© EuroFootball.com
On Sunday, in the Scottish capital of Edinburgh, the strongest clubs of the previous season met - the local team "Hearts" and the title defenders Glasgow "Celtic". The hosts took the lead after a brilliant goal from Saulius Mikoliūnas, but just like in their encounter last April, they couldn't maintain their advantage and in the second half of the match they conceded two goals and had to admit the superiority of the championship leaders.
1 - 2
28' [1 - 0] Saulius Mikoliūnas
59' [1 - 1] Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink
81' [1 - 2] Jiri Jarosik
For these matches, the former Edinburgh team captain Steven Pressley returned to the "Tynecastle" stadium for the first time since his departure and had to take on the captain's armband in the absence of Gordon Strachan's defenders and the suspended captain Neil Lennon.
Meanwhile, "Hearts" felt a shortage in defense - coach Valdas Ivanauskas had to do without the suspended Bruno Aguiar, as well as the injured Julien Brellier and David Cesnauskis. Edgaras Jankauskas was also unable to play, so Andrius Velicka held his place in the attack alongside Roman Bednar. In the starting lineup, as usual, were Marius Zaliukas, Nerijus Barasa, and Saulius Mikoliunas.
The match started cautiously and the hosts were unable to threaten the opponents' goal. The first serious chance came when "Celtic" forward Maciej Zurawski was left unmarked at the edge of the penalty area, but the visiting striker completely missed the ball and failed to take advantage of the opportunity to pass to Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink waiting near the goal.
In the 24th minute, "Hearts" lost the injured Nerijus Barasa, who was replaced by Ibrahim Tall. However, this did not prevent the hosts from attacking dangerously. After Takis Fyssas broke through, S. Mikoliūnas shot straight at the goalkeeper, but a few minutes later the Lithuanian received the ball from R. Bednar and with a great left-footed shot into the corner of the goal caught the goalkeeper Artur Boruc off guard and scored his fifth goal of the season.
Although "Celtic" responded with a couple of dangerous passes, the hosts defended well, and after a quick counterattack almost doubled their lead. S. Mikoliūnas managed to steal the ball from the opponent, and R. Bednar accurately passed it to Andrew Driver sprinting on the left flank. The young "Hearts" defender had his shot blocked by the goalkeeper, and as the attack continued, Paul Hartley made a pass back to the middle of the penalty area, where R. Bednar's header from the goal line was acrobatically deflected by Paul Telfer.
At the beginning of the second half, "Hearts" tried to maintain initiative, but the injured A. Driver had to leave the field, and "Celtic" coach Gordon Strachan replaced M. Zurawski with Craig Beattie, who injected life into the visitors' attacks. Shortly afterwards, the hosts were saved by luck and a successful play by goalkeeper Craig Gordon - the "Hearts" goalkeeper deflected J. Vennegoor of Hesselink's header with his feet, and when the ball rebounded, Shunsuke Nakamura also had his attempt blocked by I. Tall.
However, C. Beattie, finding space on the flank, beat Christophe Berra's defense and although C. Gordon deflected his shot, the first to the ball rebounding was J. Vennegoor of Hesselink, who equalized the score. "Celtic" continued to storm the opponents' goal and almost immediately came close to taking the lead, but when S. Nakamura's shot bounced off I. Tall, M. Zaliukas timely defended to deny the visitors a second chance.
The game became open and "Hearts" also had opportunities, but S. Mikoliūnas' attempt to pass through two defenders at the edge of the penalty area went unrewarded, while a long-range effort from Calum Elliot was slightly off target. "Celtic" responded with a shot from Jiri Jarosik from distance and the hosts, not learning from their mistakes, were punished in the 81st minute, as the Czech managed to strike from outside the penalty area once again and the ball flew into the far corner of C. Gordon's goal.
"Celtic" once again surged ahead at the end of the match with "Hearts", so the hosts had to throw all their efforts into the attack. The only chance, even in stoppage time, was for the author of the first goal, S. Mikoliūnas, but the tired Lithuanian struck the ball poorly and Edinburgh's club had to admit defeat.
After this victory, G. Strachan's team increased their lead over their pursuers to 17 points, while "Hearts" remained in 4th place, trailing by five points from the Glasgow "Rangers" in 2nd place. In the last matches of the 24th round, on Monday, the teams of "Kilmarnock" and Edinburgh "Hibernian" will face each other.
