Celtic produced a devastating response to their defeats to Rangers and Benfica, demolishing Hearts 7-1 at Celtic Park to move four points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership on Sunday. In the first meeting since last season’s dramatic final-day title decider, Martin O’Neill’s side turned a potentially tense occasion into a procession.
Hearts arrived with momentum and title aspirations, but their resistance lasted seven minutes. A Mika Baur corner was flicked on by Liam Scales and Kieran Tierney arrived unmarked to head Celtic in front.
Three minutes later, another Baur set-piece caused chaos. Dane Murray hooked the ball back into the danger zone and Benjamin Nygren’s effort deflected beyond Beau Reus to make it 2-0.
Celtic then struck the post through Haissem Hassan, while Reus produced a fine save to deny Nygren a second. The warning signs were everywhere, yet Hearts could not slow the tide.
Callum Osmand, handed his first Celtic start, made it an afternoon to remember with two goals in two minutes. He swept in the third on 36 minutes before nodding home the fourth shortly afterwards, sending Celtic 4-0 ahead.
Laurent Mendy briefly gave Hearts hope with a fine curling finish to make it 4-1, but any thought of a comeback evaporated in first-half stoppage time. Baur glided through the Hearts defence, Stephen Kingsley’s attempted clearance rebounded off Jamie McCart and rolled over the goal line to hand Celtic a 5-1 half time lead.
Camilo Durán made it 6-1 just four minutes after the restart, finishing off a flowing Celtic move with a composed first-time strike. Nygren then completed the scoring in the 83rd minute, lashing in Celtic’s seventh to cap a relentless, ruthless performance.
The result lifts Celtic four points clear of Rangers at the Premiership summit, while Hearts remain third and now eight points adrift of the league leaders.
For O’Neill, it was the ideal answer to four defeats in their previous five matches, including Thursday’s loss in Lisbon. For Wouter Vrancken, it was a brutal introduction to Celtic Park, with defensive errors and two early set-piece failures proving fatal.
O’Neill said: “I thought we played really well, really well in the game. Once we got a goal, players got a lot of confidence from that and we carried it on throughout the 90 minutes.”
Vrancken admitted: “Two set plays killed our game at the start of the game. All of their goals even, when I go back, individual mistakes and then it’s difficult to win a game.”