In a game that is unlikely to go down as a classic Hibs held Celtic to a scoreless draw at Easter Road today showing a different sort of team performance under Head Coach Nick Montgomery.
Hibs made two changes from their 4-0 defeat to Rangers, Rocky Bushiri and Jair Tavares coming in for Paul Hanlon and Adam Le-Fondre.
Brendan Rodgers was forced to make the one change following Celtic’s midweek Champions League game with Paulo Bernardo coming in for the injured Reo Hatate.
The game started slowly and tense as Celtic kept the ball with some nice passes but failing to find a way through the Hibs team.
The first chance of the match fell to Celtic’s Paulo Bernardo on the 18th minute after a poor pass out by Rocky Bushiri. The ball fell to the Celtics summer signing on the edge of the box, but his effort whistled past David Marshall’s post.
Celtic were forced to make the first substitution of the game after Bushiri had cannoned the ball off Alastair Johnston’s face from close range, Anthony Ralston came on as his replacement.
Hibs first real opportunity came after a counter attack on the 30th minute, however Youan’s effort went straight into the hands of Joe Hart in the Celtic goal.
Hibs almost gifted their opposition a goal a few minutes later after failing to play the ball out from a goal kick, Calum McGregor and Luis Palma both latched on to the ball in the box but failed to convert.
The best chance of the half came in the final few minutes after David Marshall spilled the ball in the box, the keeper made amends though, pulling off a great recovery save after Maeda’s close range effort.
The first half finished goalless after Celtic failed to take any of the opportunities that a sloppy but determined Hibs defence had gifted them.
Half Time: 0-0.
Hibs’ closest effort of the match came early after the interval, a brilliant cross from the left by Jordan Obita to Martin Boyle who’s stretching effort went over the crossbar.
Celtic had made all their substitutions by the 65th minute, amongst those taken off was mid-week Champions League goal scorer Luis Palma who had been kept quiet by a solid Lewis Miller.
The game really failed to really liven up until the last 10 minutes when Celtic began to put pressure on the Hibs defence, only thanks to some brilliant last ditch defending from Rocky Bushiri and the crossbar were Hibs able to keep their clean sheet intact.
James Forrest almost dramatically won the game in additional time for Celtic, his effort from close range fizzing past Marshall’s near post as Hibs fans hearts were in mouths.
The referee blew his full-time whistle with the score 0-0 at the end of an ultimately poor game where either side failed to convert their half chances.
Full time: 0-0.
In a spirited display from the Hibs defence, they became just the third Scottish side to stop Celtic scoring this season, led by a superb Lewis Miller who won the sponsors player of the match.
After receiving some mid-week criticism for the team set up against Rangers, Montgomery’s men showed a different side to their game this week against the champions.
Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised Hibs side post-match saying: “You have to give some credit to Hibs, they defended really well towards the end of the game.”
Hibs boss Nick Montgomery, who was celebrating his 42nd Birthday, reflected on the game saying: “Extremely proud of the effort the boys put in, you’re talking about a team who went toe to toe with Athletic Madrid on Wednesday night.
“I thought today we contained a lot of their threats, and they have a lot of them, I thought we defended really well, and I thought we defended resolute when we needed to.”
Up next for Hibs is Ross County at home on Halloween night before their ViaPlay Semi Final against Aberdeen at Hampden Park.
The Teams:
Hibernian: David Marshall, Lewis Miller, Will Fish, Rocky Bushiri, Jordan Obita, Jair Tavares (81’ Rory Whittaker), Joe Newell, Jimmy Jeggo (81’ Dylan Levitt), Elie Youan, Martin Boyle and Dylan Vente (73’ Adam Le Fondre)
Celtic: Joe Hart, Alastair Johnston (19’ Anthony Ralston), Cameron Carter-Vickers, Liam Scales, Daizen Maeda (57’ James Forrest), Matt O’Riley, Callum McGregor, Paulo Bernardo (57’ David Turnbull) Luis Palma (65’ Mikey Johnston), Kyogo (65’ Hyeongyu Oh)
Masters Student currently studying Sports Journalism at Edinburgh Napier University.
