One of the most intriguing aspects of Celtic’s game against Hearts on Wednesday night will be how the Hoops defence fares against a Tynecastle player who is in good form – Liam Boyce.
Hearts have been poor this season, and go into the game bottom of the league.
Recently scored winning goal against title rivals
Despite that, they did defeat Rangers 2-1 at Tynecastle recently, with the winning goal coming from Boyce, who joined Hearts in January from Burton Albion on a three-and-a-half year deal, as reported by the BBC.
When you look at the number of goals the player has scored for both of his team this season, it adds up to 16, which is a more than decent return.
Boyce does have a goal to his name against Celtic, a last minute penalty for Ross County in a 2-2 draw in the Hoops’ invincible domestic season of 2016-17.
Interestingly, Boyce was the top scorer in the Premiership that season, with 23 goals.
Ahead of the game, Hearts manager Daniel Stendel said, as reported by the Edinburgh Evening News, that he plans to attack Celtic on Wednesday night.
That will no doubt mean that the Tynecastle side’s plan is to get Boyce on the ball as often as possible. It will be up to the Celtic defence to stand up to him.
Hoops defence has stood up to most challenges
Thankfully for the most part this season Celtic has stood up to every challenge that it has had to face.
Boyce will likely provide one of the toughest challenges of the season, especially if Hearts stick to their goal of going on the attack.
It is a test that Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien should look forward to. In too many games at Celtic Park they have little to do, as teams come on a damage limitation exercise.
It doesn’t sound like Hearts intend to do that. Therefore, the Hoops could well be tested by Boyce. Hopefully Celtic’s defence can get the better of the striker, as it will go a long way towards helping the team pick up the three points.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
