Celtic break Hearts with late double in tense final-day decider to retain Scottish title – as it happened

And with that, and with Celtic Park now almost empty of fans – though the pitch is crowded with players and their families – I’m going to head off. Thanks for your attention. Here’s Ewan Murray’s match report again. Bye!

A little bit of extra McGregor magic:

It’s hard as players, when you feel that negativity. And it was a stop-start season. You talk about character and mentality. We won the title on that, basically. Hopefully we can use this as a catapult to get the club back on track. Let’s as a club try to push forward.

Callum McGregor speaks again:

At times it looked lost, but in that dressing-room, never ever did they stop believing for one second. You put your heart and soul into this job, and you can’t do it without emotion. You can never switch off. In the good moments it’s unbelievable and in the bad moments it’s even worse. When you start to overcome those hurdles, and see the team put one foot in front of the other … credit to the boys, they just never know when they’re beaten. Everybody’s had a pop at us, quite rightly at times, but it’s so good to answer that.

Callum Osmand, scorer of the third goal, has a word:

It’s one of those moments that … it doesn’t happen, and it’s happened again. I was injured for six months and it was a tough time. I felt like I couldn’t give what I wanted to give to the club. But it’s ended like this. Honestly, unbelievable. Every single fan in here, it’s immense. Everything is amazing. I can’t fault a single thing. It’s been a tough season. I’m really proud of the boys. I feel like I wasn’t in the team, sort of thing. It was tough. But towards the end, we’re all one and I’m so proud of the boys.

On the coaches:

Everyone has been there for me and it’s just so refreshing, because they believe in me and they push me on every day. That’s how I perform my best. I can’t think them enough, they’ve changed my life.

Arne Engels has a chat:

I think what we did is amazing. I think we as a team deserve today, and the fans deserve it even more. Now we can finally celebrate together. We stay silent and then we just go for it. It shows how good we are and how strong we are. There’s a feeling we really deserve it. We’re really happy. We finally did it.

You’ll Never Walk Alone gets another airing. Kasper Schmeichel has his phone out, taking a video. Scarves aloft, one last time. Well, the last time before next week’s cup final, anyway.

And now McGregor takes the trophy. The stadium announcer counts down from 10, but McGregor lifts it when he’s on seven. Confetti canons explode! Fireworks launch! Flames reach for the sky!

Callum McGregor speaks to the crowd:

Unbelievable. Such a difficult season. So many downs. But the belief in this group is special, I’ve never seen anything like that before. It was never going to be easy today. We thought we’d string it out one last time. This is a special football club, with special supporters. You drag us through, time and time again. I hope everyone enjoys it. It’s been such a hard season, so you make sure that you have fun tonight.

And so does Martin O’Neill

I must admit I never, never in my wildest dreams, thought that I could experience those lads up there [points to the team on the podium]. The players, the coaching staff, have given me a reason to live. That’s not to say my family haven’t. This is the most special place on earth. When there is absolute unison in this stadium it is a sight to behold. Obviously the players have been magnificent, epitomised by the captain, but we couldn’t have won it without you, absolutely not.

Time, then, for the trophy presentation. Out comes the pot, bedecked in its familiar green and white ribbons.

Ewan Murray has filed his match report from Celtic Park, and on “a shameful way for such an extraordinary season to conclude”:

Hearts arrived in Glasgow needing a point to create history. With four minutes of regulation time remaining, Derek McInnes and his players were doing precisely that. Enter Daizen Maeda, whose goal was ensuring Hearts did not end a title wait stretching 66 years before Callum Osmand added gloss. Celtic are champions again, now for a fifth season in a row.

It was the scenes that followed Osmand’s goal, though, that should have repercussions. Celtic fans flooded on to the pitch, including to goad despondent Hearts players. There was still added time to play but the referee ended proceedings. It was a shameful way for such an extraordinary season to conclude.

Much more here:

It looks like the Hearts team bus has already pulled away from Celtic Park.

