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In the struggle for the first place in the Scottish Premier League, the intrigue is weakening - on Saturday, defending champions Glasgow Celtic defeated Edinburgh Hearts in a fierce duel in the dying moments, led by Andrius Velicka. The two 13th round matches ended in a draw, while Falkirk celebrated an away victory after another hat-trick from Anthony Stokes.
Interim Hearts coach Eduard Malofejevas made three changes to the lineup compared to the match against Dunfermline, with Lithuanians Saulius Mikoliunas, Marius Zaliukas, and Portuguese Bruno Aguiaras joining the safe line, while Senegalese Ibrahim Tallis took the place of the injured captain Steven Pressley in defense. The match also started with David Cesnauskis and Andrius Velicka, while Nerijus Barasa and Edgaras Jankauskas remained on the bench.
The visitors at Celtic Park immediately demonstrated their determination and started with an inaccurate long-range shot from Paul Hartley, but overall both teams started cautiously. Celtic tested Hearts' goalkeeper Craig Gordon's alertness first with Shunsuke Nakamura, and after creating the first dangerous attack, Hearts' goalkeeper saved Maciej Zurawski's shot, and Kenny Miller failed to score from a difficult position on his second attempt.
Such passive play was favorable to the Edinburgh team, and although at first Mikoliunas's attempt from the penalty box approaches was inaccurate, in the middle of the first half, a precise pass "led" Velicka, and the Lithuanian broke into the penalty box, deceived two defenders, but his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Arturas Borucas, and Cesnauskis failed to hit the ball that unexpectedly bounced off.
Soon Cesnauskis easily broke through on the right side and passed the ball to Velicka, but the former Kaunas striker missed from a favorable position, and the excellent opportunity remained unexploited. The first half ended with a score of two zeros. During the break, Malofejevas decided to replace Cesnauskis with Barasa, who returned to the field after several months of rehabilitation due to injury.
In the second half, Hearts maintained the initiative, and Lithuanians found themselves in the spotlight of the attacks - Mikoliunas managed to keep the ball and outplay the opponent on the edge of the field, Mikoliunas struck next to the post from the penalty box corner, later after a scuffle in the penalty box also missed the goal, and Velicka, taking the ball from Evander Sno in the middle of the field and running towards Celtic's penalty box, struck over the goal.
In the 70th minute, after a great pass from Barasa, Velicka successfully dealt with the ball, but once again missed over the crossbar, however, the striker's efforts from Lithuania paid off after two minutes when after another mistake by Celtic in the middle of the field he received the ball from Aguiaro, beautifully overcame Stephen McManus's defense and shot accurately into the goalpost, leaving no chances to Boruc. This was the Lithuanian's fourth goal in the league this season.
After conceding a goal, the hosts began to equalize the score and put pressure on the opponents. Celtic's game was rejuvenated on the field after a substitution by Jiri Jarosik, who hit the goal from a sharp angle from the other side and Shaun Maloney missed to the side after his earned penalty shot. However, when it seemed that Hearts would manage to hold on, with four minutes remaining, Jarosik equalized the score with a header after a corner.
At the end of the match, fortune smiled on Glasgow's club, as it did on the first day of 2006 when Celtic snatched victory from both teams' duel in Edinburgh with two late goals. In the third minute of stoppage time, Barasa's shot sailed completely next to Boruc's guarded goal, and shortly after, in the last moments of the match on the opposite side of the field, after a corner and confusion in the penalty box, goalkeeper Gordon initially saved McManus's close-range shot, but trying to catch the ball, he accidentally put it into his own goal.
Hearts suffered a dramatic failure, and now Celtic's lead at the top of the league has increased to 13 points. Moreover, on Sunday, the Edinburgh club could be surpassed by Glasgow Rangers in third place, who will play away against the outsider Dundee United, and on Monday, they could also be overtaken by Aberdeen, who will also play away against Inverness.
For now, alongside Rangers, fourth-placed Kilmarnock, who played a draw with Hibernian in Edinburgh, have the same number of points. The main events of the match unfolded in the second half of the match - in the 49th minute after a goal by Shelton Martis in his own goal, the visitors took the lead, but within eight minutes Michael Stewart and Steven Fletcher's accurate shots turned everything around. However, Kilmarnock managed to secure a point as Steven Naismith equalized the score in the 65th minute after a mistake by goalkeeper Zbigniew Malkowski.
Falkirk striker Anthony Stokes scored another hat-trick in a week - his three goals helped the team win the derby away against Dunfermline. The 18-year-old player, borrowed from Arsenal in London, scored his first goal after just 33 seconds of play, scored a second goal for the visitors in the 59th minute, and in the 80th minute marked his ninth goal in four matches, ensuring victory for his team.
No goals were scored in the match between league table neighbors Motherwell and St Mirren. St Mirren's attacking leader John Sutton had the best chance to secure victory, but in the 70th minute, his 11-meter penalty shot was saved by Motherwell's goalkeeper Colin Meldrum. After these draws, ninth-placed St Mirren equaled the points with Hibernian in eighth place, and now trail Rangers in third place by just three points.
Results from the 13th round on Saturday:
2 - 1
72' [0 - 1] Andrius Velicka
86' [1 - 1] Jiri Jarosik
90' [2 - 1] Craig Gordon (own goal)
2 - 2
49' [0 - 1] Shelton Martis (own goal)
53' [1 - 1] Michael Stewart
57' [2 - 1] Steven Fletcher
65' [2 - 2] Steven Naismith
0 - 3
1' [0 - 1] Anthony Stokes
59' [0 - 2] Anthony Stokes
80' [0 - 3] Anthony Stokes
0 - 0
League table:
