Celtic at Hearts – Wow

The Bhoys tried to make it 70 consecutive wins in the Scottish Premiership this past Sunday at Hearts. But, Celtic experienced more problems than they probably expected.

In fact, those problems led to a huge loss for the Celts. Brendan Rodgers was five-for-five against Hearts all-time in his Celtic managerial career. That record snapped pretty quickly as Hearts snapped the Celtic’s streak by a score of 4-0.

The likes of Callum McGregor, Scott Sinclair, and Leigh Griffiths all had chances early on that got denied by the Hearts defense. Griffiths was going to hit the ball first-time in the 14th minute, but he took a tumble before he got the shot away.

The midfield for Hearts jumped forward quite a bit in the early stages of the contest. Several players including Kyle Lafferty were testing Craig Gordon with long balls outside of the box.

Moments later, Hearts would find the back of the net in rather unusual fashion. 16-year-old Harry Cochrane took the ball from outside the 18-yard frame and squeezed a shot into the bottom corner for the early lead.

Lafferty took another ridiculous shot from midfield that didn’t end up being that ridiculous after all. His shot hit the post and then trickled in to put a lot of weight on Celtic’s shoulder.

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Manuel Milinkovic had a superb game. The Serbian particularly gave Kieran Tierney a hard time on the left side of the park. To make a long story short, Milinkovic walked around Gordon to bury the third goal, and then marked one from the penalty spot to put the dagger in the Hoops.

Celtic’s chances either got blocked, fell into the keeper’s hands, or completely missed the target all together. Only 4 of the Bhoys’ 15 shots finished on target.

The streak is all but over, but is it really a bad thing?

When 70 games in-a-row ends, it hurts. The big picture, however, is that the Bhoys are still at the top of the table. Rangers took a loss, but Aberdeen are getting very close to Celtic with their recent win Hibernian.

The even bigger picture is what needs to be done in the next transfer window as a result of this fixture. The defense of Hearts was absolutely stout in this one, but the Celts backline was getting carved apart even with some players returning to the lineup.

There’s no doubt that Celtic have needed at defense for a while now, but this game couldn’t have suggested more. Marvin Compper may not be the answer either.

The Bhoys need to move on from this contest, but everybody including the board needs to learn from it. It’s time for Celtic to go out and sign a young, talented defender. If the Bhoys can’t stop the attack of Hearts, then they surely won’t stop Zenit or the rest of potential Europa League competition.

Next: Celtic at Hearts – The Buildup

Could anybody have predicted this result? What exactly went wrong for the Hoops? Let us know in the comments below.