As expected, the home team was dominant against the struggling Hearts and took a convincing 5-0 victory without much issues, but the more remarkable new came from Kilmarnock, where the local ball club was hosting Celtic’s biggest rivals Rangers. The Celtic faithful are certainly ready to offer a round for any Kilmarnock supporter, as the team beat Rangers 2-1 allowing Celtic to take a 10 point lead in the standings. Rangers do still have their game in hand, but even if they will win it, there’s more than two-win differential which in football is already remarkable.
While Celtic’s opponents Hearts are currently the bottom feeders of the Scottish Premiership, they’ve picked up some pace lately and had snatched six points in their last five games. Still not enough to take them away from the bottom position, they are only one point away from Hamilton. Entering the game, Celtic was a staggering favorite and the game could only be what they call a trap-game: a high-flying league leaders against struggling bottom club with nothing to lose. But the leaders didn’t give a whiff of complacency nor showed any mercy.
The visitors kept fighting with big hearts for the most part of the game, but Celtic’s class was simply too much. Olivier Ntcham was first on the score board again on the 30th minute and that’s all the first half had to offer. Celtic threatened the goal for a couple of times, but couldn’t crack through Hearts’ keeper Joel Pereira, who collected five saves in the first half. The second half saw Celtic put the pedal to the metal and change to a higher gear. Christopher Jullien struck right from the gates on 46th minute and Callum McGregor punched in the third goal six minutes later. The Hearts’ spirit was crushed and it was already over when Ryan Christie and Josip Simunovic added a double to make it 5-0.
With an impressive routine win, Neil Lennon’s men extended their getaway to 10 points before the busy times ahead with five games in two weeks. First Celtic will take on Aberdeen on the road on 16th February and then travel to Copenhagen on the 20th in Europa League 1st knockout stage game. Don’t forget Dafabet’s Celtic FC Prediction challenge in order to win free weekly bets!
Aberdeen vs Celtic (1×2): 9.20 – 4.50 – 1.33
FC Copenhagen vs Celtic (1×2): 2.92 – 3.05 – 2.43
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