Matt Guthrie, a Hearts fan in Montana, emails: “We led the table every day of the season except one. We were three minutes away. I cannot imagine how MacInnes, Shankland and the others are feeling right now. But there’s so much bitterness mixed in with the sadness. The nonsense penalty at Fir Park midweek, another cheap penalty today, and then VAR intervening to give Celtic the winner.

”I’m 62 years old. I grew up by Haymarket Station and my childhood on the terraces was the days of Jim Cruikshank and Donald Ford. This hurts really, really badly.”

I don’t think there was any controversy about this result. Celtic’s second was certainly offside, and a positive VAR intervention. The penalty was, as I said at the time, a bit generous to my mind but my issue I think is that it illustrates a flaw in the game, rather than a flaw in the officiating today.

Whether Celtic deserved to win the title this season, whether they should have been in a position to do so with a marginal victory here, is open to debate. But though for much of this game they seemed not to know how to break down an organised Hearts team, in the end they certainly deserved to win today. In the second half both managers tried to bend the game their team’s way, and Martin O’Neill did so.

And Kieran Tierney:

This, this full season has been absolutely mental. From where we were at some points of the season, to today, and the atmosphere. Our captain is unbelievable, he’s kept this changing room together. And I’m buzzing for everyone, but Callum McGregor deserves every bit of this. We never give up, and this is the most mentally strong team I’ve been involved in by far. We had everybody doubting us, and we’re still here today. This is the best thing I’ve ever won, with everything we’ve come through.

Alistair Johnston now:

What in the world was that? It’s the best feeling ever when you realise you’ve got an empty goal. We’ve won a lot of leagues here, but that’s got to be the greatest of all time.

On Martin O’Neill:

He’s a winner. Listen to this place. You’ve just got to build a statue, simple as that.

Callum McGregor, the Celtic captain, has a quick chat.

We knew we’d get a chance. We just keep going and going. Honestly, it’s a special, special group of people.

The referee is still looking interested. I don’t think he thinks the game has been completed. But now he indicates that it is indeed over, and it’s hugs for the hoops!

90+7 mins: Another yellow card, for McGregor this time. A free-kick for Hearts, and the keeper’s coming up for it!

90+6 mins: A booking for Maeda, for kicking the ball away.

90+6 mins: Not a hint of a sniff for Hearts. Rod Stewart is on his feet, grinning and clapping.

90+4 mins: Saracchi and Shankland butt chests on the touchline, and the referee books them both.

90+3 mins: Hearts have had two shots on target but really only one chance. They’ve spent the great majority of the game defending.

90+2 mins: The corner is a bit overhit, and it’s turned behind for a goal-kick.

90+2 mins: The ball goes out for a Hearts throw-in, and Celtic’s ball-boy tries to stop it being taken. When it is, it’s turned behind for a corner.

90+1 mins: There will be at least eight minutes of stoppage time!

90 mins: Dane Murray comes on for Nygren as Celtic look to lock it down.

89 mins: There’s no argument about this decision. Osmand is absolutely onside when he’s played through, as is Maeda when he turns in Osmand’s cross.

86 mins: The ball is half-cleared to Kingsley on the edge of the area, an excellent shooting chance that he profoundly fluffs.

86 mins: Shankland wins a corner for Hearts, who as much as anything just need to keep the ball down that end for a bit.

85 mins: Schwolow takes his time over a goal kick. “It couldn’t be any more tense, could it?” asks Chris Sutton on commentary.

83 mins: Another offside flag. Deep breath. Some of the passes Hearts are attempting at the moment make it look like they are losing control not just of their nerves but of their limbs.

82 mins: And they go close again! Maeda cuts onto his right foot and shoots. It might have been going in at the far post, but Osmand gets his head to it at the near, diverts it wide, and is offside!

81 mins: 10 minutes and (quite a lot of) stoppage time to go. Celtic must score, and for the first time in the game have started to look like doing so.

80 mins: Save! Excellent play from Celtic to set up Nygren, whose shot should be stopped and is, eyecatchingly and athletically, Schwolow turning over the bar!

79 mins: The goal kick is sent long and breaks for Forrest, whose shot is straight at Sinisalo.

78 mins: Engels shoots, and the ball dips and curls but it goes well wide!

