Hearts may be the toast of the capital just now after moving, courtesy of their emphatic win over Falkirk at Tynecastle and the goalless draw Celtic were held to by Hibernian at Parkhead yesterday, to the top of the William Hill Premiership table.
They will, though, need to be at their very best to overcome their city rivals in the first Edinburgh derby of the 2025/26 campaign in Gorgie on Saturday. Hibs showed what a formidable side they are against the defending champions.
Yes, Celtic pretty much dominated from start to finish. Sure, the visitors defended furiously for long periods and created little going forward. Still, nobody in the crowd could begrudge them their hard-earned point at the end of the 90 minutes.
Here are five talking points from a game which saw Brendan Rodgers’ men supplanted as league leaders.
No cutting edge
Rodgers made no fewer than five changes to the starting line-up which took to the field in Belgrade on Wednesday night; Colby Donovan, Kieran Tierney, Reo Hatate, Yang Hyun-jun and Benjamin Nygren dropped out as Anthony Ralston, Marcelo Saracchi, Luke McCowan, Arne Engels and Kelechi Iheanacho came in.
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Such radical surgery can often lead to a dip in performance levels. But the personnel switches seemed to make no tangible difference to the hosts. They dominated possession, cut open their opponents repeatedly and carved out a raft of scoring opportunities.
Iheachao clipped the crossbar after McCowan found Dazien Maeda with a diagonal ball, Saracchi struck the crossbar from distance, Callum McGregor found Maeda with a chip and the winger forced a save from Raphael Sallinger with a glancing header and the keeper kept out the long-range efforts McGregor and Iheanacho got on target.
Celtic continued to push hard for the opener in the second half. Engels fired just wide, McGregor got an attempt on target and nobody managed to get on the end of the ball that Saracchi lashed across the six yard box. The nervousness around the ground steadily grew.
There was a huge roar when Iheanacho turned a Tounekti shot in – but the joy in the stands proved short-lived as assistant referee Chris Rae immediately raised his flag to indicate the player had been offside. VAR officials Steven McLean and Graeme Leslie agreed with their colleague’s decision over at Clydesdale House.
It was one of those days. Celtic could have played until midnight and still not found the target. They will need to find their form up front quickly if they are to overcome Europa League rivals Braga of Portugal in the East End of Glasgow on Thursday night.
Hard-to-beat Hibs
What a robust, physical, well-organised, redoubtable, spirited team Hibs are. David Gray’s men may only be in fifth place in the Premiership and might be eight points adrift of their age-old adversaries Hearts. But they remain undefeated after six games and it is easy to see why.
They failed to trouble Kasper Schmeichel greatly. In the first half, Martin Boyle forced a save from the Dane after a counter attack and Warren O’Hora shanked wide from a few yards out. But they certainly dealt with whatever Celtic threw at them at the back. If they can provide Kieron Bowie and Boyle with better service, the wins will come.
Great Scot!
Grant Hanley silenced his critics among the Scotland support with an inspired personal display in the World Cup qualifier against Denmark in Copenhagen earlier this month. The former Norwich City centre-half has maintained his form. His presence and intelligence have improved Hibs enormously. He was once again immense against Celtic. If he can stay injury free he will go from strength to strength for club and country.
Opportunity lost
This was a chance for Celtic fringe players Engels and McCowan to stake a claim for a regular start. The latter did his personal cause no harm. The former? Not so much. The Belgian failed to have a significant impact in the middle of the park. Paulo Bernardo made far more of an impression when he came off the bench.
Silence is golden
The hardcore element of the Celtic support continued their campaign for change at the start of this encounter. Those Green Brigade scamps and their fellow members of the North Curve sat in eerie silence for the first 12 minutes. They are, after all, the 12th man.
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As they did so, they held up a banner which read, ‘Your silence is deafening’. That was a reference to the board’s refusal to answer a series of questions about their running of the club and long-term strategy which a group called the Celtic Fans Collective raised in an open letter.
The safe-standing section exploded into life at the start of the 13th minute and made, despite their heroes’ repeated failure to find the target, a fair din until the final whistle brought an end to proceedings. As it became clear they were going to drop two points and drop into second spot, there were boos and chants of “Sack the board”.
The ultras group also paid tribute to Tommy McCourt, the founder member of the Irish National Liberation Army who passed away earlier this week, in the second half. It read, “Saoirse go deo (freedom forever in Irish) Tommy McCourt”. A tifo honouring IRA terrorist Brendan “Bik” McFarlane caused a storm of controversy last season. This latest gesture may provoke the same sort of response.
The Celtic fans have legitimate grievances. It was inexcusable that they went into their Champions league play-off matches against Kairat without a specialist right winger out wide and a recognised striker leading the line. It was little wonder they crashed to one of the worst results in their history against the Kazakh minnows and missed out on a lucrative place in the league phase of Europe’s premier club competition.
But are directors really going to engage with them in an adult manner if they continue to insist on besmirching the good reputation of the Glasgow club with such questionable actions?
