Celtic turned the screw in the second-half in a 4-goal show against Hearts as they went 3 points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership. James McKenzie reports from Tynecastle.
Hearts came hot out of the blocks and at times had Brendan Rodgers’ side on the ropes in the first-half.
However, Celtic struck out of nothing early in the second period as Kyogo Furuhashi fired into the net after an unfortunate ricochet from a Daniel Oyegoke clearance.
A rapid-fire second followed as in-form Nicolas Kuhn blasted it past Craig Gordon to double Celtic’s advantage, and thus killed off any hopes of a maroon upset on the night.
Substitute Adam Idah grabbed a confidence-boosting goal from the bench and shortly after Musa Drammeh scored a stunning consolation goal for the home side in the final 10 minutes of the game as he smashed it in from long-range.
Idah grabbed his second from the penalty spot to send all 3 points back to Parkhead.
Whilst Storm Bert wreaked havoc across Scotland and caused delays and cancellations up and down the leagues, the late kick-off between Hearts and Celtic was one of the few games to actually go ahead on time.
Celtic had the chance to finally create some separation between themselves and Aberdeen at the summit of the table after the Dons’ slip up in Paisley earlier in the day, meanwhile hosts Hearts were hoping a massive victory over the champions could spark their ascent up the table.
Costa Rican forward Kenneth Vargas was named on the bench, with his comments on his future at the club during the international break causing quite the uproar amongst the Gorgie faithful. Beni Baningime took his place in Neil Critchley’s starting eleven.
Brendan Rodgers named two changes to the side that ground out a victory at Rugby Park two weeks ago, with important figures Cameron Carter-Vickers and Kyogo Furuhashi coming into the team for Liam Scales and Adam Idah.
Hearts were the first side to bare their teeth, Blair Spittal and Lawrence Shankland linking up expertly, but the midfielder’s tame effort produced a simple save from Kasper Schmeichel.
Hearts’ encouraging start continued as James Penrice had a sight of goal a few moments later, latching onto a poor touch from Celtic captain Callum McGregor and firing straight at Schmeichel.
McGregor, often the man to keep the cogs turning for Celtic, did well to pick out Daizen Maeda in the middle of the box but the Japanese could only loop his header over Craig Gordon’s goal.
Some more great play from the Jambos led to Penrice fighting his way past Alistair Johnston to find Shankland in the middle, a striker perhaps lacking in confidence at the moment, who slammed it just wide of the goal.
Hearts’ most impactful players continued to link up, Penrice looping it towards Shankland who headed at the Danish stopper, another big chance gone begging that they just couldn’t afford not to take.
The home side had limited Celtic to speculative efforts from range, Kyogo Furuhashi stinging the palms of Gordon from range.
It was an excellent first-half from Hearts, all that was missing was the opening goal that Critchley’s side had deserved.
Whatever Brendan Rodgers said to his team at half-time worked a charm as within 15 minutes of the second-half starting, the Hoops were two ahead.
After struggling to break the Gorgie side down for 55 minutes, out of nowhere the Champions struck, and it was one of the easiest goals Kyogo is likely to score in his career.
Oyegoke’s attempted clearance cannoned off McGregor directly into the path of Kyogo, who with just his 10th touch of the evening, gleefully slotted it into the net.
Moments later, the Hoops broke swiftly up the field following a Hearts set-piece and Nicolas Kuhn, who was having a quiet evening up until this point, lashed it past Gordon to give the Champions a quick-fire double, and eased any nerves that may have krept into the travelling supports’ minds following the first-half showing.
Hearts were almost offered a lifeline as fresh substitute Anthony Ralston turned a dangerous Oyegoke cross off of his own post, and another substitute in Kenneth Vargas, whose arrival to the field was greeted by jeers, couldn’t turn in the rebound.
Another gift of an opportunity fell Hearts way as Beni Baningime won the ball on the edge of the Celtic box, but Cammy Devlin lacked the conviction to put it past Schmeichel.
Adam Idah was brought onto the field alongside Yang Hyun-jun, and just 4 minutes later the Irishman was on the scoresheet as Celtic played their way through the Hearts defence and Idah placed it into the keeper’s bottom-right.
There was to be something to applaud in the cold snap for the home support, as substitute Musa Drammeh drove through the Celtic midfield and smashed it from range into the far-top corner.
It was a merely a consolation goal, but an unbelievable consolation goal nonetheless.
In what had been an utterly bizarre day for Scottish football in general, the assistant referee being substituted for the 4th official after pulling a thigh muscle late in the game wasn’t a surprise to anyone anymore.
James Forrest was brought down in the box after a brilliant Celtic break, and Idah was calm and collected from the spot as he found Gordon’s bottom-right corner to send the travelling fans home happy.
Both sides turn their attention to Brugge next week, Celtic welcoming the visit of Club Brugge to Parkhead in the Champions League on Wednesday and Hearts travelling to Cercle Brugge in the Conference League on the Thursday.
Match Analysis
Hearts had to be strong and confident in possession if they were to cause Celtic problems, and they were doing just that in the first-half, with most of the play coming through James Penrice who was electric down the left-flank.
Another key to beating Celtic is taking the few chances that you will get, and Hearts were too wasteful in front of goal when the chances were aplenty.
Celtic looked leggy in the first period, with international stars such as Kyogo, Alistair Johnston, Daizen Maeda and Reo Hatate all having travelled the globe to Asia and North America during the break and naturally looking tired.
You would imagine Rodgers went right through his team at half-time as Celtic came out with a point to prove, and netting 2 goals in 5 minutes meant that the sloppy first-half performance was firmly in the rear-view mirror.
Adam Idah had lacked the confidence that he had oozed in his six-month loan spell in Glasgow last season, but getting his pair of goals from the bench will do the former Norwich man the world of good.
Now finally with some daylight at the top of the Scottish Premiership, Celtic will see tonight’s result as a job well done and then some.
What Did the Managers Have to Say?
Neil Critchley, Heart of Midlothian Head Coach: “I thought 4-1 was very harsh. If you look at the scoreline it looks like we took a real beating but it was anything but that.“
“I thought we were excellent in the first-half, we were the better team, but when you are on top, you have to take your chances.”
Brendan Rodgers, Celtic Manager: “You come to Tynecastle and win 4-1 off the back of the international break, it’s always a great win.“
“I thought Hearts did well, they surprised us a little bit with their pressing structure. Obviously watching Neil and his team they usually press in 4-4-2 and that was slightly different.”
“We had some good movements in the first-half but our positioning wasn’t quite right so we got caught on the ball more often than I would have liked.”
“Once we went through that at half-time and figured that out and got our positioning right then we were able to play through that press and scored some fantastic goals. The concentration in the team was really good and it ended up being a really good win for us.”
