Dundee United clearly had their minds on tackling one half of the Old Firm — but it wasn’t Celtic.

With next Saturday’s Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers looming on the horizon, the Tannadice side were tentative and appeared keen to avoid injury ahead of their Ibrox showdown.

On this evidence, United will certainly have to raise their performance several notches for the biggest game of their season — or risk losing out in their quest to win the trophy for a third time.

Celtic, in contrast, were sharp, decisive and energetic, especially in the first half when Georgios Samaras ran the show for 30 minutes.

The Greek international is reportedly keen to take on a new challenge elsewhere but, on this sort of form, the champions would feel his loss.

It was only the third time Samaras had started a match this year and, if he was playing for a move, he will not have done his prospects any harm with the way he attacked the ball and ran at the opposition.

It was by no means a one-man show, however, as Celtic edged closer to their target of 100 SPFL points with another solid display.

Their teamwork was crisp and precise and it says much about their desire to keep on winning after suffering only one Premiership defeat this season that they did so with room to spare.

United were unhappy at the manner of Samaras’ goal from a set-piece and their defensive frailties were also exposed by Anthony Stokes in the first half.

This defeat also represents a severe blow to United’s hopes of catching Aberdeen and Motherwell in the race for second place.

The hosts were up against it right from the start and fell behind inside five minutes. From that moment, the nature of the struggle was always going to be uphill.

Kris Commons engineered the opening with a free-kick and Samaras delivered the finish with a right-foot volley from eight yards.

Perhaps if Gavin Gunning had composed himself before shooting three minutes later — after Ryan Dow had supplied the ammunition — the match might have taken on a different perspective.

But Celtic were hardly troubled in a largely one-sided first half. They stroked the ball about with almost contemptuous ease and bossed the midfield to the extent that United were restricted to occasional touches.

Nadir Ciftci summed up his team’s almost lethargic approach when he curled a free-kick wide of the post in the 13th minute prior to Paul Paton having a 30-yard effort savedeasily by Fraser Forster. Celtic then scored their second after 24 minutes.

Stokes and Commons combined and the Irishman completed a perfect one-two before producing a clinical finish.

Samaras had the chance to put the match beyond United’s reach in the 35th minute but his header from another Commons free-kick lacked control and sailed high over the crossbar.

United keeper Radoslaw Cierzniak then had to react quickly to snuff out the threat as Liam Henderson bore down on goal in pursuit of a probing through pass.

Brian Graham caught Commons uncharacteristically off guard shortly before half-time when he dispossessed the midfielder, but was unable to make anything worthwhile out of it.

Stokes tried for a second goal just on the interval, but his shot lacked the necessary power to trouble Cierzniak.

Sensing the need to inject more pace and power into his attack, United boss Jackie McNamara sent on Gary Mackay-Steven in place of Graham.

The move looked to have been inspired when Mackay-Steven fed Dow six minutes after the restart and the latter had the ball in the Celtic net. But he was judged to have been offside.

With the match as good as won, Celtic withdrew Henderson in the 52nd minute, replacing the teenager with Leigh Griffiths.

It was a chance for the striker to redeem himself after being fined by the club for his ill-advised impromptu karaoke performance in an Edinburgh pub immediately prior to last weekend’s Tynecastle derby.

Griffiths had an immediate impact and Cierzniak had to save at his feet when he threatened to finish off an enterprising run by walking the ball into the net.

After United’s Keith Watson hit a half-chance wide, Griffiths forced a good save from Cierzniak on the hour before conjuring up a shot out of nothing when he tried his luck from wide on the right and just missed the target.

The introduction of Mackay-Steven and Ryan Gauld — for Dow after 65 minutes — had given United a sharper cutting edge.

And Forster had to make saves from Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong in turn in the space of 60 seconds to preserve his team’s two-goal advantage.

But at no time did it appear likely that United would deny Celtic yet another victory.

—Daily Mail