Celtic

United boss Erik ten Hag is weighing up his goalkeeping options, having stuck with long-term number one David de Gea since taking over.

Reports have emerged that United and De Gea are set for talks on his future, with the 31-year-old's deal to expire in 2023.

TOP STORY – MAN UTD EYE COSTA AS DE GEA REPLACEMENT

Manchester United's goalkeeper situation is in flux, with the club interested in Porto custodian Diogo Costa, according to Metro.

United have sent scouts to watch the 23-year-old goalkeeper, who has seven caps for Portugal.

The Red Devils are looking for De Gea's successor, with the Spaniard seemingly not suiting Ten Hag's possession-based style.

United also have 25-year-old England international Dean Henderson out on loan at Nottingham Forest.

ROUND-UP

– O Jogo claims former Olympiacos manager Pedro Martins could be the latest Portuguese coach to take over at Wolves, following Bruno Lage's dismissal on Sunday. The Telegraph reports that under-fire Sevilla boss Julen Lopetegui may be considered and Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou has also been discussed.

– Juventus and Real Madrid will rival Liverpool in the race to sign Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans from Leicester City, claims Calciomercato.

– LaLiga pair Sevilla and Valencia are both interested in Manchester United forward Anthony Martial, reports Todofichajes.

– Tottenham and Juventus target Nicolo Zaniolo is set to pen a new deal with Roma, re-committing on a €4million per-year deal until 2027, according to Calciomercato.

– Everton's Venezuela international striker Salomon Rondon has interest from UAE club Sharjah FC but is likely to stay with the Toffees, reports Liverpool Echo.

The Napoli striker is valued at around €80million by the Serie A leaders.

Manchester United are understood to be interested in Osimhen.

TOP STORY – REAL TO RIVAL MAN UTD FOR OSIMHEN

The race for Napoli forward Osimhen is heating up with Real Madrid joining United in pursuit of his signature, according to Calciomercato.

Osimhen's Napoli contract does not expire until 2025 but both clubs are ready to flex their muscles and move for him in the off-season transfer window.

The 23-year-old forward's stock has risen dramatically since Napoli signed him for €70m from Lille in 2020.

ROUND-UP

- Inter are lining up a move for Borussia Monchengladbach's Marcus Thuram as they prepare for Lautaro Martinez to be prized away amid interest from Manchester City, claims The Sun.

- Nicolo Schira claims that Milan have agreed personal terms with Lille defender and Newcastle United target Sven Botman, who has been lured by a five-year deal.

- Barcelona are set to join the race for Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves, who has interest from Arsenal and Manchester United, reports the Mail.

- The Express claims that Aston Villa are interested in manager Steven Gerrard's ex-Liverpool team-mate Luis Suarez along with Milan's Franck Kessie .

- Teenage England international Jude Bellingham has opted to remain with Borussia Dortmund for one more season, claims Bild.

- Kicker claims that Roma have joined the pursuit for Stuttgart's Sasa Kalajdzic along with Tottenham, West Ham, Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig .

- West Ham are interested in Bristol City striker Antoine Semenyo, according to The Mirror, while Celtic are also tracking him.

The last time Celtic made it past the group stage in the competition was in 2013, but they have made an impressive start to this season, winning all nine games across all competitions, including a 5-1 win over Slovan Bratislava.

Dortmund, runners-up to Real Madrid last season, have won three of their last four games in all competitions, though they were hammered 5-1 by Stuttgart on September 22.

"We're talking about a team that hasn't lost a lot of games, that hasn't conceded in their own league, that was very dominant in their first Champions League game," Sahin told reporters ahead of Tuesday's match at Signal Iduna Park.

"I'm looking forward to it and to call them outsiders, that would be unfair to Celtic.

"What can I say about Celtic, a prestigious club with amazing talent in the club, a fantastic coach."

Sahin knows all about Celtic's manager, after his time under Brendan Rodgers as a player when he had a loan spell at Liverpool in 2012.

Although he only made seven league appearances for Liverpool before his loan came to a premature end and he moved to Dortmund for the second half of that season, Sahin says Rodgers was an influence on his own coaching career.

"I'm looking forward to it. We had a short time together, a lot of talks before the transfer and also during my spell there," Sahin said.

