{"id":523852,"date":"2026-03-14T21:43:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523852\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T21:43:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T21:43:10","slug":"scottish-premiership-cvancara-and-var-help-celtic-turn-up-heat-on-hearts-scottish-premiership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/523852\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish Premiership: Cvancara and VAR help Celtic turn up heat on Hearts | Scottish Premiership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tomas Cvancara converted another crucial penalty as a major intervention by the video assistant referee helped second-placed Celtic come from behind to beat Motherwell 3-1. The Czech striker followed up his Scottish Cup penalty shootout winner<\/a> at Ibrox with Celtic\u2019s second goal in the 72nd minute after Emmanuel Longelo had been dismissed for a challenge on Daizen Maeda.<\/p>\n

The referee, John Beaton, had initially given a goal-kick, but a lengthy look at the VAR monitor at the behest of Kevin Clancy changed the complexion of the game.<\/p>\n

The Motherwell<\/a> manager, Jens Berthel Askou, questioned why the Celtic midfielder Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was not sent off after a challenge on the New Zealand international Elijah Just. \u201cI don\u2019t see anything vicious in the tackle,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a little bit clumsy, but it\u2019s still a tackle that almost wipes out Eli\u2019s opportunity of going to the World Cup. He\u2019s very, very sore. He looks swollen down the leg.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both sides had scored in the first half courtesy of some high pressing, Motherwell through Just. Yang Hyun-jun quickly levelled and the winger rounded off the scoring as the 10 men took risks.<\/p>\n

Martin O\u2019Neill directs his Celtic players. Photograph: Andrew Milligan\/PA<\/p>\n

Martin O\u2019Neill hailed Yang\u2019s performance. \u201cHe was sensational. He scored the goals, but it was the work he did going backwards too. I wouldn\u2019t know what sort of distances he covered, but it would have been immense.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celtic moved within two points of Hearts, who visit Kilmarnock on Saturday night. On Sunday, third-placed Rangers \u2013 now four points behind Celtic<\/a> \u2013 are at St Mirren in a noon kick-off, followed by the Dundee derby at Dens Park.<\/p>\n

Hibernian struck the woodwork twice in a goalless draw with the bottom club, Livingston. Hibs closed the gap on fourth-placed Motherwell to six points, but will be disappointed the deficit was not smaller before next week\u2019s trip to Fir Park.<\/p>\n

The Hibs manager, David Gray, said: \u201cIt\u2019s extremely frustrating and it feels like an opportunity missed. I thought the players had enough chances to win two games, we dominated every single metric in terms of possession, shots, everything that comes with that. The bit that was missing was putting the ball in the net.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hibs dominated possession and Jamie McGrath hit the frame of the goal either side of the break. The substitute Josh Campbell was also guilty of wasting a good opportunity in the second half.<\/p>\n

It was a fourth straight draw for Livingston, who survived a late penalty drama. Lloyd Wilson pointed for a Hibs penalty and then overturned his decision after a video assistant referee review, with Mo Sylla winning the ball in a tackle with Martin Boyle. Livingston remain without a league win since August.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was rubbing my eyes because that decision\u2019s up there,\u201d said Livingston\u2019s Marvin Bartley. \u201cThe problem for me is that one, it\u2019s given so quickly after clearly he wins the ball, and the other thing is if you\u2019re not in the top flight and you don\u2019t have VAR, that\u2019s going down as a penalty kick right at the end of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

A late Falkirk leveller denied Stephen Robinson victory in his first match as Aberdeen head coach as Barney Stewart\u2019s goal cancelled out Kevin Nisbet\u2019s opener. Robinson was appointed on Thursday, nine and a half weeks after Jimmy Thelin\u2019s departure.<\/p>\n

Aberdeen took the lead after 73 minutes. The Falkirk<\/a> goalkeeper Scott Bain took a poor touch from Leon McCann\u2019s backpass, allowing Nisbet to block his clearance before the striker nodded home from close range for his ninth goal of the season.<\/p>\n

It looked like that would prove the winner for Aberdeen but Stewart rose in the centre of the penalty area to head home a cross from Ethan Ross a minute from time to earn a share of the points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tomas Cvancara converted another crucial penalty as a major intervention by the video assistant referee helped second-placed Celtic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-523852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}