Celtic clinically show Hearts the way to goal

At this stage of the season as recently as two years ago, this would have been a fixture featuring two teams contending for the championship itself. In this latest meeting, Gordon Strachan would be appraising his players' form as an indicator of their prospects against Barcelona in Wednesday's Champions League last-16 match.

Stevie Frail, his counterpart, would merely be looking for signs in his side of the improvement necessary to give them a chance of climbing from ninth to a place in the top six of the Premier League.

In truth, the disparity suggested by the table – Celtic now 25 points ahead of Hearts, having played two matches fewer – was not as pronounced on the field. The scoreline may hint at a comprehensive beating, but there were, in fact, long periods in the game when the visitors had a clear edge in terms of possession and the likelihood of taking at least a point from their endeavours.

Significantly, however, it was when Hearts were in the ascendancy that their serious flaws were most tellingly exposed. Abysmal attempts at converting the number of solid opportunities they created was complemented by a slackness in defence that Celtic – in the way that champions tend to do – exploited mercilessly.

Even Strachan, invariably upbeat about his team – he has been known to describe moderate performances as "fantastic" and "terrific" – acknowledged on this occasion that there were periods in which they could, and probably should, have sustained damage.

"I think that's the best we've started a match this season," said the Celtic manager. "We knew it would be a big day against a team with good players who've been showing good form. But, after getting the first goal, things became a wee bit sticky. We got ourselves sorted out at half time, though, and managed to go on from there in the second half."

Celtic in those opening 15 minutes seemed likely to embarrass their opponents, their forceful domination highlighted by a Shunsuke Nakamura free kick that curled away from Steve Banks and smacked the goalkeeper's left post. The impression of a potential rout was deepened when Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink stretched out his right foot to stab the ball past Banks from a precise cross by Aiden McGeady on the left.

But, from then until the interval – that is, for two-thirds of the first half – Hearts were mainly in control and should have equalised when Artur Boruc parried a shot from Andrew Driver out to Andrius Velicka to the right of the home goal. The visitors' most prolific striker should have done better than hit the outside of the net.

Driver, whose pace on the left was a regular bother to Andreas Hinkel – the German full-back seemed considerably short of match sharpness – would prove to be Hearts' most profligate player, twice sending the ball weakly into the arms of Boruc after running clear. It was within a minute of the first of these failures that Celtic doubled their advantage. Nakamura had forced the corner kick on the left and, when he delivered the ball into the goal mouth, Scott McDonald was utterly isolated, sending the free header from six yards high past Banks.

"There were big chunks of the game when we played quite well," said Frail, "but we gave away two very cheap goals. Especially the second, when the smallest man on the pitch gets a free header. That's just bad defending. You don't want to come to places like this and concede early, but I thought we were the better side in the first half after Celtic scored.

"But we didn't take our chances and it was the same early in the second, when Andrew missed a good chance just before they go up the field and score from the corner kick."

Celtic completed the scoring with a ferocious, angled drive from Hinkel into the roof of the net after he had received a back-heeled pass from McGeady to the right of goal. But, for the home fans, the most eye-catching aspect of the game would be the performance of Georgios Samaras after he had replaced Vennegoor of Hesselink in the 73rd minute.

The tall striker showed the kind of mobility not associated with the Dutch forward and he was unfortunate to see a blinding, left-foot drive from 25 yards – after he had casually ambled past a couple of opponents crossing the field from right to left – come back off the inside of Banks's right-hand post.

Strachan knows better than to make a direct correlation between a match against Hearts and wha
t may happen against Barcelona, but Hinkel brought an interesting slant to the European assignment, especially on the matter of Celtic's formidable home record in the Champions League.

"Celtic are obviously capable about beating anyone at home," said the former Sevilla full-back, "and I spoke about this to Elvis (Steven Pressley] and Jan (Vennegoor of Hesselink].

"I think a factor is that the pitches here are softer and take more energy out of players. I think it may be partly why Celtic often score late goals against teams who want to play easy, technical football.

"I know there's been talk of Ronaldinho and his fitness at Barcelona and I've seen pictures of him and he definitely seems to have a different body from a couple of years ago. He looks like a different player. But nobody else can do what he does and, if he can run for 90 minutes, that will make a big difference."

Taken from the Scotsman