Dundee United 1-3 Celtic

Griffiths knocked in his seventh goal of the season

Celtic eased to a comfortable victory despite resting a host of key players for their visit to Dundee United.

Leigh Griffiths raced away to slot in the opening goal and home goalkeeper Luis Zwick was kept busy in a one-sided first half.

United's Mark Durnan turned the ball into his own net before the break but Chris Erskine replied with a penalty.

A deflected shot from Callum McGregor gave Celtic breathing space in a scrappy second half.

With an eye firmly on Tuesday's Champions League play-off second leg with Malmo, Celtic boss Ronny Deila made nine changes to his starting line-up.

With their opponents so drastically altered, United may have thought they could improve on a record of three home wins against Celtic in a decade.

But the contest could have been over in the first 20 minutes, with Celtic regularly slicing the home defence open with their high-tempo approach and slick passing.

Griffiths headed wide before Durnan cleared a Commons shot off the goal-line and a Charlie Mulgrew free-kick whistled narrowly over the top.

The deadlock was broken on 17 minutes when Durnan failed to cut out a pass from Anthony Stokes, allowing Griffiths to race clear and round Zwick to slot in his seventh goal of the season.

Zwick was then called upon to make a hat-trick of good saves from Commons and stuck out a foot to stop a Griffiths shot.

Scott Allan picked up a booking on his Celtic debut

While the 21-year-old German was bailing out his shaky defence, Logan Bailly, making his Celtic debut, did not look too clever dealing with a routine back-pass and his clumsy challenge on Robbie Muirhead had the home fans calling for a penalty to no avail.

There were more anguished cries from the Terrors support as Ryan McGowan slid a shot wide from near the penalty spot following a purposeful surge from Blair Spittal.

And that misery was compounded as Celtic broke from defending a corner, with the unfortunate Zwick wrong-footed by Durnan's interception on a slack pass from Commons as the ball trundled into the centre of the net on 44 minutes.

There was time for United to reduce the deficit before the interval as Scott Fraser was upended by the lunging Efe Ambrose and Erskine slammed in an assured spot-kick.

Celtic's intensity dipped in the second half, with United more aggressive, and Paul Dixon hammered a shot into the side-netting.

Scott Allan replaced Griffiths to make his Celtic debut and a misplaced kick from Zwick came his way within seconds of arrival but the midfielder could not beat the back-pedalling keeper with his first-time effort.

McGregor, another Celtic replacement, did find a way past the keeper, although Zwick was again unlucky as defender Coll Donaldson deflected the shot from 18 yards low into the corner of the net.

With the game growing increasingly scrappy, Bailly made sure Celtic did not concede two goals for the fourth game running, stretching to stop an Erskine shot and flamboyantly pushing away two free-kicks from Aidan Connolly.

Durnan (left) scored an own goal just before half-time