"I really enjoyed it. I found his training sessions and his idea of football very, very interesting. I also wrote down a lot for my coaching career back then.

"Tomorrow I think we'll see each other again after 12 years and I'm looking forward to the duel."

Defender Julian Ryerson and midfielder Jamie Gittens were both taken off during Friday's league win over VfL Bochum, but Sahin said they will be available for the meeting with Celtic, while Giovanni Reyna is still out with a groin strain.

The defending champions thought they had taken the lead early on through Daizen Maeda, but VAR intervened due to a foul in the build-up.

Nevertheless, a brace from Kyogo Furuhashi and Paulo Bernardo's sumptuous strike virtually ended the contest at half-time.

There was to be no mercy in the second half though, as captain Callum McGregor added a fourth for Celtic shortly after the restart.

Maeda and substitute Adam Idah added further gloss to the scoreline to make it six league wins out of six for Brendan Rodgers' side so far this campaign and take them top, ahead of Aberdeen on goal difference.

St Johnstone are now just a point above second bottom in the table.

Data Debrief: Defence first

Celtic have kept a clean sheet in each of their last six games in the league.

Their last longer run of games without conceding a goal in the competition was a run of seven games from 26 April 2015 to 9 August 2015, so as well as their rampant attack, Rodgers' team have a mean defence, with St Johnston accumulating only 0.29 expected goals (xG) on Saturday.

With two assists in this match, meanwhile, Nicolas Kuhn now has four in total for the season, which is two more than any other player in the Scottish Premiership.

The Hoops have won only two of their last six games in league and cup and have taken just one point from their three matches since securing the cinch Premiership title with victory away to Hearts earlier this month.

Their latest setback came on Wednesday when they lost 4-2 away to Hibernian. McGregor admits Celtic may have “subconsciously” taken their eye off the ball after wrapping up the championship but he is unfazed by the past few results.

“No, you have to put it into context,” said the captain when asked if he was worried.

“If anyone is trying to pick holes in the group for whatever reason, you just have to look at what we did up to winning the title.

“It’s been outstanding, very minimal mistakes and hardly any dropped points.

“There have been massive winning streaks, we’ve shown hunger, desire, everything.

“So of course we are disappointed with the post-split fixtures and results, we haven’t reached that level. But up until becoming champions, we were outstanding, so it’s difficult to be hard on the group.

“Yes, we want to maintain as high a standard as possible but sometimes in football it doesn’t quite work like that.”

Celtic finish their league campaign at home to Aberdeen on Saturday before attempting to seal a domestic treble a week later when they face cinch Championship side Inverness in the Scottish Cup final.

McGregor is adamant his team will be ready for the Hampden showpiece.

“The last few games haven’t been great but I have no doubt, I am full of belief,” he said.

“We have a big game on Saturday and it’s a chance to celebrate the title, and for the supporters to celebrate an unbelievable season in the league.

“We already have a cup in the bag and after Saturday, full focus switches to the final.

“I have no doubt that we will be ready to go for Hampden.

“We have a good track record of coming through the big games and the big moments.

“We have been strong as a group and that gives us the confidence that we will be ready to go for the final.

“We have a real chance to celebrate on Saturday and hopefully that will give everyone a lift.”

Despite sitting three points clear of Old Firm rivals Rangers at the top of the cinch Premiership, the Parkhead boss has come under fire for the Hoops’ style of play this season and also for his recruitment.

The holders were shorn of defenders Alistair Johnston, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Greg Taylor through injury but Japanese duo Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda netted against a spirited home side to earn a home quarter-final tie against Livingston.

Rodgers, who returned to Celtic Park for a second spell in the summer following the departure of Ange Postecoglou to Tottenham, noted that it is now eight wins and a draw in nine games for the Hoops – difficult to construe as any sort of a crisis.

He said: “It’s obviously (a narrative that’s) been created outside.

“But I don’t expect anything less to be honest. We just focus on ourselves.

“We are a winning club. When you’ve won consistently over a number of years, people will look to jump on you and bring us down – and bring me down.

“I am here to win. For sure we will have our day, and have many days going forward.

“We’ll get our influential players back and the squad will be very strong to the end of the season. We’ll continue to fight.

“We just have to prove a point to ourselves and our supporters. I think that’s always the best attitude. You are always looking to prove a point.

