28th October 2018. Hearts v Celtic. 0-3
This is it the big one. The match is now being held at Murrayfield and over sixty thousand tickets have been sold. I left home at 12.15 and walked along Fountainbridge, Ardmillan and Russell Road arriving at the Roseburn turnstiles at Murrayfield at 12.40. The turnstiles were already busy and I bought my £5 programme inside the ground. With the game being at Murrayfield there was no pie and bovril. Instead the usual vans were parked on the concourse offering fish and chips, venison burgers and other assorted delicacies. The food stalls are over priced and I was glad I had my lunch before I arrived at the ground. My seat was in the West Stand, Section 15 and offered a good view of the pitch from near the half way line. Before the game goals from both Hearts and Celtics progress to the semi-final were shown on the Murrayfield big screens.
The tone for the match was set in the first minute when referee Willie Callum booked Hearts Steven MacLean after an ariel joust with Celtics Michael Lustig. Lustig went down as if he had been shot but looking at the challenge on the big screens there appeared to be nothing in it. More bad luck arrived for Hearts after five minutes when Steven Naismith went down with no one near him. He received treatment from the Hearts physio and returned to the pitch but was forced to limp off after eight minutes. He was replaced by Danny Amankwaa who had only made two substitute appearances so far this season. I was surprised by this decision as I would have thought Sean Clare or Callumn Morrison would have been a more obvious replacement. In twenty-seven minutes Celtic replaced the injured Eboue Kouassi with Scott Sinclair. The pattern of the play was Celtic had a lot of possession but Hearts defended well and Bobby Zlamal in goal was not really troubled. Five minutes from halftime Hearts won a corner. Olly Lee's kick was headed down by Jimmy Dunne to MacLean who shot into the net past Scott Bain. The goal was however ruled off for offside. Shortly afterwards Scott Sinclair had an effort which was well saved by Zlamal.
At the start of the second half Celtic brought on Ryan Christie for Oliver Ntcham and the substitution changed the game. Minutes into the half Christie tripped over Oliver Bozanic's foot inside the Hearts penalty area. He was heading out of the box and I felt was looking for the penalty. Referee Collum gave the spot kick although I think if the same had happened at the other end the Hearts player would have been booked for diving. Sinclair took the kick and sent Zlamal the wrong way to give Celtic the lead. In sixty-six minutes Celtic went further ahead when Christie hit a weak shot from the edge of the box which Zlamal fumbled. I thought it had crossed the line before Zlamal managed to push the ball back out. However the ball fell at the feet of James Forrest to shoot home. As Craig Levein said after the game this was Zlamal's first mistake of the season. Celtic were now on top and Christie shot a wonder goal from twenty-five yards which gave Zlamal no chance as it flew past him into the net. Despite being 3-0 down I though that the Hearts defence did well with goal-line clearances from Dunne, Michael Smith and Clevid Dikamona preventing further goals. Zlamal also made two fantastic saves as Celtic pressed for further goals. Hearts were not really in the game for the second half and Bain in the Celtic goal had little to do. The final whistle signalled the end to a disappointing game in front of a crowd of 61,161, the second highest attendance ever at a football match in Edinburgh.
After the game I walked up to Gorgie Road, then up Ardmillian to Fountainbridge. I stopped at Sainsbury's for a bottle of wine to cheer me up and got home to watch Manchester United v Everton on Sky. Reflecting on the game I think Hearts got their tactics wrong in that they were not pressing enough on Celtic in midfield and therefore allowing them to come at the defence. Still Hearts are five points ahead at the top of the league so there is still a lot to play for with the Edinburgh Derby coming upon Halloween.
Teams
Hearts : Zlamal; M Smith, Dikamona, Dunne, Mitchell; Bozanic, Lee, Haring, Djoum; MacLean, Naismith.
Subs : Amankwaa, Morrison, Clare
Celtic : Bain; Lustig, Ajer, Benkovic, Tierney; Kouassi, Ntcham; Forrest, Rogic, McGregor; Edouard.
Subs : Sinclair, Christie, Hendry
The tone for the match was set in the first minute when referee Willie Callum booked Hearts Steven MacLean after an ariel joust with Celtics Michael Lustig. Lustig went down as if he had been shot but looking at the challenge on the big screens there appeared to be nothing in it. More bad luck arrived for Hearts after five minutes when Steven Naismith went down with no one near him. He received treatment from the Hearts physio and returned to the pitch but was forced to limp off after eight minutes. He was replaced by Danny Amankwaa who had only made two substitute appearances so far this season. I was surprised by this decision as I would have thought Sean Clare or Callumn Morrison would have been a more obvious replacement. In twenty-seven minutes Celtic replaced the injured Eboue Kouassi with Scott Sinclair. The pattern of the play was Celtic had a lot of possession but Hearts defended well and Bobby Zlamal in goal was not really troubled. Five minutes from halftime Hearts won a corner. Olly Lee's kick was headed down by Jimmy Dunne to MacLean who shot into the net past Scott Bain. The goal was however ruled off for offside. Shortly afterwards Scott Sinclair had an effort which was well saved by Zlamal.
At the start of the second half Celtic brought on Ryan Christie for Oliver Ntcham and the substitution changed the game. Minutes into the half Christie tripped over Oliver Bozanic's foot inside the Hearts penalty area. He was heading out of the box and I felt was looking for the penalty. Referee Collum gave the spot kick although I think if the same had happened at the other end the Hearts player would have been booked for diving. Sinclair took the kick and sent Zlamal the wrong way to give Celtic the lead. In sixty-six minutes Celtic went further ahead when Christie hit a weak shot from the edge of the box which Zlamal fumbled. I thought it had crossed the line before Zlamal managed to push the ball back out. However the ball fell at the feet of James Forrest to shoot home. As Craig Levein said after the game this was Zlamal's first mistake of the season. Celtic were now on top and Christie shot a wonder goal from twenty-five yards which gave Zlamal no chance as it flew past him into the net. Despite being 3-0 down I though that the Hearts defence did well with goal-line clearances from Dunne, Michael Smith and Clevid Dikamona preventing further goals. Zlamal also made two fantastic saves as Celtic pressed for further goals. Hearts were not really in the game for the second half and Bain in the Celtic goal had little to do. The final whistle signalled the end to a disappointing game in front of a crowd of 61,161, the second highest attendance ever at a football match in Edinburgh.
After the game I walked up to Gorgie Road, then up Ardmillian to Fountainbridge. I stopped at Sainsbury's for a bottle of wine to cheer me up and got home to watch Manchester United v Everton on Sky. Reflecting on the game I think Hearts got their tactics wrong in that they were not pressing enough on Celtic in midfield and therefore allowing them to come at the defence. Still Hearts are five points ahead at the top of the league so there is still a lot to play for with the Edinburgh Derby coming upon Halloween.
Teams
Hearts : Zlamal; M Smith, Dikamona, Dunne, Mitchell; Bozanic, Lee, Haring, Djoum; MacLean, Naismith.
Subs : Amankwaa, Morrison, Clare
Celtic : Bain; Lustig, Ajer, Benkovic, Tierney; Kouassi, Ntcham; Forrest, Rogic, McGregor; Edouard.
Subs : Sinclair, Christie, Hendry
Comments
Post a Comment