Heart of Midlothian 1 Celtic 2
Scottish League Cup Quarter Final, Wednesday 28 October 2015 – Tynecastle
It was a familiar tale for Hearts in cup competition as they took their leave from the Scottish League Cup after Celtic won the quarter-final clash at Tynecastle on Wednesday evening. Goals from Hearts old adversary Leigh Griffiths and Tomas Rogic took the Hoops through to the semi-finals with Hearts counter from Arnaud Djoum not enough.
As expected, Hearts Head Coach Robbie Neilson made changes to the team that defeated Ross County on Saturday with Djoum and Jamie Walker making way for Morgaro Gomis and Billy King.
Celtic’s Scott Brown was injured during the warm up and was replaced by James Forrest.
The game was evenly matched with Osman Sow and Juanma going close for the home side with Griffiths and Commons doing likewise for the visitors.
Indeed Sow, had the ball in the back of the net but his effort was ruled out for offside.
Celtic took the lead with 20 minutes left thanks to a brilliant goal from Griffiths. The former Hibernian forward danced his way past the Hearts defence before curling a shot beyond Hearts keeper Neil Alexander and into the net.
Little more than ten minutes later, Celtic secured their place in the semi-finals when fine work again from Griffiths set up Rogic to back heel the ball past Alexander.
In injury time Arnaud Djoum headed home from a corner to pull a goal back for Hearts but it was too little, too late.
Hearts: Alexander, Paterson, Augustyn, Rossi, McGhee, Gomis, Buaben (Djoum, 79′), Nicholson, King (Walker, 52′), Sow, Juanma (Reilly, 86′).
Celtic: Gordon, Izaguirre, Simunovic, Bitton, Forrest (Rogic, 59′), Griffiths (Ciftci, 82′), Armstrong, Commons, Boyata, Lustig, Johansen.
Referee: John Beaton
Att: 11,598
Top man: Igor Rossi
Author of The Team for Me - 50 Years of Following Hearts. Runs Mind Generating Success, a successful therapy practice in Edinburgh. Contact me if you want rid of any unwanted habits. Twitter @Mike1874
