Celtic striker Kyogo Furuhashi came off the bench to seal a deserved 4-2 victory over Livingston in the Scottish Cup for the Hoops on Sunday afternoon.
The Japanese frontman replaced Adam Idah with half an hour to go and positively impacted proceedings.
Kyogo looked lively on the ball, and he took his opportunity deep into stoppage time when he latched onto James Forrest’s header to clinically finish past Michael McGovern.
In the past two games versus Hearts and Livi, the striker has looked keen when coming on. He is a completely different option in attack to Idah and when he gets the slightest sniff at goal, he usually makes no mistake.
Indeed, as a result of his recent impactful cameos, pundit and former Celtic full-back Mark Wilson backs the 29-year-old to return to the lineup this weekend against St. Johnstone: “I thought Kyogo, again I’m repeating myself, looked good when he came on at Tynecastle”, he said (Clyde 1 Superscoreboard).
“He looked like a player with something to prove to get back into the side and he’s done his chances no harm today [Sunday] with coming on, being lively, [having] a few efforts on goal, and a goal to finish.
“You might just find him back in the team next week.”
He did score a header versus Dundee just under a fortnight but since then, Idah has remained a rather muted figure up top. The Irishman missed a penalty away to Hearts and failed to come to the fore on Sunday.
This, combined with Kyogo’s slight upturn in form, will likely see the treble-winner return to Brendan Rodgers’ starting eleven this weekend.
