Celtic clinch Premiership title with win over ten-man Hearts at Tynecastle

Celtic have been crowned champions of Scotland for the second year running after a 2-0 victory over ten-man Hearts secured the Premiership trophy would be staying in Parkhead.

It’s the Hoops’ 53rd title win, and their eleventh in the last 12 seasons, and they remain on course for a new points record with four games remaining this season.

Ange Postecoglou’s side are also now only one game away from a historic eighth treble when they play Inverness in the Scottish Cup final next month.

They never had it all their own way at Tynecastle on Sunday, however, and they laboured at times to get a foothold in the match, particularly in the first half.

But they rubber stamped the title thanks to late goals from star striker Kyogo Furuhashi, who scored his 30th of the season, and Hyeongyu Oh.

Steven Naismith’s men had to play the full second half a man down when Alex Cochrane was sent off at the end of the first 45 after a VAR intervention.

The home side had the best of the first half as they put the Hoops’ backline under pressure on a few occasions in the opening stages of the game.

Celtic on the other hand struggled to find their usual rhythm and failed to register a shot on target in the first 45, but they were handed a boost when Hearts were reduced to ten men just before half-time.

Nick Walsh originally booked Alex Cochrane for a last man tackle on Daizen Maeda, but after being called over to the VAR monitor to review the decision he decided to upgrade the yellow to red after it was judged to be a clear goal scoring opportunity for the Japan forward.

The league leaders had the ball in the net just moments later but Carl Starfelt’s strike was ruled out for offside and it remained 0-0 going into the break.

As the game reached the hour mark Zander Clark still hadn’t been called into action despite his team being a man down with the Hearts defence managing to keep the Celtic frontline quiet.

They finally got their all important breakthrough with just over 20 minutes left in the clock and, inevitably it was Kyogo with the close range finish for his 30th of the season and 50th Celtic goal since joining at the start of last season.

But it was Japan forward’s last action of the game after he also injured himself in the process and was replaced by Oh.

The South Korea striker then put the game to bed on the 80th minute when he slotted it past Clark to secure the three points and get the title party started in the away end.