William Hill Premiership: Celtic 7, Hearts 1
Celtic: Sinisalo, Donovan, Murray, Scales, Tierney, McGregor, Baur, Nygren, Hassan, Osmand, Duran.
Hearts: Reus, Kingsley, McCart, McEntee, Miller, Braga, McPake, Guendouz, Altena, Fagan-Walcott, Mendy.
Nygren and Osmand netted doubles as fired-up Celtic thrashed mistake-ridden Hearts 7-1 at Parkhead leaving the Jambos head coach, Wouter Vrancken, with a major job to lift his men before they travel to Turkey for a UEFA Conference League clash on Thursday.
Hearts failed to live with Celtic’s speed and creativity despite Vrancken bringing in Jordi Altena, Stephen Kingsley, who was named as captain, and Sabri Guendouz, for the feature clash at Parkhead, with Christian Brochgevink, Harry Milne and James Wilson making way.
It was a vital game as Celtic, nicknamed The Bhoys, led the table with 21 points from eight games with Rangers in second spot a point behind but with a game more played. Hearts were third on 16 points with eight games played.
Celtic emerged from their traditional huddle on a chilly day in Glasgow under bright blue skies and were looking to erase the midweek 4-1 defeat in Lisbon to Benfica in the Europa League. Hearts were held 1-1 at Tynecastle by Danish side, Nordsjaelland, and there were optimistic signs from the visitors as Kingsley fired over from a good position and there was another scare for The Hoops as Scales tried to find his goalkeeper. Sinisalo was forced to race from his goal to snuff out the danger.
This was undoubtedly a good start by the Edinburgh club, but Celtic forced the first corner of the match after six minutes. It was fired towards the near post and Scottish international Tierney squeezed the ball home from close range for the opener.
It was Celtic’s first real attack of the match and a real downer for The Men in Maroon as losing a goal from a set-piece is not what Vrancken and the travelling fans wanted to see.
Duran was next to threaten, the Columbian forcing a desperate block inside the penalty box, and then Nygren found the net with a volley for a second after ten minutes, with the Jambos undone from another set play. It was a long way back for the visitors.
Of course, Hearts’ former set-piece coach, Ross Grant, left Tynecastle for Parkhead in the summer, and Vrancken’s displeasure at the defensive fallibility was evident as the Belgian-born head coach stood in his dugout, but Guendouz made his way into the Celtic box before firing straight at Sinisalo.
At the other end, Hassan struck the far post after coming in off the wing, as Hearts continued to suffer against the champions who were controlling the play and looking confident.
Nygren then threatened on another break after a pass from Hassan and it took a smart save from Reus with his boot to prevent a third, but it was not all Celtic as a Braga shot was saved by Sinisalo.
Hearts roared back to create a great chance from a free-kick. Altena sent the ball into the box and McCart failed to make his header count as the ball flew wide, a glorious chance to reduce the deficit spurned.
McPake then forced a corner as Hearts attempted to hit back, and Vrancken applauded their efforts, but Hearts failed to make the set-piece count. The Jambos then won another corner after neat work from Braga.
Miller entered the referee’s book soon after following a body check on Osmand, who secured the title last season with a third in the decisive game, and, seconds later, Hearts were 3-0 down.
Osmand, a former Welsh youth international, exploited poor defence to take the wind out of Hearts and Duran and Nygren combined to set up 20-year-old Osman to head home No 4 with Hearts defence in tatters. Two goals in two minutes from a Jersey-born player making his first start of the season.
Mendy responded for the visitors with a fantastic goal to cut the deficit to three, firing the ball into the bottom corner from around 16 yards with 41 minutes on the clock, the joy was short-lived as Baur fired for goal a minute into first-half injury time and the ball struck McCart on its way into the net. Score 5-1 and Hearts defence cruelly exposed.
Vrancken made a change at the break, Magnusson entering the fray in place of McEntee and Jota was introduced by Celtic for Osmand.
Jota was yellow-carded with a late challenge on Magnusson, much to the displeasure of the home fans, but Celtic shrugged that off with a sixth goal, turning this game into a nightmare for Vrancken and his players.
Tierney drove forward and fed Duran who skipped past McCart to net after 49 minutes. This gets worse and worse for the Gorgie men and the record scoreline in this fixture, according to A1 stats, is 7-0 on December 1, 2013.
Baur pulled back Miller to be booked and the former Falkirk man left the action along with McPake. They were replaced by Mato and Kerjota.
Celtic kept on coming and defender Donovan forced Reus into a save before Nygren curled a free-kick just wide.
Celtic made changes, with McGregor one of the players being replaced, along with Tierney and Duran, obviously with Thursday’s Europa League clash in mind, with Hogh, Oxlade-Chamberlain and 18-year-old, American-born, but on-loan Emenalo coming on.
Kerjota fired just over before Braga was withdrawn for Ba-Sy and then Mato had a pop but his shot also flew over the crossbar.
Forrest replaced Hassan for Celtic as the minutes ticked away and The Boys continued to dominate and they made it 7-1 when Nygren chipped he ball home over goalkeeper Reus to make it a magnificent seven and a wretched day for the Men in Maroon who pushed Celtic so hard last term for the title, taking it to three minutes from time in the final game.
Wilson came on for the Jambos who have been left with much to ponder ahead of their trip to Turkey against Trabzonspor and ex-Liverpool player, Mo Salah. They are now eight points adrift of The Bhoys in the current title race.
CELEBRATION: Martin O’Neil, Celtic’s manager.