77 mins: Celtic for the first time overwhelm the Hearts defence. They have three unmarked players on the edge of the area and pick out one of them, but Nygren’s shot is intercepted. There’s a foul in the follow-up, though, and Celtic have a great shooting chance from just outside the box.

76 mins: Celtic win another corner, their eighth. Iheanacho does well to keep it in play at the far post and after it bounces around the area a bit Schwolow does well to keep it in play and in his hands.

74 mins: Celtic break and suddenly it’s Osmond against Kent, one on one with nothing but space and goalkeeper behind. It’s Osmond’s first touch after coming on, though, and he takes a heavy one which allows Kent to intervene.

73 mins: Another Celtic move peters out, ending in a goal kick. They’ve had 68% of possession but outwith the penalty have managed just one shot on target. Celtic take off Trusty and Tierney and bring on Osmand and Saracchi. A forward for a defender. It’s that time.

71 mins: The tension! Simon McMahon emails requestiong “more goals, and maybe a full blown donnybrook”, and any or indeed all of those things are very possible.

68 mins: What a run from Chesnokov, down the right wing, past Scales and to the byline, but Trusty gets in the way of his pull-back.

67 mins: It was always only a matter of time before Claudio Braga was brought on, and that time is now. Chesnokov and Alan Forrest – whose brother came on for Celtic not long ago – also come on, Kabore, Kyziridis and Milne going off.

66 mins: Another Tierney cross leads to another Celtic corner. It’s played short, sent in, and Maeda heads over.

64 mins: Hearts just have to find a way to keep the ball a bit longer. Perhaps they’re on the right path in their search for a positive result, but it’s a really tough one.

62 mins: James Forrest comes on for Celtic, replacing Yang Hyun-Jun.

61 mins: … But Hearts win the ball back rapidly, and Shankland’s clever pass towards Kabore is intercepted at the cost of another corner.

60 mins: Celtic win a corner, and Schwolow catches it. He hits the ball long, and Celtic win the header.

59 mins: The Hearts physios are back on to treat Kyziridis, who is still feeling the effects of that Trusty challenge.

58 mins: A yellow card for Trusty, who gave the ball away and fould Kyziridis trying to win it back. Instead Shankland plays in Kabore, but Sinisalo comes out just in time to stop him latching on to it.

57 mins: This one is cleared, though not without cries from the crowd for another handball.

57 mins: Kent wins the header, but Scales latches onto the ball and uses it to win another corner.

56 mins: Steinwender is very obviously in a bit of pain, but he’s just going to have to push through it. Celtic play Yang through, and when his cross is blocked it rebounds to Johnston, whose shot deflects wide. Celtic have a corner.

54 mins: … From which Kyziridis tries to dip and curl a shot over Sinisalo and into the far corner, and fails.

53 mins: Kabore wins the ball off McGregor, turns and sprints towards the Celtic penalty area. Nygren comes across to challenge and Kabore goes down readily at the first sign of contact. Free kick.

51 mins: Blair Spittal replaces Baningime.

50 mins: Howls from the crowd as Baningime limps the long way off the pitch, rather than limping around its perimeter.

48 mins: Iheanacho tricks his way into space outside the Hearts penalty area. Baningime chases after him, then suddenly pulls up and goes down, clutching his left hamstring. That, surely, is the end of his afternoon.

47 mins: Hearts bring Altena off, and bring on Frankie Kent.

46 mins: Peeeeeep! The decisive half of the decisive game of the season is under way.

Celtic need to fashion a few more chances in this half, and to that end Kelechi Iheanacho is replacing Tounekti. “Joshua Keeling may not even be a Hearts fan, but I’m in a pub in East Lothian full of Hearts fans and there’s absolutely no complaints about the penalty here,” writes Jon Gerrard.

So, back where we started. Hearts are essentially a goal up. Celtic must score in this half. It hasn’t been a great game, but the atmosphere and inbuilt tension has ensured it’s been anything but boring. The next bit, though, could be epic.

