Kai Watson: A Massive Weekend in the Scottish Premiership Title Race
This was a massive weekend in the title race as second took on first when Celtic travelled to Tynecastle to play league leaders Hearts. Unusually, it was a 3pm kick-off and at the exact same time, Rangers hosted Dundee at Ibrox. Most would have predicted a Rangers win but I don’t think anyone really knew how the game at Tynecastle would go, especially with Martin O’Neil back in charge.
The battle of the top two started slightly earlier and brought the first goal when Celtic took the lead through a brilliant Benjamin Nygren freekick from just outside the box. Just three minutes later and a flick on from Pierre Landry Kabore sent Claudio Braga through but Schmeichel got down well to save his low shot. A mistake from Auston Trusty put Alexandros Kyziridis through one on one with Schmeichel but the Danish goalkeeper spread himself well to save with his foot and make sure it was 1-0 at half-time.
At the same time, not much was happening at Ibrox apart from an early goal for the hosts which was correctly disallowed for offside. It was Tochi Chukwuani’s header that was disallowed and he had the best chance of the half when Thelo Aasgaard slipped him through but McCracken saved it. Hearts came out the traps quick in the second half and equalised on the 48th minute after Stuart Findlay headed in from a corner from debutant Marc Leonard.
In the 48th minute at Ibrox, Rangers were awarded what looked like a controversial penalty but captain James Tavernier stepped up to score his 100th league goal for the club, what an achievement for a right-back! Kyziridis had another great chance in the 54th minute at Tynecastle but delayed his shot enough to let Liam Scales put in a brilliant tackle and send the ball away from danger.
New Celtic signing Tomas Cvancara’s looping header from a Nygren cross crashed off of the crossbar with Craig Gordon struggling to reach it. Two minutes later, the big Czech striker showed his acceleration as he drove into the box and played it across the six-yard box for Yang to tuck it away.
Then the controversial moment, Kabore was played through and Auston Trusty tugged at his arm and brought him down when he was looking to go through on goal. Steven McLean deemed it to be denying a clear goalscoring opportunity (after a VAR check) and sent him off, a decision Martin O’Neil had a LOT to say about at full-time.
Hearts piled on the pressure from that point, in the 83rd minute Claudio Braga stabbed a toe at the bouncing ball around the six-yard box but Schmeichel pulled off a brilliant, instinctive save to keep it at 2-1. Three minutes later Hearts equalised through, surprise, surprise, a set-piece. Harry Milne sent in a deep cross which Oisin McEntee knocked down and Braga showed brilliant technique to get his body over the ball, keep his shot down and fire it past Schmeichel. With just a minute left the ball fell to substitute Blair Spittal who’s fierce left footed strike clipped the top of the bar.
Dundee never really threatened but it took until injury time for Rangers to get a second, a sloppy pass from Joe Bevan was intercepted by Danilo who drove forward before calmly slotting it beyond McCracken. Rangers made it 3-0 a couple of minutes later after Raskin lofted a ball over to Djeidi Gassama, who cut inside and whipped a brilliant effort into the far corner, something Rangers fans will want to see more of!
So how did the 2-2 draw at Tynecastle and Rangers 3-0 win at Ibrox leave the table looking?
Hearts - 51pts
Rangers - 47pts
Celtic - 45pts
All three have played the same amount of games but that result leaves Rangers sitting clear top of the form table and having won eight matches in a row.
Who’s your favourite for the title now?
Below are the latest odds from betting sites on the outright Scottish Premiership market.
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