Rogic’s Edinburgh Black Magic. Hibs 1-3 Celtic 27/10/2021

SCOTTISH PREMIER LEAGUE

27th October 2021

HIBERNIAN 1-3 CELTIC

SCORERS: Celtic. Ralston (10) Carter-Vickers (14) Kyogo (30) Hibs. Boyle (37)

Easter Road, Edinburgh

Attendance: 17,580



An away visit to Edinburgh to face Hibernian was the tricky tie that Celtic needed to overcome and they did it with aplomb in a scintillating opening 45 minutes. This capped a brilliant October for the Celts with five wins on the bounce. Forced to revert back to last season’s sexy all black strip as this season’s three strips were deemed as a clash with Hibs and it provided us with some black magic.


The last time Celtic had a win on league duty at Easter Road was way back on 26th January 2014 when the Bhoys won 4-0. Even Pukki got a goal in that game. Ange Postecoglou made only one change to the lineup who started against St. Johnstone with Mikey Johnson coming in on the left wing and big Greek striker Giakoumakis dropped to the bench. Kyogo was moved to centre forward and Jota changed to the right wing.


The first big call for referee Don Robertson on 5 minutes when Mikey Johnson was wrestled to the ground with his shirt being violently pulled inside the Hibs box. What seemed like a penalty the ref called for a Hibs Free Kick. Celtic just rolled up their sleeves and came right back at Hibs and scored the opening goal on 10 minutes. It came from a free kick 30 yards out on the left when David Turnbulll put a perfect cross into the back post where Anthony Ralston threw himself to bullet a header into the Hibs net. 1-0 Celtic.



Joe Hart made his first big contribution of the night with a one legged save a minute after Celtic had gone ahead. Joe Newell managed to break through one on one and Hart made himself big to come to the rescue. This was one of the very few Hibs chances of the first half as the Celts were terrorising them all over the pitch and number two arrived pretty quickly.


This time it came from another fine delivery from a Turnbulll corner and Carter-Vickers made his presence felt. The American defender steered the ball with the side of his boot and into the right corner of the net. Hibs were shell shocked and Celtic looked rampant and at this stage were 81% in possession.



26 minutes and it should have been 0-3. Turnbulll brought Johnson into play and he laid on for Kyogo who was about to pull the trigger only for a last ditch tackle from a Hibs defender who put it wide. The third did arrive on 30 minutes when Jota won a tackle about 30 yards from Hibs goal and turned to pass to Rogic. Big Oz was having his best performance in a Celtic shirt and he drifted past 3 or 4 opposition like a ghost with deft footwork. Rogic passed to Jota in the box who saw Kyogo free and he took the tap in for 0-3. Celtic looked like racking up double figures at this point and Kyogo was now in double figures for his 10th goal of the season.



The Edinburghers looked petrified any time Celtic were on the ball and Kyogo should have made it four on 33 minutes. He was through one on one but this time the Hibs goalie, Matt Macey made an excellent save. Hibernian pulled a goal back on 37 minutes with Martin Boyle the scorer from a corner. It was floated into the middle of a crowded box and Boyle got his head on it to fire past Joe Hart but lots of Hibees didn’t see it as they headed home after the visitors third.



On 44 minutes Celtic were dealt a huge blow when Rogic pulled up injured holding his hamstring. He had been central to everything good the team had done and he was a big loss to this game as he was replaced by Nir Bitton. Hopefully it’s not long term. UPDATE: Ange has revealed Rogic will be out for 2/3 weeks. Not too bad thankfully.



There were no more goals in this game's second period although Hibs played much better and invested more players in going forward. Hibs Ryan Porteus received a yellow card (52) when he slid wildly and scissored Calum McGregor. It really should have been his marching orders but he escaped an earlier yellow for a blatant foul on Kyogo. Giakoumakis (64) was introduced to the fray in place of the rejuvenated Mikey Johnson.



Celtic had further chances to put the game to bed with Jota, McGregor and Giakoumakis but the best action of the second half fell to the home side. On 74 minutes Jamie Murphy struck only to see Joe Hart make a one handed save when the keeper made himself big for the second time. Celtic had done all their hard work in the first 45 but the injury to Rogic seemed to knock us out of our stride. Had he stayed on it could have been a much bigger score line.


Another win on the road and the Easter Road hoodoo well and truly burst. With other results in the league going favourably for the Celts we leapfrogged into second place and two points behind rangers at the top. Five games won on the bounce and a cracking October month where we showed desire and consistency. More players to come back and hopefully big Ange can deliver us to the top of the summit by Christmas.




MOTM: Tom Rogic. It tells you how well big Tom performed when he gets MOTM and only played the opening 45 minutes. He was deliciously sublime and continued his fine form of late.


LINEUPS:


HIBERNIAN: Macey, McGinn, Porteous, Hanlon, Doig, Boyle, Doyle-Hughes, Gogić, Newell, Murphy. Subs: Wright, Wood, Stevenson, Gullan, Dabrowski, Cadden, Campbell. (4-5-1)


CELTIC: Hart, Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Starfelt, Juranovic, Rogic, McGregor, Turnbull, Jota, Kyogo, Johnson. Subs: Bitton, Giakoumakis, Ajeti, Abada, Bain, Montgomery, Welsh. (4-3-3)


POSSESSION: Hibs 40% - 60% Celtic


SHOTS: Hibs 9 - 19 Celtic


SHOTS ON TARGET: Hibs 4 - 8 Celtic


By Packybhoy