Celtic enjoyed a near-perfect weekend, but it could have been even better.
A hard-fought 2-1 win away to Hibernian saw the Hoops draw level on points with Heart of Midlothian at the top of the table, piling the pressure on ahead of their clash with Rangers.
For a moment, it looked like that pressure might tell.
Rangers led at the break and could have been further ahead, but Hearts responded in the second half to claim a 2-1 win, keeping themselves top and leaving Rangers with just a 1% title chance according to Opta.
As for Celtic, they once again needed a moment of quality.
At 1-1 and struggling to create, it looked like points could slip.
Then up stepped Kelechi Iheanacho and not for the first time this season.
The striker produced a moment of pure composure, chesting the ball down from a corner before finishing calmly to secure all three points.
And according to Alistair Johnston, it was all very on brand.
“I mean, Kelechi’s heart-rate, I don’t think ever gets above 60 beats-per-minute! So I’m not surprised by that.
“I mean, how long he let that ball come down to his foot. It felt like time stopped. But that’s Kels.
“And, again, that’s what that quality can bring. And that’s what we have in this squad.
“We’ve got players that have played at really high levels and have that kind of quality.
“So it’s amazing to be able to bring a player like that off the bench.
“You can see the quality is exactly what you touched on. Just cool, calm, composed in there.
“He’s a bit of an ice man. It was obviously a massive goal for us.
“There’s no beating around the bush with that.” [RecordSport]
Celtic now prepares for a derby match against Rangers at Parkhead. It’s a massive match and heading into it, it really is a must-win.
The eve of the derby sees Hearts travel to Motherwell. Could the Steelmen do Celtic another favour and take points off the league leaders?