“What an absolute joke,” rages Joshua Keeling, who is “not even a Hearts fan”. “Celtic get all the decisions. That is an absolute shambles of a decision. His arm was in a natural position as he slid to block the ball. Fuming. If Hearts don’t go on to win the league today … It’s a joke.”

45+3 mins: I think it’s a harsh decision, but one that is taken all the time. There was no movement of hand to ball, but there’s absolutely no doubt that it hit him.

45+2 mins: Kyziridis slides to block Tierney’s cross from the left. His right hand is raised, though, and the ball is blasted right into it!

45+1 mins: Into stoppage time, and there’ll be three minutes of it. “It is a great occasion but not a great game so far,” writes Gordon, in Aberdeen. “Hearts won’t care, though, if it stays like this. Celtic fans are heaping pressure on their own team with the groans and boos at every misplaced pass by the home team.” Since Gordon wrote it hasn’t stayed like that, and the day has swung further in Hearts’ favour.

42 mins: A Hearts long throw is headed behind by Scales, and the visitors crowd the penalty area. But Kingsley plays it backwards, deep to Kyziridis, an unexpected pass but not a very good one. But Hearts recycle the ball and win another corner…

40 mins: Steinwender, certainly the player of the half so far, wins a free kick on the edge of his own penalty area. Schwolow kicks it long.

38 mins: A bit of space for Hearts now, but Kabore’s toepoke hits Scales. Celtic break, and Steinwender is booked for trying (and failing) to stop them doing so. At the end of it, a Celtic corner.

37 mins: As I type that Hearts do attack, and Altena has a curling shot from 25 yards that goes wide, and also high.

36 mins: Hearts are defending very well, but they’re just doing too much of it. Schwolow keeps kicking the ball long, and inevitably Celtic win the header and start to build again.

35 mins: The game’s first yellow card is waved at Johnston, for tripping Jordi Altena.

34 mins: More than a third of the match has been played now, and still it’s goalless. Celtic have dominated possession, but Hearts have arrived with a plan and so far it’s working.

32 mins: A shot on target! It’s Tounekti’s effort for Celtic, from 20 yards or so, but it flies low and hard straight to Schwolow.

31 mins: I really remember watching a game between Watford and Aston Villa in which Watford had clearly made the same calculation regarding Villa’s Mark Delaney. Sure enough Delaney spent most of the match giving the ball away … until the point where he, inevitably unmarked, volleyed into the top corner from 30 yards to give his side a 1-0 win.

29 mins: According to Sky Trusty has so far had twice as many touches as the second most touchy player in the game so far. Hearts are deliberately leaving the Celtic centre-back in space, trusting that he won’t be able to do anything very dangerous with all his possession.

27 mins: Nygren chests the ball down 40 yards from the Hearts goal, and Maeda is briefly open and available in front of him, but the pass runs behind the Japanese forward.

25 mins: Celtic’s long throw is headed away by Steinwender and then headed further away by Altena, who is promptly clattered by Johnston. The Hearts physios come back on.

23 mins: A quarter of the game has been played, and there has been one effort on goal of any note, Trusty’s third-minute header.

20 mins: Celtic play the ball around their defence for an age, before eventually lifting it over the Hearts defence to Yang Hyun-Jun, who dances into the area before being dispossessed by Milne’s excellent challenge – at which point the flag goes up.

19 mins: Now Celtic try to play Maeda through. Steinwender slides and stretches to intercept, and limps away from the challenge having done so.

17 mins: When I’m out for a run I tend to break it down into fractions in my head, working out when I’m a pleasingly simple measure of the way through. Similarly, Hearts have successfully navigated the first sixth of the match. Steinwender is back on the pitch.

15 mins: Boos as Steinwender gingerly leaves the field after receiving treatment, and more after Celtic return the ball to Hearts.

14 mins: Celtic play the ball forward towards the run of Johnston, but Steinwender comes across and gets there first. Johnson’s raised knee goes into his thigh, though, and now the physios are working on him.

12 mins: The free-kick leads to a corner, which is sent curling into the gloves of Sinisalo.

10 mins: Another Milne long throw, which is headed away but then Nygren brings Milne down, and Hearts can put the ball in the box from a free-kick this time.

