WHAT is it they say about blondes having more fun? Kyogo and Jota, Celtic’s peroxide pair, certainly enjoyed themselves in Budapest as Ange Postecoglou’s men guaranteed themselves a UEFA Conference League play-off match at the very least with a deserved win over Ferencvaros. And as we are coming to expect under Postecoglou’s management, it is rarely dull watching Celtic on their travels.

They will of course still have their eyes on remaining in this competition, and they have kept themselves in the hunt to do just thanks to early goals from the dyed duo and a second-half goal from Liel Abada.

Oleksandr Zubkov’s deflected effort had pulled the home side level, and they then got a late second to make the final knockings a little nervy from a Celtic perspective through Myrto Uzuni. In truth though, Ferencvaros were second best by some distance to a Celtic team who played with style and swagger, even if they almost blew it in a frantic finale.

Some perspective should be applied, of course. The hosts have now lost their last six matches in European competition, the worst run in their history. But you can only beat what is in front of you, and Celtic should have done that by the length of Budapest’s Szechenyi Chain Bridge.

Much of that was down to the contribution of Kyogo. Celtic manager Postecoglou voiced concerns over the risk of burning him out as he defended his omission from the side in the weekend draw with Livingston, but there is no doubt that his side are an entirely different proposition when the Japanese forward is unleashed through the middle, as he was here.

He scored a wonderful opening goal, provided a brilliant assist and his perpetual motion was impossible for the leaden-footed Ferencvaros defenders to live with. Not only that, but he was ably backed by livewire wingers Jota and Abada.

At the back, Stephen Welsh slotted back into the side in place of the injured Carl Starfelt, and the youngster and Cameron Carter-Vickers defended decently for the most part, the hosts’ fortuitous equaliser apart.

For all that Celtic supporters hadn’t officially been allocated tickets for the match, there was still a smattering of them in the main stand, displaying their colours proudly and backing their team rather colourfully.

Kick off was delayed briefly as referee Fabio Verissimo took exception to the holes that Anthony Ralston had cut in the back of his socks, but a quick change of stockings later and we were ready to go. It was the home support who acted as though they had ripped their tights at the sight of the Celtic players taking the knee, offending them sufficiently to provoke deafening boos and whistles from the lively section behind the goal to the left.

Within the opening minute, Celtic had the perfect response. A misplaced pass was intercepted by Abada, who hared down the right and fed the ball across to Kyogo. The striker was as cool as you like, chopping the ball back across an attempted block and slotting home low past former Hibernian goalkeeper Adam Bogdan with his left foot.

There was a moment of concern for Celtic when Welsh took the ball out of defence, shrugging off the attention of Zubkov in the process, who dropped like a sack of spuds holding his face. Welsh was penalised, but thankfully for him, the colour of the card that emerged from the referee’s pocket was yellow.

Zubkov – would you believe it – managed to recover sufficiently to play his part in hauling the hosts level soon after. It was his cross from the Celtic left that cannoned off Josip Juranovic and looped over Joe Hart in slow motion before dropping into the far corner of the net.

It was a blow for Celtic, but they soon steadied themselves. The game was going at a fair old clip, and no sooner had Eldar Civic brought a decent save from Hart at one end had Celtic shuttled up the park to regain the lead with a stunning counter attack.

Jota had been quiet in the early stages on the left, but he announced himself on the evening in fine style as he collected a clever pass from the impressive David Turnbull, cut back inside onto his right foot and pinged the ball into the net via Bogdan’s right-hand post.

That goal seemed to knock the stuffing out of the home side for the remainder of the half, but their vigour was renewed after the interval, and Celtic had a let-off as Tokmac Nguen whacked a stunning effort off Hart’s crossbar and over.

Typically of the match to that point, Celtic then went up the other end and did the same, Ralston heading Turnbull’s free-kick off the face of Bogdan’s bar when he might have done better.

Turnbull was again the provider as Kyogo came within a whisker of his second, the midfielder lofting the ball over the top where the striker dinked Bogdan only for Miha Blazic to appear from nowhere and hack off the line.

It felt like a goal was coming for Celtic though, and it duly arrived on the hour. Turnbull again did well to win the ball back on halfway and set Callum McGregor charging through the middle of the park.

He forced the ball onto Kyogo, who produced a peach of a reverse pass to put Abada in on the angle of the box. The winger made no mistake, finishing low across Bogdan into the far corner.

The front three had done their duty, and in an illustration of Celtic’s depth, they got the last 20 minutes of the night off, being replaced by Giakoumakis, James Forrest and Mikey Johnston.

The only live issues remaining were whether Celtic could avoid handing Ferencvaros a lifeline, and whether they could get out of town without suffering any injuries. Alas, the answer was no on both counts.

Nir Bitton hirpled from the action and Welsh pulled up too, then with four minutes remaining, Uzuni smashed in a second for Ferencvaros after Celtic failed to close him down on the edge of the box.

Well, you didn’t think it would be straightforward, did you? It was enough though, and Celtic live to fight another day.