Celtic welcome Heart of Midlothian to Celtic Park, aiming to secure victory and break a historic 50-year record in the process.
The midweek Scottish Premiership victory over St Johnstone not only marked captain Scott Brown’s 400th appearance for Celtic – but also signified another historic landmark.
Specifically, the 1-0 win enabled Brendan Rodgers’ side to equal a 50-year club record of 26 undefeated domestic games – originally set in the 1966-67 season; under the tutelage of legendary Bhoys manager Jock Stein.
Subsequently, avoiding defeat against Hearts this weekend would give Rodgers the honour of overtaking the record set by the side famously referred to as the ‘Lisbon Lions’. A victory would also stretch Celtic’s massive lead over their fourth place opponents to 33 points.
Ahead of the encounter, Rodgers will be able to call upon his ever-present goalkeeper Craig Gordon to marshall a back four of fit again left back Kieran Tierney, right back Mikael Lustig and the central defensive pairing of Jozo Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata – who, after his game winning goal against the Saints, is likely to see off the challenge of regular starter Erik Sviatchenko.
Captain Scott Brown is predicted to partner Nir Bitton in the midfield engine room – enabling the more forward thinking trio of Scott Sinclair, Stuart Armstrong and either Patrick Roberts or James Forrest to provide the support and assistance to centre-forward Moussa Dembele.
The outstanding season being experienced by the talismanic Dembele means that Leigh Griffiths’ frustrations at sitting on the bench looks set to continue against Hearts – however the former Hibernian forward may well be afforded the opportunity to impact as a substitute against his old foes.
Meanwhile, as they travel to Glasgow, Hearts will endeavour to end a relatively poor run of recent form – which has seen the Tynecastle side win just one of their previous six Premiership matches.
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