Hearts go to sleep as Celts go nap

Celtic 5 Miller (9, 51), Stamp (og, 12), Larsson (36), Varga (42).
Hearts 0

IN the aftermath of the UEFA Cup draw, cocky Bordeaux star Albert Riera claimed he had never heard of Hearts after the French side was paired with the Jambos in next month’s second round.

Well, if the striker saw footage of the Gorgie outfit’s woeful display against Celtic at Parkhead on Saturday, he will be none the wiser as the side which crumbled in the east end of Glasgow bore no resemblance to the team which earned the right to perform on the European stage by proving itself to be the third force in Scottish football last season

Anticipation had been high before kick-off about the match of the day with many observers believing the Jambos, fresh from their victory over Bosnians Zeljeznicar, could provide the stiffest of tests for the champions.

Having flown to the Sarajevo and closed out the first-round tie with a 0-0 stalemate it was reasonable to assume that Hearts would have relished the prospect of locking horns with the league leaders, whose manager Martin O’Neill had openly expressed his concerns over the game beforehand. But such hopes were wide of the mark as the Tynecastle side were swept aside with barely a whimper of resistance.

It was always going to be a tough afternoon for the men in maroon after returning from the war- ravaged Balkans barely 48 hours before the trip along the M8, their opponents having had the luxury of a blank midweek with the Champions League not beckoning until tomorrow and a clash with Anderlecht in Belgium.

Tiredness was always going to be a factor, either mentally or physically, but it had been hoped the occasion itself would have brought another major effort from Craig Levein’s Euro heroes.

It was not to be, however, as the home side romped to victory with the points having been assured by half-time, by which time Celtic were cruising at 4-0. What made it all the more frustrating for Levein was that the hosts did not have to work hard for their advantage with every goal avoidable as the Hearts’ defence was opened up with alarming regularity.

The exertions in the Olympic Stadium in Sarajevo were always going to have a bearing on the match, but even taking into consideration the Jambos’ heroics, they should have been capable of offering much more at Parkhead.

The European adventure has been a huge learning curve for Levein and his young squad and Saturday’s experience will hopefully stand them in good stead for the future. Levein conceded afterwards that he might have done things differently with the benefit of hindsight. And if Hearts are to continue to fly the flag for Scotland in the UEFA Cup then they have to be able to accept the baggage that goes with the territory and find a way of coping with Europe and the SPL within the space of a few days.

"I find it difficult to be too hard on the players as these are the same guys who did so well for us in Sarajevo," said Levein.

"I look at myself as well, though, and say that in hindsight I might have been better leaving a couple of players out. Perhaps I’d have been better giving a game to some of the fringe players who are desperate for an opportunity. That might have given us some of the aggression that was missing. It is certainly something I can think about the next time we look at a Saturday match after playing in midweek."

Alarm bells must have started ringing in the visitors’ dugout after Henrik Larsson skipped through the Hearts defence and sent a shot rattling off a post with just three minutes on the clock.

With just nine minutes having elapsed, the Jambos found themselves trailing, Tepi Moilanen pushing a Larsson shot into the path of youngster Liam Miller, who gleefully smashed his shot into the net.

Three minutes later and things worsened in comic style for Hearts, Phil Stamp sending a header flashing past his own keeper as he tried to clear Larsson’s flick from Stanislav Varga’s throw-in.

Two weeks ago, the Gorgie outfit clawed its way back into the game after falling two goals behind to Dundee at Tynecastle to rescue a point. Two down to the league leaders on their own patch after just 12 minutes is a completely different scenario, however.

Levein had already spotted the danger of his defence sitting too deep but try as he might, he could not cajole them further up the park.

The procession towards Moilanen’s goal continued and it was something of a surprise that the third goal didn’t arrive until the 36th minute - and again there were serious question marks about the defence.

A goal kick from Moilanen was met by Varga and his powerful header over the top of the back line found Larsson in acres of space and the Swede did what he does best with a minimum of fuss.

Sixty seconds later and the Finn had to dash to the edge of his box to deny Larsson as the Celts threatened to run riot.

Three minutes before the break, though, Hearts fell even further behind, Alan Thompson swinging in a corner and Varga rising unchallenged to head home.

Levein brought on Kevin McKenna for Andy Webster and replaced Stamp with Paul Hartley at half-time in a bid to halt the one-way traffic but within six minutes of the restart the home side had gone nap.

Substitute Shaun Maloney robbed Jean-Louis Valois on the right, his deep cross found John Hartson and the Welshman’s header back across the area left Miller with the simplest of tasks to bag his second of the match.

The game then took on the air of a training session with the home side clearly having one eye on their Anderlecht showdown, and fortunately for Hearts, Celtic didn’t seem too concerned about piling on more agony as the second-half wore on.

"We shot ourselves in the foot so many times that we didn’t have any toes left," said Levein.

"If you perform below your best at Parkhead something like this can happen.

"For some reason we decided to sit deep and try to defend on the edge of our box and that is just suicidal against Celtic at Parkhead.

"It was a case of salvaging some pride in the second half and some damage limitation."

Taken from the Scotsman