© EuroFootball.com
Edinburgh's "Hearts" on Sunday secured their second victory in the Scottish championship and joined the leaders - a team coached by Valdas Ivanauskas. In a duel against the strongest teams of the previous season, Edinburgh "Hearts" won the champions' title defending Glasgow "Celtic" club after two goals by Roman Bednar in the second half.
2 - 1
49' [1 - 0] Roman Bednar
65' [1 - 1] Stilian Petrov
87' [2 - 1] Roman Bednar
Among the Edinburgh team there were no injured Lithuanians Edgaras Jankauskas and Nerijus Barasa, while Saulius Mikoliunas unexpectedly started the match in the starting lineup leaving David Cesnauskis on the bench, who only appeared on the field in the middle of the second half. Just before the match, the referee was replaced in the last minute, as Kenny Clark suffered a back injury and was replaced by former substitute Stuart Dougal.
The first half started quite blankly. Both teams were not eager to prove their dominance, and only towards the end of the half, Hearts striker Roman Bednar had a real chance, but his header off Bruno Aguiar's lifted penalty flew dangerously close. Midway through the half, Hearts defender Ibrahim Tall suffered an injury and was replaced by Robie Neilson. However, Celtic also had their chances - Jiri Jarosik's shot flew wide and Kenny Miller's shot went straight to Craig Gordon.
The first half was remembered only by the fact that Celtic's head coach Gordon Strachan and Ivanauskas' assistant John McGlynn were removed from the stands during a scuffle. After playing 45 minutes, the score remained tied, leaving uncertain which team was currently worthy of being called the strongest in Scotland.
After the break, the teams started playing much more actively, and although R. Bednar missed another chance to score with his head, his efforts finally paid off in the 49th minute when he received a pass on the left side, broke into the penalty area and with a precise shot left no chance for Celtic's goalkeeper Artur Boruc, sending the ball into the visitors' net.
Later, the Czech striker scored again, but the linesman recorded a very questionable offside and did not count the goal. This somewhat disturbed Hearts, and in the 65th minute, the score became equal when during a counterattack Kenny Miller received the ball in the middle of the field, flicked it to his teammate Aiden McGeady, who passed it perfectly to Stilian Petrov of the Bulgarian national team, and the latter shot straight from about 16 meters out into the Hearts' goalkeeper Craig Gordon's net.
After the equalizing goal, Celtic felt the opportunity to win and continued to attack the opponents' goal. Petrov again tried his luck from afar, but shot from too far and hit the goalkeeper. Later, after Cesnauskis' pass, making his way through the right wing, Saulius Mikoliunas passed the ball to the middle of the penalty area, but goalkeeper Arturas Borucas bypassed both Roman Bednar and Michal Posipilas.
However, at the end of the match, the hosts still managed to snatch a deserved victory - after a substitution, experienced Celtic defender Neil Lennon, trying to pass the ball back to the defenders, inaccurately kicked it back, and this was taken advantage of by R. Bednar, who easily fooled goalkeeper Artur Boruc and scored the winning goal into the empty net.
Celtic tried to equalize, but the calm Hearts team created another dangerous opportunity. Bruno Aguiar tried his luck from afar, and nearly scored a third goal, but after a powerful shot, the ball shook the crossbar of the Glasgow team's goal. Hearts rightfully triumphed and together with St. Mirren and Falkirk lead the Scottish Premier League, while the champion Celtic lost their first points.
