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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Sport
Jamie Braidwood

Is Celtic v Hearts on TV? Channel, kick-off time and how to watch Scottish Premiership title decider

The title race between Hearts and Celtic will go down to the final day of the season - (Getty Images)

Celtic host Hearts in a Scottish Premiership title decider as the top two teams in the league meet on the final day at Parkhead to conclude a thrilling season.

Hearts, bidding to win their first league title since 1960 and disrupt the Old Firm’s 41-year dominance of Scottish football, have led the way since September and are a point ahead.

Derek McInnes and his players can make history if the avoid defeat, but they will have to recover from having their hopes of a simpler scenario dashed at the death on Wednesday night.

That’s after Celtic, the champions in 13 of the last 14 seasons, secured a 3-2 win at Motherwell via a hugely contentious penalty decision.

It means Martin O’Neill’s team can defend their title as long as they beat Hearts in front of their own fans, having won their last six games in a row to take the title race to the final day.

Here’s everything you need to know

When is Celtic v Hearts?

Kick-off is at 12:30pm on Saturday 16 May at Celtic Park, Glasgow.

Is Celtic v Hearts on TV?

It will be shown live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Football, with coverage getting underway from 11:30pm.

What is the team news?

Martin O’Neill appears to have settled on a favoured formula, with the choice between Sebastian Tounekti and Luke McCowan on the wing the only change the Celtic boss has made between the recent wins over Rangers and Motherwell. Daizen Maeda continued his scoring run at Motherwell while Kelechi Iheanacho produced another big moment from the bench, Celtic able to call upon the impact sub if required.

Derek McInnes is without Craig Halkett and Marc Leonard after both suffered Achilles injuries against Motherwell. Harry Milne and Cammy Devlin returned in the win over Falkirk but both were withdrawn before full-time as McInnes attempted to manage their minutes after injury lay-offs of their own. The leaders do not appear to have picked up any fresh fitness issues in the win over Falkirk.

Possible line-ups

Celtic XI: Sinisalo; Johnston, Trusty, Scales, Tierney; McGregor, Engels, Nygren; Yang, Maeda, McCowan

Hearts XI: Schwolow; Steinwender, Kent, Findlay, Kingsley, Milne; Baningime, Devlin, Spittal; Braga, Shankland

Title permutations

Hearts: If Hearts win, they win the title. If Hearts draw, they win the title. But if they lose, it will now be Celtic’s championship.

Celtic: It’s simple for Celtic. They must beat Hearts on Saturday.

What have the managers said?

Martin O’Neill: "We may not win it, but what we have done is that we have fought really impressively, I think, throughout these last number of weeks.

"I think the players have shown enormous character to keep fighting right to the very, very end, and they've done that again. It could go either way, could go any way, but at least we've taken it to the final game."

Derek McInnes: “We’re going into a stadium of 60,000, the place will be rocking. Going into the lion’s den, even though we've been top of the league since September or so, we’re still going to be the underdog.

“For us to be competing with Celtic, with the money they've got and everything they've got at their disposal, it's a huge effort for our team and we look forward to it.”

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