9 mins: Milne nutmegs Johnson (good) before clumsily overhitting a cross out of play (bad).

8 mins: A less good delivery from Engels this time, and it hoops over the area and back out of play.

7 mins: An excellent pass from Tierney finds Engels in the penalty area, but he can only convert it into a corner.

5 mins: Celtic send in a long throw, which is flicked on by Steinwender, but there’s nobody there to turn it in! Shankland thinks he was unfairly stopped from being there, but there’ll be no early penalty.

3 mins: And a chance from the corner! Excellent delivery, but Auston Trusty heads over!

2 mins: Celtic win a corner. Hearts were really poor in the first 10 minutes or so against Falkirk in midweek. Celtic are more likely to punish a repeat.

1 min: Celtic are straight on the front foot. Johnson is played down the right, and he plays an excellent low cross into the penalty area, but a defender slides to block it.

1 min: Peeeeeeeep! Don Robertson blows his whistle. The players are having to deal with a lot of pressure today, but think of the pressure on that man’s shoulders.

You’ll Never Walk Alone is sung. Celtic’s players huddle. It is almost time.

Out come the players! Amid jets of fire, scarves whirled overhead or held aloft, and a stupendous amount of noise.

And now Martin O’Neill is asked about his pre-match message to his side, after Celtic named an unchanged side for the first time since December:

It’s the same message as before, just try and win the game. It’s as simple as that. We’re in a position over the last number of weeks where we’ve got in here, now let’s make the most of us. We’ve kept the starting lineup from Motherwell and we’ll try to take it on from there.

We have to, at the end of 90-odd minutes, we have to try and find ourselves in front, but I don’t think there’s any point going gung-ho and find yourself behind because you’ve been hit on the break. Hopefully we can manage the situation.

I’ve got to say I’m really excited. We’ve strived hard to close the gap week after week and now we’ve got a chance on our home ground to try and do something with the crowd right behind us.

Derek McInnes has a chat with Sky:

Just to have the confidence and belief that we can get a result here. We’vce played Celtic three times this season and they’ve failed to beat us. We ain’t playing 60,000 we’re playing the same players that have tried to beat us all season. We look relaxed and hopefully we can bring another performance. The performances have been there this season, that’s why we’re in this position. Whoever comes out on top will deserve to win the league. It’s so difficult to set up a team to play for a draw. For me here, the intention always is to make sure we’re pretty secure, but then as the game goes we’ve got to make sure we’re attacking as well as trying to defend.

On Claudio Braga being on the bench:

He’s struggling a wee bit with a groin injury, we’ve been trying to manage it for a couple of weeks. It’s not ideal. We think he’ll be able to give us something. We don’t think he can give us 90 minutes. It’s not ideal Claudio not being fully fit, but I think he’s still going to have a big part to play.

Here’s Ewan Murray’s preview of this match, and its place in history:

This Hearts story did not begin with Stuart Findlay’s late winner at Tannadice in August, a stoppage-time intervention from Alexandros Kyziridis against Livingston later that month or the September victory at Ibrox that materially fuelled belief among Derek McInnes’s squad. Brian Cormack, Alex Mackie, Jamie Bryant, Donald Ford and Garry Halliday will not feature in the Hearts team seeking to create history at Celtic Park but that quintet set this club on a path that after 16 years has almost – though only almost – reached the ultimate glory point.

Cormack and Mackie joked back then, when among a group establishing the Foundation of Hearts, that one day they would watch the team they love compete in the Champions League from a new main stand at Tynecastle Park. With the stand complete, Hearts will enter the Champions League’s qualifying phase this summer. Humour proved prescient. In the west of Edinburgh, as Hearts pursue the point they need in Glasgow on Saturday to win the title for the first time since 1960, original FoH directors will gather to watch together. Their role in Hearts’ rise should never be forgotten.

Much more here:

Three changes for Hearts, who drop Frankie Kent, Claudio Braga and Blair Spittal to the bench and bring Stephen Kingsley, Pierre Landry Kabore and Jordi Altena. No changes for Celtic.