Celtic 2-0 Heart of Midlothian - BBC Sport
Leigh Griffiths and Stuart Armstrong score as champions Celtic beat Hearts to complete an unbeaten Scottish Premiership season.
Last updated on .From the section Football

Champions Celtic beat Hearts to become the first team to complete a Scottish top-flight season unbeaten for 118 years.

Leigh Griffiths and Stuart Armstrong secured a 34th win of the campaign for Brendan Rodgers' side, who were then presented with the Premiership trophy.

The feat was last achieved by Rangers in 1898-99, over an 18-game season.

And Celtic join Arsenal (2003-04) and Juventus (2011-12) in being unbeaten over a 38-game league season.

Rodgers' side, who won the League Cup in November, will attempt to win the club's first domestic treble since 2001 when they take on Aberdeen in Saturday's Scottish Cup final.

Celtic, who have won six top-flight titles in a row, are unbeaten in 46 domestic games this season (38 in league, eight in cups), and 47 domestic matches overall including the final league game of last season.

And they are unbeaten in 31 games in all competitions since losing to Barcelona in the Champions League on 23 November.

With the win and goals against Hearts, Celtic set new records for the Scottish Premier League/Premiership era, including goals, points, wins and margin of victory.

With so much anticipated from the hosts, Hearts head coach Ian Cathro sought to frustrate Celtic, restricting them to long-range efforts.

Kieran Tierney and Callum McGregor came closest with those and Griffiths sent a free-kick into the side netting.

And it could have been Hearts that went in front, Bjorn Johnsen laying a free-kick off for Alexandros Tziolis to strike narrowly over.

When Celtic did get into the box, goalkeeper Viktor Noring was in fine form.

The Swedish stopper made an instinctive block to deny Dedryck Boyata at a corner and then punched away Patrick Roberts' dangerous cut-back.

However, Hearts' resistance was broken when Roberts danced clear on the right and set up Griffiths for a confident header.

And Griffiths was involved in the second, his cross not properly cleared and falling for Armstrong to finish.

Though sustaining a fourth straight defeat, Hearts competed well in Glasgow and fared much better than their 5-0 home loss to Celtic last month - the match that clinched the title for Rodgers' men.

Johnsen headed against the right-hand post from a Malaury Martin corner as Cathro's men sought consolation.

And substitute Martin's volley was then kept out by Craig Gordon late on.
• None Attempt saved. Malaury Martin (Heart of Midlothian) left footed shot from the left side of the box is saved in the bottom left corner.
• None Krystian Nowak (Heart of Midlothian) hits the right post with a header from the centre of the box.
• None Attempt blocked. Malaury Martin (Heart of Midlothian) left footed shot from the left side of the box is blocked.
• None Euan Henderson (Heart of Midlothian) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
• None Attempt missed. Dedryck Boyata (Celtic) header from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Navigate to the next page Navigate to the last page