Celtic’s 4-1 win over Hearts blew the capital club away at Tynecastle yesterday. A four-goal blitz restored their seven-point lead at the top of the table and left the 632 fans that travelled to Edinburgh ecstatic.
In a match that generally promises to be a difficult affair, Celtic took the hype of calling Tynecastle a difficult venue to play and ripped it up.
Within three minutes Matt O’Riley’s goal set Brendan Rodgers’ men on easy street but it was what Tomoki Iwata did on his just his third appearance for Celtic that drew plaudits from O’Riley on Instagram.
The Japanese midfielder scored his first goal for the club since joining in January 2022 and posted on the social media channel, “Looooong wait is over. Maybe it was too long.
“Today is unforgettable for me💚🤍.”
And it sparked a flurry of replies from various Celtic stars including this from Matt O’Riley:
Can Tomoki Iwata carve out a Celtic career now?
Clearly, Iwata is over the moon as are his Celtic teammates. The 26-year-old former MVP came to the club with a good reputation but has struggled to get decent game time due to the form of Callum McGregor.
Unlike Liam Scales, who took advantage of an injury crisis at Celtic, Iwata doesn’t have that luxury (for want of a better phrase) of waiting for McGregor to drop out as he never seems to get injured and will, let’s be honest, never be dropped or rested.
Iwata will just need to be patient for the moment. But one thing is for sure, his brilliant strike against Hearts clearly pleased Brendan Rodgers and at least with that goal he has put himself at the forefront of the Celtic manager’s thoughts.
With Atletico Madrid just around the corner, Rodgers is going to need all the in-form players he can if he wants to get a result against the Spanish giants.
In other news, ‘Buzzbomb’: Barry Ferguson says Celtic have a ‘tremendous’ player that defenders hate playing against