Hearts profited from Yang Hyun-jun’s early red card to inflict a second 2-0 defeat on title-chasing Celtic inside the area of three months in an incident-packed cinch Premiership showdown at Tynecastle.
The Hoops arrived in Edinburgh understanding a victory would have taken them again to the highest of the league after metropolis rivals Rangers suffered a shock 2-1 loss at house to Motherwell yesterday.
But their hopes of reaching this feat had been badly undermined throughout a dramatic opening quarter of an hour through which their striker Adam Idah had a penalty saved by Zander Clark after which Yang noticed red for a harmful excessive problem on Alex Cochrane.
Hearts – who defeated Brendan Rodgers’ facet in Glasgow in mid-December – took full benefit of the additional man as Jorge Grant scored a penalty late within the first half earlier than Lawrence Shankland struck his twenty seventh objective of the season on a day when Scotland supervisor Steve Clarke and assistant John Carver had been watching from the Tynecastle stand.
The victory moved the Jambos 13 factors clear in third place.
Hearts made 4 adjustments to the group that began Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at house to metropolis rivals Hibernian as Toby Sibbick, Dexter Lembikisa, Grant and Beni Baningime changed Frankie Kent, Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Kenneth Vargas.
There was one enforced alteration to the Celtic group that began the 7-1 midweek destruction of Dundee as captain Callum McGregor missed out with an Achilles challenge. His place in midfield was taken by Paulo Bernardo.
Hearts made a vivid begin and so they had likelihood within the eighth minute when Shankland’s cross from the best picked out Cochrane simply contained in the field however the left-wing-back obtained his shot all mistaken and fluffed it nicely huge.
Then got here a few enormous moments in fast succession through which Celtic allowed the sport to swing closely within the hosts’ favour.
The Hoops had been awarded a penalty within the eleventh minute when Cochrane was deemed to have fouled Yang however Idah noticed his low-struck spot-kick saved by the legs of Clark, one other Hearts participant trying to impress the Scotland administration group within the lead-up to this summer time’s European Championships.
Yang and Cochrane had been once more concerned within the subsequent main flashpoint only a few minutes later when the Korean midfielder caught the Englishman within the face with a excessive foot.
Referee Don Robertson booked the Celtic participant initially however then upgraded it to a red card after being suggested by VAR John Beaton to evaluation the incident on the pitchside monitor.
This dramatic flip of occasions roused the house help and left Rodgers’ facet going through an enormous process of their quest to return to the highest of the league.
Despite being a person down, Celtic did have the ball within the web within the twenty second minute when Bernardo’s low angled shot went in off each posts however the flag immediately went as much as reduce quick the celebrations, with Idah offside within the lead-up.
Hearts sensed their likelihood of victory, nonetheless, and Alan Forrest headed over from Lembikisa cross’s within the twenty seventh minute earlier than Shankland was denied by Liam Scales’ good goal-saving problem.
Another large name went the way in which of Hearts within the fortieth minute when – following a prolonged VAR evaluation – they had been awarded a penalty after the ball got here down on to the arm of Tomoki Iwata as he rose amid a cluster of our bodies to attempt to head the ball out of his field. Grant saved his cool to ship Joe Hart the mistaken manner.
Hearts thought that they had doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time when Shankland drilled house a low angled shot from eight yards out after being fed by a Forrest cross however the objective was finally dominated out for offside following a prolonged VAR evaluation.
Celtic despatched on Kyogo Furuhashi instead of Bernardo for the beginning of the second half. But the Hoops discovered themselves two down within the 56th minute when Shankland swept house a medical low strike from 15 yards out after team-mate Calem Nieuwenhof slipped whereas lining up a shot and inadvertently knocked the ball again into the striker’s path with the help of a nick off Celtic left-back Greg Taylor.
The guests had been unable to summon a response and Hearts noticed out victory in spectacular trend, sparking jubilant full-time scenes at Tynecastle.
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