A 4-0 win for Celtic at Motherwell kept the champions on a steady course for their ninth successive Premiership title despite Ianis Hagi’s winning goal on his Rangers debut.
The in-form striker Odsonne Edouard scored after nine minutes of a first half in which the battling home side missed several chances. However, it became too much when Leigh Griffiths prodded in the second goal in the 51st minute before Callum McGregor added a third with a thunderous volley.
Edouard then curled in a wonderful free-kick, his second set-piece goal in successive matches, for his 24th goal of the season as Celtic secured a sixth victory in a row since they lost against Rangers at the end of last year.
Steven Gerrard’s side looked to have slipped further behind their rivals until Hagi struck with six minutes left against Hibernian to seal a 2-1 victory that leaves Rangers seven points behind.
Paul Hanlon had sparked fear and alarm among the Rangers support as he fired Jack Ross’s team in front midway through the first half. But George Edmundson – back in the starting lineup for the first time since October – slammed home his first goal since joining from Oldham in the summer to level just before half-time.
Hearts’ home hoodoo against Kilmarnock continued as Daniel Stendel’s men succumbed to a breathless 3-2 defeat at Tynecastle while an early goal from the midfielder Ali McCann gave St Johnstone a 1-0 win at Aberdeen, who have now gone four league games without a goal.
Sky has apologised to Celtic and Rangers over “inaccuracies” in the translation of an interview given by Alfredo Morelos.The Rangers striker was reported to have said in a Sky Sports News interview conducted in Spanish that he had experienced racism during his time in Scotland. But Celtic questioned the accuracy of a translation that claimed he had accused home fans of shouting racist abuse at him at Parkhead on 29 December.
Sky responded to Celtic’s call to investigate the translation, saying in a statement: “We have identified inaccuracies in the translation of Sky Sports News’ interview with Alfredo Morelos. We apologise to both Celtic and Rangers as well as Alfredo Morelos for the issues caused by these errors.
“After numerous steps undertaken by Sky to verify the interview thoroughly we can be clear that at no point did Morelos allege that any racial abuse was directed at him by Celtic supporters in the interview. We apologise to the supporters of Celtic for this serious error. We are reviewing our procedures for translated interviews to ensure this does not occur in future.”