BRILLIANT BHOYS ARE QUITE SIMPLY UNSTOPPABLE
Hearts can’t halt party as Celts set up league title coronation at Tannadice
FOURTEEN months ago, Celtic lost their relentless grip on Scottish football after a goalless Sunday afternoon draw at the empty home of Dundee United.
On Wednesday, Ange Postecoglou’s side return to Tannadice knowing that a point this time will secure a tenth Premiership title in 11 years and their 14th domestic trophy from the last 18 available.
It feels, now, like a formality. A case of crossing the Ts and dotting the Is. With two games to play, the points and goal differential is such that Rangers can no longer catch them. Celtic are the new champions of Scotland.
Most other years, a title capitulation would see the managerial incumbent at Ibrox escorted down the marble staircase of the Bill Struth Stand with little or no ceremony.
Yet, in Scotland’s largest city this is shaping up as a strange and unusual season. A once-in-a-lifetime event where both Celtic and Rangers end the season bickering over which team is best.
On Thursday night, Giovanni van Bronckhorst took a step closer to history when he and his players embarked on a lap of honour after securing a place in the Europa League final.
For Celtic supporters, the prospect of their bitter rivals winning a European trophy is one they can’t bring themselves to contemplate. If Rangers beat Eintracht Frankfurt, they’ll never hear the end of it.
Consolation comes from a League Cup, a return to titlewinning ways and the knowledge that, under Postecoglou, the abject awfulness of last season is now a distant memory.
Within 48 hours of Rangers soaking up the applause, Glasgow played host to another lap of honour.
There might have been other seasons when the players of Celtic or Rangers have embarked on individual laps of honour within 48 hours of the other. Off the top of the head, it’s difficult to recall one.
Despite their reluctance to admit the league is won, Celtic’s lap of honour felt like a tacit acknowledgement of reality. Strolling a few paces behind the players was Postecoglou, the unheralded manager who took on an unenviable situation 11 months ago and, after three defeats in his opening six games, forged a team of champions.
By banging his chest and punching the air, the Scottish Football Writers’ Manager of the Year was acknowledging what everyone else already knows. A single point will confirm Celtic’s 52nd Scottish league title.
Two games against Hearts illustrate how far Celtic have come in two transfer windows.
Last July, a team in transition travelled to Tynecastle for their first league game under the new manager.
Scott Bain played in goal, Nir Bitton was asked to fill in at centre-half. Ryan Christie and Odsonne Edouard played up front. The outcome was an unsatisfying 2-1 defeat.
Gary Mackay-Steven gave the Edinburgh side an early lead that night. And on-loan striker Ellis Simms repeated the feat after three minutes with a fine half-volley on Saturday, television replays showing he was just about onside.
In every sense, however, Celtic are now a different team. Of their 128 goals this season, 86 have come from players who played no part in the collapse of ten-in-a-row.
Undeterred by a strangely flat and complacent atmosphere, Celtic took time to recover from the loss of the early goal.
Making his first start since mid-December, David Turnbull forced Craig Gordon into a fine save. Kyogo Furuhashi did the same minutes later.
There was controversy in the goal which finally drew Celtic level after 30 minutes.
Hearts were incensed by the failure of referee Don Robertson to award them a free-kick for a trip on Toby Sibbick by Callum McGregor deep in Celtic’s half of the pitch. Counter attacking with lightning speed, Jota burst forward over the halfway line and rolled the ball into the path of Daizen Maeda to lash the equaliser through the legs of Gordon.
Celtic relaxed a little when they took the lead seven minutes later. Jota — a tour de force in recent weeks — claimed another assist when he headed Greg Taylor’s probing cross into the danger area for Furuhashi to apply the final touch.
Gordon stretched every sinew to claw the ball away, claiming it hadn’t cross the line.
Television replays showed otherwise.
‘I saw it again and I think it was about a millimetre over,’ acknowledged the Scotland keeper after the game. ‘How the linesman from 40 yards away can 100 per cent know that is over the line, I’m not entirely sure.
‘We’ll have to give him it as a good call, but I’ve no idea how he could see it or give it a goal at that speed.
‘He was winding me up coming up for the second half saying: “Good decision, good decision, eh?”. I was like, okay…
‘Fair enough, he backed his call as I thought at the time I had saved it. It happened so quick, but for an eagle-eyed linesman who miraculously managed to see that was over the line, it’s a good call.’
While the spotlight inevitably falls on Celtic’s Japanese new Bhoys, the impact of January signing Matt O’Riley (right) can’t be underplayed. During a testing spell in the second half, the Danish Under-21 international was superb at both ends of the pitch.
In defence his height headed one set-piece after another to safety like a seasoned centre-half. In attack, he smashed a shot off the left-hand post minutes before he made the points safe and quelled Hearts resistance with the third goal — controlling with one touch before drilling the ball low into the far corner past Gordon. A brother and sister act from the 1970s, Karen and Richard Carpenter might be staples of Radio 2. This season their jaunty 1972 hit On Top of the World has been purloined by Celtic supporters to remind Rangers of the respective league placings of the two sides. The song was belted out with gusto when substitute Giorgos Giakoumakis slammed in the fourth goal in the final
minute after Gordon’s fine save from Reo Hatate.
After a slow start on Saturday, Celtic delivered on their manager’s call to finish off the job in style.
‘I’m really proud of the group,’ said Postecoglou. ‘We went a goal down early and you wonder how they’re going to react, knowing there’s a nervousness around the stadium.
‘But this group of players refuses to lose belief and they are just relentless. Our football was outstanding.
‘The players have bought into the team we want to be. It’s been a massive collective effort.’