“It’s a part of the world where there is a lot of noise – and this year in particular when it (Celtic’s play) maybe hasn’t been as fluent.

“We get compared to the squad of last season but one, it’s not the same squad as last season, and two, a lot of those players who were starting last season have not been playing all of this season.

“But it hasn’t stopped the negativity.

“But I use it in a different way and look logically at it. We’ve missed some important players for long periods and we made some changes in the summer.

“This is a young group of players here who are giving everything, who are looking to develop and improve. If they keep doing that we’ll keep winning games.”

On Israel winger Liel Abada’s omission from the squad altogether, Rodgers said: “He wasn’t in a right frame of mind.

“I’ve spoke a lot to Liel and it has been a challenging time for him. I just felt when he came into the game (at Hibernian) the other night, it just wasn’t him.

“So we gave him this chance to have a few days and clear his mind. I’ll have a chat with him again next week, see where he’s at.”

Johnston picked up a head injury in the midweek win over Hibs and Rodgers said: “We’re just waiting to see again on him.

“A slight fracture on the side. The thinking is we’ll have a look in 10 days to see where he’s at.

“But it could be 10 days to four weeks. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

St Mirren boss Stephen Robinson was both “proud” and “frustrated” about his side’s performance as they exited the cup.

He said: “I’m proud of them, but frustrated at the same time because we had chances and we weren’t clinical enough

“There has to be credit given to Celtic for the two chances they take, they are clinical, and they defended very, very well in their box.

“There were two or three blocks that were fantastic, and ultimately they were better in both 18-yard boxes.

“So, for all the stuff we did in between, they deserved to win the game.”

The cinch Championship side are big underdogs for their Scottish Cup final showdown with Celtic, who are bidding to complete a domestic treble.

Welsh knows it will take a huge effort to pull off an upset at Hampden but the 33-year-old is adamant his team have a chance.

“It ranks at the very top for me,” said the former Partick Thistle and Falkirk midfielder when asked about the size of the game in the context of his career.

“It’s not very often you get to play on an occasion like this, especially at my age getting to the latter stages of my career. I am thoroughly looking forward to it.

“We’ve got to believe, I’ve said that to the lads all week. We’ve got to believe we can pull off a miracle.

“We don’t just want to go there for a day out and get caught up in the occasion.

“We know it’s a massive challenge in front of us, but we’ve got to have belief in ourselves.

“We know we have a good group and we know we are going to be up against it at times in the game but we’ve got to stick together and have that belief that we can do it.”

Celtic won only two of their closing six Premiership matches as they had the title wrapped up with time to spare, but Welsh dismissed any notion that his team can draw encouragement from the champions’ recent form dip.

“I don’t think you can look too much into that,” he added.

“They wrapped up the title early doors and then had a few results they probably weren’t happy with but you saw at the weekend (when they beat Aberdeen 5-0) they can turn it on when they need to. I’m sure they’ll be right up for this.

“It’s not going to make much difference to us, we know how hard the challenge is going to be.”

Inverness will have gone more than four weeks without a competitive game by the time they run out at Hampden on Saturday.

Although Welsh admits it is “not ideal” in terms of maintaining match sharpness, he feels the month-long break has at least allowed them to banish any lingering disappointment after they lost to Ayr in their final Championship fixture and missed out on the play-offs.

“It was good to get some time to get over what happened in the last game of the season,” he said.

“That was a difficult night and we were all very disappointed to miss out on the play-offs so the time away was good for us to clear our minds and get over it.

“We didn’t want that lingering going into this massive game.

“We’ve come back in refreshed and excited and we’re looking forward to it.”

The Norwich City loanee, who arrived from Carrow Road in February on a deal until the end of the season, was the hero at Hampden Park as the Scottish Premiership champions completed the double in dramatic fashion.

Substitute Idah reacted quickest in the 90th minute, with the final goalless and seemingly heading for extra-time, pouncing on the loose ball to slot away the rebound after Jack Butland could only parry Paulo Bernardo's fierce strike.

And the Republic of Ireland international revealed his joy at delivering the goods for Brendan Rodgers' side at such a crucial moment.

"I came here to try and score as many goals as I can," he told BBC Scotland. "I didn't think I’d score a goal like this, in front of all these fans – it's an amazing feeling.

