Hearts 3-4 Celtic: Hoops come out on top in seven-goal thriller
By Tom Gott
Celtic moved five points clear at the top of the Premiership with an enthralling 4-3 victory away at Hearts on Saturday.
In what was easily one of the most entertaining games you'll see all season, the game had lead changes, penalty controversy, some VAR chaos and a whole lot of fun.
Celtic dominated the early proceedings but Hearts quickly grew into the game and had two massive chances to open the scoring. Barrie McKay failed to make the most of the first before Robert Snodgrass got the ball stuck under his feet after a nice run, and Celtic soon made them pay.
Anthony Ralston's cross looked to be dropping into Craig Gordon's arms but a mix-up with defender Orestis Kiomourtzoglou took the goalkeeper out of the game and gave James Forrest an easy header to bag his 101st goal for the club 14 minutes in.
Ralston headed home himself not long after but VAR had a long, long look at it and eventually chalked the goal off for a foul on Kiomourtzoglou.
VAR then waved away calls for a Celtic penalty, and just before the half-time break, awarded one to Hearts. Cameron Carter-Vickers felled Cameron Devlin and, after another long wait, eventually made the right call.
Up stepped Lawrence Shankland, who had come off the bench just moments earlier to replace the injured Stephen Humphrys, and he made no mistake from 12 yards to drag Hearts level - the least they deserved after a first half which saw them manage ten shots on goal compared to Celtic's two.
The hectic pace continued into the second half as Shankland tapped home after beating Carter-Vickers to a cross. VAR looked at it and Carter-Vickers had stepped up to catch Shankland offside, only to see his efforts wasted as Alexandro Bernabei was playing him on all long.
Aaron Mooy wasted a glorious opportunity to tie things up just moments later, firing wide with the entire goal at his mercy.
Fortunately for Celtic, it didn't matter as Giorgos Giakoumakis tied things up with an excellent header, and the away side would take the lead in the 59th minute as Daizen Maeda tapped home a rebounded shot from Mooy.
Would that kill the tempo? Absolutely not.
Hearts had a penalty almost straight from the restart as Moritz Jenz fouled Alex Cochrane. Shankland's spot kick was saved by Joe Hart but Josh Ginelly tapped home the rebound, only to see the whole thing wiped off because of encroachment.
Shankland had another go from 12 yards and there was no disputing this one as he sent Hart the wrong way to tie things up a 3-3 65 minutes in.
Things started to calm down but the game sprung back into life 11 minutes later. Greg Taylor bagged his first league goal for the club as he finished off a Liel Abada cross from close range to put Celtic ahead yet again.
Both teams continued to fly in search of another goal and you genuinely couldn't take your eyes off the action. We nearly had an eighth in stoppage time as Abada finished a one-on-one, but the offside flag went up and fans had to settle for just the seven goals.