Dembele shines as Celtic avenge Hearts pain

GLASGOW: Moussa Dembele (pic) inspired Celtic’s revenge mission against Hearts as he scored one and provided two assists in their 3-1 Scottish Premiership win.

Hearts had shocked the Scottish champions just six weeks previously as they ended Celtic’s record-breaking 69-match unbeaten domestic run with a 4-0 thrashing at Tynecastle.

However, that performance must have seemed like a distant memory to Hearts at Parkhead as they watched Dembele set up Odsonne Edouard to fire the Hoops ahead in the third minute before he provided the assist for Dedryck Boyata’s second in the 25th.

The French forward – linked with a move away from the Hoops in the transfer window – then scored his first goal since Nov 26 when he made it 3-0 in the 36th minute.

Kyle Lafferty grabbed a second-half consolation strike for Hearts as their 12-match unbeaten run was brought to a halt.

Victory means Celtic extend their lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership to 14 points.

“We took our chances in the first half and didn’t in the second half,” Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said.

“But overall it was a tremendous team performance.

“We created chances and my only disappointment was we didn’t score more goals.”

Hearts manager Craig Levein gained some hope from his side’s second-half showing.

“What pleased me was we stuck at it. We got a goal and we didn’t lose any more,” he said.

“It gives me some heart that we can come back and do a similar thing the next time we are here.”

There was no hiding Celtic’s desire for vengeance as they pressed Hearts from the start.

The Jambos had been heading to a ninth consecutive clean sheet before Motherwell’s Curtis Main grabbed a 90th-minute equaliser on Saturday.

However, it took Celtic less than three minutes to find a way past Jon McLaughlin thanks to the pace and composure of Edouard.

Dembele laid the ball off to his fellow Frenchman just inside the Celtic half and the striker left three Hearts players trailing as he burst forward and lifted over the goalkeeper and into the net.

A second wasn’t far away and it came from the unlikely source of Boyata. James Forrest got in front of Demetri Mitchell to head the ball into the box for Dembele who released Boyata, with the Belgian defender drilling the ball through the legs of McLaughlin.

Dembele had failed to shine when he came on as the replacement for the injured Leigh Griffiths in the weekend win over Hibs.

However, the French forward rediscovered the form that saw him bag 32 strikes last season as he finally got the goal his play deserved nine minutes before the break.

Scott Brown’s robust challenge on Harry Cochrane on the edge of the Celtic box started a quick breakaway as the ball found its way to Kieran Tierney.

The leftback turned Connor Randall inside out before clipping the ball to the near post where Dembele provided the deftest of touches to direct it into the net.

The Hoops started the second half in a similar fashion with Dembele curling a shot just over before Edouard twice came close.

However, they were made to pay for their misses when Lafferty handed Hearts a 67th-minute lifeline with a lovely low strike that denied Dorus de Vries a clean sheet in only his second start of the season in place of the injured Craig Gordon. — AFP