Celtic v Hearts: Scottish Premiership title decider - live

Derek McInnes has a chat with Sky:

double quotation markJust to have the confidence and belief that we can get a result here. We’vce played Celtic three times this season and they’ve failed to beat us. We ain’t playing 60,000 we’re playing the same players that have tried to beat us all season. We look relaxed and hopefully we can bring another performance. The performances have been there this season, that’s why we’re in this position. Whoever comes out on top will deserve to win the league. It’s so difficult to set up a team to play for a draw. For me here, the intention always is to make sure we’re pretty secure, but then as the game goes we’ve got to make sure we’re attacking as well as trying to defend.

On Claudio Braga being on the bench:

double quotation markHe’s struggling a wee bit with a groin injury, we’ve been trying to manage it for a couple of weeks. It’s not ideal. We think he’ll be able to give us something. We don’t think he can give us 90 minutes. It’s not ideal Claudio not being fully fit, but I think he’s still going to have a big part to play.

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Here’s Ewan Murray’s preview of this match, and its place in history:

This Hearts story did not begin with Stuart Findlay’s late winner at Tannadice in August, a stoppage-time intervention from Alexandros Kyziridis against Livingston later that month or the September victory at Ibrox that materially fuelled belief among Derek McInnes’s squad. Brian Cormack, Alex Mackie, Jamie Bryant, Donald Ford and Garry Halliday will not feature in the Hearts team seeking to create history at Celtic Park but that quintet set this club on a path that after 16 years has almost – though only almost – reached the ultimate glory point.

Cormack and Mackie joked back then, when among a group establishing the Foundation of Hearts, that one day they would watch the team they love compete in the Champions League from a new main stand at Tynecastle Park. With the stand complete, Hearts will enter the Champions League’s qualifying phase this summer. Humour proved prescient. In the west of Edinburgh, as Hearts pursue the point they need in Glasgow on Saturday to win the title for the first time since 1960, original FoH directors will gather to watch together. Their role in Hearts’ rise should never be forgotten.

Much more here:

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Hello world!

And so the day has come, the day when decisions will be made and champions determined. Hearts play Celtic at Celtic Park needing to avoid defeat to seal the title. Celtic’s record against Hearts at home? Well there was a run of 23 wins in 24 games between 2009 and 2023 (and they drew the other one). but since then it’s three wins for Celtic and two for Hearts, including their previous meeting this season, back in December. Celtic’s form is remarkable, but then this week they were unconvincing and needed a horror penalty decision to beat Motherwell 3-2, while Hearts outplayed Falkirk and won 3-0. Ahead of this game Martin O’Neill was asked what he made of the furore surrounding that penalty:

double quotation markAm I surprised? No, I’m not surprised because everybody wants Hearts to win. It’s really as simple as that. Everybody outside Celtic and the Celtic diaspora wants Hearts to win. And if it wasn’t Hearts, it would to be Rangers, it’d be somebody else, that’s the nature of it.

Spare me the Celtic-against-the-world schtick, please. But it is undeniable that the overwhelming majority of neutrals would like to see someone other than Celtic and Rangers win the Scottish title, and this Hearts side seems pretty likeable. Here’s Derek McInnes on today:

double quotation markIt’s a perfect ending to a season for the league, for Scottish football, for drama and excitement ... It’s pure box office. It’ll be bedlam, it’ll be an unbelievable atmosphere. There might be people out there who think everything’s back on script, ‘Celtic win their home game, they win the league.’ But we’ve ripped the script up so often this season, and we’ve got one more in us I think, and it’s up to us to try and make that happen.

And here’s Ewan Murray on referee John Beaton and the Celtic penalty fallout:

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