGowan should have scored from the edge of the box, but dragged his effort past the post.
Zwick had been United’s star performer he had to be but he was beaten in the most frustrating manner for Celtic’s second on 44 minutes. Commons tried to slide a ball into Griffiths. It wasn’t the best of passes, and Durnan stuck out a foot to intercept. However he only succeeded in re-directing it past a helpless keeper.
A two-goal half-time deficit would probably have been fatal for the Tangerines, but they pulled a goal back in injury time.
Efe Ambrose brought down Scott Fraser in the box and Erskine gave Bailly no chance with a low penalty to the keeper’s right.
United carried the positive conclusion to the first half into the resumption of the second.
Erskine spotted Paul Dixon on the overlap but the full-back’s shot only found the side-netting.
Former United player Scott Allan came on midway through the half and almost scored within seconds. Zwick hit the ball straight to him but got back just in time to collect Allan’s attempted lob.
It was another Celtic sub who sealed the points for Celtic Callum McGregor. The forward’s shot from 18 yards took a deflection on its way past Zwick.
United almost got straight back into it again, but Erskine’s shot drifted across the face of goal.
There were a couple of Aidan Connolly free-kicks near the end, but Celtic saw the game out comfortably.