Hearts vs Celtic. Scottish Premiership.
TynecastleAttendance16,527.
Wednesday 4 May 2016 12:37, UK
Celtic all-but wrapped up their fifth successive Scottish Premiership title with a resounding 3-1 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle.
A composed finish from Colin Kazim-Richards gave the Hoops a half-time advantage, which was cancelled out by Abiola Dauda on 57 minutes, before Patrick Roberts and Leigh Griffiths secured the three points for the champions.
The win left Celtic nine points clear of Aberdeen, who defeated Motherwell 4-1 later in the afternoon, but with the Hoops' goal-difference of plus-55, it would take a seismic event for the Dons to snatch the title as they can only equal Celtic's current points-tally by winning all their remaining three fixtures, while Ronny Deila's side would also have to lose all three of their matches by significant margins.
Celtic were on the front foot from the start and had the ball in the net after 12 minutes when Roberts weaved his way into the box and tested Neil Alexander with a low drive which the goalkeeper could only parry, and Callum McGregor followed up to knock the ball over the line, only to be wrongly flagged offside.
Two minutes later Nir Bitton threaded a pass to Roberts who again placed his shot to the 'keeper's right from inside the box and was thwarted by Alexander, who then got up to tip the rebound from Griffiths over the bar.
But Celtic made the breakthrough on 17 minutes with a move which started on the left side of the halfway line before the ball was worked to the right side of the Hearts box where Mlkael Lustig delivered a chip to the back post where Kazim-Richards controlled the ball on his chest and crashed his shot under Alexander from six yards.
Griffiths had a great chance to double the lead five minutes before the break when Prince Buaben's shot was blocked by Bitton and the ball spun to the Celtic striker who raced forward from the halfway line and dispatched a shot from 20 yards which Alexander diverted wide with his legs.
Hearts almost levelled the game three minutes after the break when Arnaud Djoum strode forward and hit a shot from 20 yards which deflected off Sviatchenko, and with the ball heading for the bottom left corner of Craig Gordon's net the former Hearts stopper made a fingertip save.
But Hearts continued to press and were rewarded when Dauda (57) collected the ball 10 yards inside the Celtic half before turning to drive through the visitors' defence and send his low drive past Gordon from the edge of the box.
Ten minutes later Lustig headed over the target from five yards with his back to goal after Sviatchenko flicked on a corner from Roberts as Celtic tried to regain the lead.
And they did so 90 seconds later as Hearts dithered in defence with Alim Ozturk and Perry Kitchen playing poor passes before Roberts nicked the ball off John Souttar and showed terrific poise to slide his shot through the legs of the advancing Alexander.
Celtic came close again when Kieran Tierney cut the ball back to Tom Rogic and he swept his first-time shot over the bar from 16 yards within a minute of appearing as a substitute.
And Griffiths secured the victory five minutes from the end when he closed down a clearance from Soutter and then nutmegged the Hearts defender before beating Alexander at his near post with a low drive for his 30th league goal of the season.