"It's hard to put it into words. Everyone can see what it means to the players, the fans. Especially from a boy, being Irish, always supporting Celtic, it's amazing.

"Football's a tricky situation. I do love it here. It's a great club. I'm still contracted with Norwich City, who knows what will happen?"

Meanwhile, skipper Callum McGregor saluted the character demonstrated by his team-mates in securing the double against their bitter rivals.

"The mentality in this group, inside this building, inside this club, the fanbase – we just want to win trophies," he said.

"We know it's never going to be perfect, you're never going to turn up in all the cup finals. Rangers are a good team, they made it a good old-fashioned derby game, big tackles in there.

"But this group – they find the moment of quality, they stick together and they come out winners.

"Honestly, I’m delighted. If we turned up today and didn't win, everyone forgets about the league, we understand the pressure we're under."

The Hoops arrived in Edinburgh knowing a victory would have taken them back to the top of the league after city rivals Rangers suffered a surprise 2-1 loss at home to Motherwell the previous day.

But their hopes of achieving this feat were badly undermined during a dramatic opening quarter of an hour in which their striker Adam Idah had a penalty saved by Zander Clark and then Yang saw red for a dangerous high challenge on Alex Cochrane.

Hearts – who defeated Brendan Rodgers’ side in Glasgow in mid-December – took full advantage of the extra man as Jorge Grant scored a penalty late in the first half before Lawrence Shankland struck his 27th goal of the season on a day when Scotland manager Steve Clarke and assistant John Carver were watching from the Tynecastle stand.

The victory moved the Jambos 13 points clear in third place.

Hearts made four changes to the team that started Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at home to city rivals Hibernian as Toby Sibbick, Dexter Lembikisa, Grant and Beni Baningime replaced Frankie Kent, Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Kenneth Vargas.

There was one enforced alteration to the Celtic team that started the 7-1 midweek destruction of Dundee as captain Callum McGregor missed out with an Achilles issue. His place in midfield was taken by Paulo Bernardo.

Hearts made a bright start and they had a good chance in the eighth minute when Shankland’s cross from the right picked out Cochrane just inside the box but the left-wing-back got his shot all wrong and fluffed it well wide.

Then came a couple of huge moments in quick succession in which Celtic allowed the game to swing heavily in the hosts’ favour.

The Hoops were awarded a penalty in the 11th minute when Cochrane was deemed to have fouled Yang but Idah saw his low-struck spot-kick saved by the legs of Clark, another Hearts player looking to impress the Scotland management team in the lead-up to this summer’s European Championships.

Yang and Cochrane were again involved in the next major flashpoint just a few minutes later when the Korean midfielder caught the Englishman in the face with a high foot.

Referee Don Robertson booked the Celtic player initially but then upgraded it to a red card after being advised by VAR John Beaton to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.

This dramatic turn of events roused the home support and left Rodgers’ side facing a huge task in their quest to return to the top of the league.

Despite being a man down, Celtic did have the ball in the net in the 22nd minute when Bernardo’s low angled shot went in off both posts but the flag instantly went up to cut short the celebrations, with Idah offside in the lead-up.

Hearts sensed their chance of victory, however, and Alan Forrest headed over from Lembikisa cross’s in the 27th minute before Shankland was denied by Liam Scales’ brilliant goal-saving challenge.

Another big call went the way of Hearts in the 40th minute when – following a lengthy VAR review – they were awarded a penalty after the ball came down on to the arm of Tomoki Iwata as he rose amid a cluster of bodies to try and head the ball out of his box. Grant kept his cool to send Joe Hart the wrong way.

Hearts thought they had doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time when Shankland drilled home a low angled shot from eight yards out after being fed by a Forrest pass but the goal was eventually ruled out for offside following a lengthy VAR review.

Celtic sent on Kyogo Furuhashi in place of Bernardo for the start of the second half. But the Hoops found themselves two down in the 56th minute when Shankland swept home a clinical low strike from 15 yards out after team-mate Calem Nieuwenhof slipped while lining up a shot and inadvertently knocked the ball back into the striker’s path with the aid of a nick off Celtic left-back Greg Taylor.

The visitors were unable to summon a response and Hearts saw out victory in impressive fashion, sparking jubilant full-time scenes at Tynecastle.