Kai Watson: Hearts Stay Clear at the Top of the Scottish Premiership
Wilfried Nancy's Celtic reign got off to the worst possible start this weekend, losing 2-1 to league leaders Hearts who increased the gap at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Free Bets Scottish football expert Kai Watson discusses the game and what it could mean for the rest of the season.
Before Hearts headed to Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon, they hadn’t won in four games since hammering Dundee at the beginning of November.
On the other hand Celtic had won their last five since Hearts beat them at Tynecastle at the end of October.
Two sides in completely different places in terms of recent form but are the top two in the league currently.
They went into this game level on points with Celtic having a game in hand and that’s after Hearts went nine points clear after beating Celtic in the reverse fixture.
This fixture gave the home side the chance to go three points clear and still with a game in hand.
There was added interest to this one, though as it was Wilfried Nancy’s first time in the dugout as Celtic manager having recently joined from Columbus Crew. The 48-year-old Frenchman joined having built his reputation in the MLS winning the MLS Cup and runner-up in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
He previously played three at the back and was known for an attacking, possession-based style of play. It wasn’t really a shock to anyone when he named his first eleven and it was, on paper, a 3-4-2-1.
The line-up included three left-footed centre-backs with Tierney playing on the left next to Scales and with Trusty on the right. Yang played right wingback with Tounekti playing left wingback then behind Maeda up top was Hatate and Nygren.
Celtic started on the front foot and had all the possession and most of the attacking play in the opening quarter of the game.
Daizen Maeda has two brilliant chances within 60 seconds of each other to put Nancy’s side in front. The first was on his left foot where he attempted to drive a low shot beyond Schwolow but it was a simple save in the end for the German goalkeeper.
The second one was a much better chance after some brilliant play from Tounekti, Maeda took a touch to the centre of the goal but his next touch took the ball too far away from his right foot and he slashed at it and sliced it wide despite being just off the centre of the goal in between the penalty spot and six yard box.
It was a really poor finish considering the position that he was in.
Hearts did look dangerous on the counter and from set-pieces but the opening goal came from a Shankland cross that was poorly dealt with and Kyziridis headed it back towards the six yard box.
Claudio Braga then won the next header although it looked like he was clearly offside (Engels was actually playing him on).
Harry Milne then controlled that flick on and had a wild swing with his right foot, McGregor then dallied on the ball and Braga nipped it, before drilling a low shot into the opposite corner with his left foot.
Hearts went into half-time 1-0 up and the second goal came on 63 minutes. A Harry Milne corner was going away from goal when Oisin McEntee, who was running back towards the ball, somehow generated enough power to direct it into the corner of Schmeichel’s goal to make it 2-0.
Kyziridis then had a chance to make it 3-0 shortly after but dragged his left-footed shot past the post. Arne Engels then missed a sitter from inside the six-yard box when his header was straight at the Hearts goalkeeper and Reo Hatate’s follow-up smashed off the bar.
The scoring was complete in the 93rd minute when, after a scramble in the box, the ball fell to Kieran Tierney who calmly smashed it into the net but there wasn’t enough time for an equalizer.
A tough opening fixture for Nancy but he’ll learn a lot about his side from this game and will look to improve that going into the Cup Final next weekend. Derek McInnes will be delighted with this win given his team's recent dip in form and it now puts pressure on Celtic to win their game in hand to keep pressure on the league leaders.
Latest Scottish Premiership Betting Odds
Despite the win, betting sites still have Hearts down as third favourites to lift the Scottish Premiership title this season.
