How Celtic recovered from Hearts inflicting a season first on them amid Parkhead pandemonium

No-one seemed to have told the combants at Celtic Park that their cup tie was still four days away.

Alright, so the outcome was as anticipated, with Ange Postecoglou’s 100th game in charge extending another 100…in the the form of the percentage success rate for his team at home in the Premiership. The product of a 3-1 win that also preserved their nine-point lead at the top of the table. Yet, before Celtic took charge in the second period there was such pandemonium, the feel for 45 minutes wasn’t just the knock-your-pan-out of the knock-out encounter. It was hammer and tongs…and more tongs.

The tickling aspect of it all was that observers surveyed the Celtic and Hearts line-ups - with four and six changes respectively from their weekend wins - and concluded both Postecolgou and Robbie Neilson were looking to hold some key personnel in reserve for the clubs’ Scottish Cup quarter-final tie at Tynecastle on Saturday. Instead, the two sides left everything out on the pitch in a crackers opening period. Frantic and open, that was down to Hearts going after their hosts as no other team has domestically in the east end of Glasgow across the Australian’s now 100-game tenure. Instant reward for that intent resulted in Celtic conceding a goal from open play inside the first 10 minutes. As they hadn’t in any competition this season. Within a quarter of an hour they had struck back. VAR was involved in both as the system seemed to conduct so many checks, you half expected it would start poking its nose into pie provisions in the snackbar. And, for good measure, both scorers were lost to injury after entangling with the opposing keepers before the inevitably elongated had come to a close.

Picking the bones out of it all was a head-hurting pursuit. The specifics amounted to Andy Halliday tearing down the left flank seven minutes in and swinging over a cross that Josh Ginnelly nodded downward to give his team a shock lead. A possible offside meant an interminable VAR delay before it was given, with that sequence repeating itself when 25 minutes in Anthony Ralston - in his first start this year - sent Kyogo Furuhashi down the left and he squared for Daizen Maeda to slam in. His momentum causing him to clatter into Zander Clark, forcing him to be replaced by Jota. For his part, Ginnelly’s game-ending clash with Joe Hart came approaching the interval.

Celtic's Kyogo Furuhashi celebrates after making it 2-1 over Hearts. (Photo by Craig Williamson / SNS Group)

Hearts’ ability to go toe-to-toe with their irrepressible hosts waned from the early stages of a second period. A Celtic that had been unsettled by the Tynecastle club, found their rhythm to take them apart. In glorious fashion, with a 25th goal of the season for Furuhashi on the hour mark sublimely crafted and finished. The genesis came from Jota winning the ball on touchline and playing inside to Aaron Mooy. The Australian in turn produced the sweetest reverse pass that Celtic’s clinical striker, with one sleek touch, delightfully arrowed high into the net.

Neilson’s men looked increasingly weary, even as both teams committed a raft of substitutions. Unlike their visitors, Celtic’s replacements brought a fresh verve to their play with Sead Haksabanovic displaying technical brilliance five minutes from time when he glided off the left flank and curled an edge of the box effort into the far top corner as if the ball were a guided missile. The end to an engrossing, explosive encounter, come Saturday it might be a case of hanging on to hats and all other loose clothing.