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Celtic v Hearts: Scottish Premiership title decider – live | Scottish Premiership
Key events
12 mins: The free-kick leads to a corner, which is sent curling into the gloves of Sinisalo.
10 mins: Another Milne long throw, which is headed away but then Nygren brings Milne down, and Hearts can put the ball in the box from a free-kick this time.
9 mins: Milne nutmegs Johnson (good) before clumsily overhitting a cross out of play (bad).
8 mins: A less good delivery from Engels this time, and it hoops over the area and back out of play.
7 mins: An excellent pass from Tierney finds Engels in the penalty area, but he can only convert it into a corner.
5 mins: Celtic send in a long throw, which is flicked on by Steinwender, but there’s nobody there to turn it in! Shankland thinks he was unfairly stopped from being there, but there’ll be no early penalty.
3 mins: And a chance from the corner! Excellent delivery, but Auston Trusty heads over!
2 mins: Celtic win a corner. Hearts were really poor in the first 10 minutes or so against Falkirk in midweek. Celtic are more likely to punish a repeat.
1 min: Celtic are straight on the front foot. Johnson is played down the right, and he plays an excellent low cross into the penalty area, but a defender slides to block it.
1 min: Peeeeeeeep! Don Robertson blows his whistle. The players are having to deal with a lot of pressure today, but think of the pressure on that man’s shoulders.
You’ll Never Walk Alone is sung. Celtic’s players huddle. It is almost time.
Out come the players! Amid jets of fire, scarves whirled overhead or held aloft, and a stupendous amount of noise.
And now Martin O’Neill is asked about his pre-match message to his side, after Celtic named an unchanged side for the first time since December:
It’s the same message as before, just try and win the game. It’s as simple as that. We’re in a position over the last number of weeks where we’ve got in here, now let’s make the most of us. We’ve kept the starting lineup from Motherwell and we’ll try to take it on from there.
We have to, at the end of 90-odd minutes, we have to try and find ourselves in front, but I don’t think there’s any point going gung-ho and find yourself behind because you’ve been hit on the break. Hopefully we can manage the situation.
I’ve got to say I’m really excited. We’ve strived hard to close the gap week after week and now we’ve got a chance on our home ground to try and do something with the crowd right behind us.
Derek McInnes has a chat with Sky:
Just 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:
He’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.
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:
Three changes for Hearts, who drop Frankie Kent, Claudio Braga and Blair Spittal to the bench and bring Stephen Kingsley, Pierre Landry Kabore and Jordi Altena. No changes for Celtic.
The teams!
Celtic: Sinisalo, Johnston, Trusty, Scales, Tierney, McGregor, Engels, Nygren, Yang, Tounekti, Maeda. Subs: Doohan, McCowan, Iheanacho, Osmand, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Saracchi, Murray, Forrest, Ralston.
Hearts: Schwolow, Steinwender, Findlay, Kingsley, Altena, Baningime, Devlin, Milne, Kyziridis, Kabore, Shankland. Subs: Fulton, Kent, McCart, Braga, Borchgrevink, Spittal, Forrest, Kerjota, Chesnokov.
Referee: Don Robertson.
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:
Am 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:
It’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:
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
A topless man can be seen driving erratically in Edinburgh before abandoning his car and attacking a black man and a delivery rider.
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