Brendan Rodgers was encouraged by Arne Engels' debut after he scored from the penalty spot to continue Celtic's perfect start to the Scottish Premiership season with a 2-0 victory over Hearts.
After dominating the opening exchanges, the hosts were offered the chance to take the lead from 12 yards early in the second half.
Nicolas Kuhn's cross was blocked by the hand of James Penrice, with Engels making no mistake from the spot to net his first Celtic goal since his switch from Augsburg.
Luke McCowan confirmed the triumph in the 89th minute, also scoring his first goal for the club, with Rodgers pleased with the pair, but showering particular praise on Engels.
"He's here playing in the eight position," Rodgers said. "He's here with legs and energy and power, he should be able to score goals for us. A good performance from him."
But the encounter could have taken on a much different complexion after the visitors were awarded a penalty of their own in the first half.
Lawrence Shankland's header came off Liam Scales' arm, only for VAR to overturn the decision, and Rodgers believed the right call was eventually made.
"When the referee gives it, it’s always going to be looked at," Rodgers said.
"The ball hits Liam Scales up towards the shoulder on that sleeve part and that’s not a penalty. By the rule, the officials were correct."
Rodgers' side are top of the table with 15 points, ahead of Aberdeen on goal difference, and return to Champions League action on Wednesday when they welcome Slovan Bratislava to Celtic Park in their opening match of the competition.
Kovacic dedicates Man City double to future child
Two-goal hero Mateo Kovacic dedicated his double to his future child following Manchester City's 3-2 victory over Fulham.
Kovacic scored either side of half-time to complete the turnaround, as Pep Guardiola's side came from behind to maintain the pressure on Premier League leaders Liverpool, who they trail by a single point.
The Croatian's deflected strike in the 32nd minute levelled the contest, before he swept City in front from 20 yards within two minutes of the restart.
That took Kovacic's goal tally for the season to three - already his best return in a single Premier League campaign - and his strikes had added significance on a personal level.
"It means a lot because my wife is pregnant, so it was great to get some goals for the little one," he said. "It is never easy to play in the Premier League and, today, we showed great character.
"We dominated in the beginning and couldn't score, conceded the goal and then came back quickly. In the end, we won it. It was a tough game against an opponent in good form, so for us, it is good to continue winning.
"It is always important to get the win. It doesn't matter who scores; the most important thing is getting three points. Now, we hope to continue like this."
Kovacic anchored City's midfield in the absence of Rodri, who suffered a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament injury in the 2-2 draw with Arsenal a fortnight ago.
"I am playing there in the middle at the moment and, of course, we need to cover for Rodri. We miss him a lot," the 30-year-old added.
"I think any team would miss him, the player that he is, and we wish him a speedy recovery and hope he comes back in as good a shape as possible.
"For now, we have to adapt and, for sure, the manager has a lot of options, so we can rotate."
Union Berlin 2-1 Borussia Dortmund: BVB's away struggles continue
Borussia Dortmund slumped to a 2-1 loss at Union Berlin in the Bundesliga on Saturday.
In a match that took place just four days after BVB’s 7-1 demolition of Celtic in the Champions League for their biggest European win, their familiar domestic away woes returned in the German capital.
Union's Kevin Vogt ended a 10-year Bundesliga goal drought after converting a 26th-minute penalty.
Vogt's previous goal was scored on October 18, 2014, making it a record 275 Bundesliga matches between goals for an outfield player.
Dortmund showed none of the aggression they produced in the win over Celtic and before half-time they conceded another with Yorbe Vertessen's low strike from the edge of the box.
Julian Ryerson pulled a goal back for the visitors just past the hour, but they could not find an equaliser despite applying some late pressure.
The loss meant Dortmund dropped to seventh place in the standings on 10 points, with Union now one place and one point above them.
Data Debrief: Away woes for BVB
Dortmund had lost 5-1 to Stuttgart in their previous away game on September 22 and, dating back to the end of last season, have now collected just one point from their last five Bundesliga road matches.
They have failed to score more than once in any of those games.
Dortmund dominated the possession (67.1%) here but only converted that control of the ball into eight shots, four of which were on target, resulting in a poor accumulated expected goals (xG) total of just 0.66.
One of the few BVB positives was the performance of Julian Brandt, who created a game-high four chances and got the assist for Ryerson’s goal.
Midfielder Brandt has now created a goal in three straight games across all competitions and has four assists overall for Dortmund this season.
Leicester City 1-0 Bournemouth: Buonanotte hands Foxes first win
Leicester City finally got their first win of the Premier League season, defeating Bournemouth 1-0 at the King Power Stadium.
Facundo Buonanotte scored the winning goal for Steve Cooper’s side in the 16th minute with a stunning curling effort.
Bournemouth put on a much better display in the second half though, with Lewis Cook having a direct free-kick ruled out for offside 66 minutes in.
Illia Zabarnyi and Dango Ouattara also hit the woodwork as the Cherries continued to dominate, but they fell short of finding an equaliser.
The Foxes move up to 15th place, with six points from seven matches, while Bournemouth sit 13th – two points better off their opponents.
Data Debrief: Buonanotte at his best
While Leicester had to wait for their first victory since returning to the top flight, it came via a player who had already impressed under Cooper.
Buonanotte now has four goal involvements in six Premier League appearances this season – already his joint-most across a single campaign in the competition (also four for Brighton and Hove Albion in 2023-24).
Indeed, his four goal contributions in his last five league games is as many as he managed in his previous 36 matches.
Leicester had to come through plenty of pressure at the other end, but they held firm for their first home clean sheet in the Premier League since October 2022 – a 2-0 win over Leeds United that game 16 home top-flight games ago.
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