Scottish Premiership 2025-2026: Celtic-Hearts, the likely lineups

After a sea of controversy following the midweek round, the Scottish league has come to a reckoning with what can be called a real final that may change the history of a tournament that in the last four decades has rewarded exclusively the two main Glasgow teams, Rangers and Celtic: the green-and-whites and Edinburgh Hearts play for the title on Saturday, at 12 noon.30 local (1:30 p.m. Italian time) in a showdown poisoned by what happened Wednesday night.

The controversial penalty awarded to Celtic as time expired, which allowed the Bhoys to win 3-2 at home to Motherwell, made noise far beyond Hadrian’s Wall. A draw would have forced Martin O’Neill’s team into a real feat today (they would have had to win by three goals to secure the title), while the three points, worth -1 in the standings, make a win by any scoreline sufficient to secure title number 56 in their history.

The rest of Scotland (city rivals Hibernian aside) instead seems to be rooting for Hearts, who have not won the league since 1960 (they have since stopped at four titles) and could really rewrite the history of Scottish soccer. All the Jambos need is a draw, and previous records this season bode well (two Hearts wins, one of them at home to Celtic, and one draw) but the feeling is that Saturday’s game really does make history.

Probable lineups

CELTIC (4-2-3-1): Sinisalo; Johnston, Trusty, Scales, Tierney; McGregor, Engels; Hyun-Jun, Nygren, Tounekti; Maeda. All. O’Neill.

HEARTS (4-4-2): Schwolow; Steinwender, Kent, Findlay, Milne; Kyziridis, Baningime, Devlin, Spittal; Shankland, Braga. All. McInnes.