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Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers insists they are not feeling any extra pressure as they prepare to face Premiership leaders Hearts, live on Sky Sports.
A shock defeat at Dundee sees them go to Tynecastle trailing the unbeaten Jambos by five points.
They did respond with a 2-1 win at home to Sturm Graz in the Europa League, and Rodgers expects the Hoops to continue gaining momentum.
Sunday 26th October 11:00am
Kick off 12:00pm
“Going to Tynecastle at whatever time of the season is always a tough game, but we arrive in there in a much better place,” he said.
“The performance level, the intensity in the team was there [vs Sturm Graz], and we’ll look to take that into the game on Sunday.
“If I look at some of our games, there’s a bit of luck has played a part in some of the things that have gone against us. I think if we played Hibs again like we did, then we would have won that game. There’s other games where things haven’t quite dropped for us, and then there’s been other games like Dundee where we were nowhere near the standard of a club like Celtic.
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Hearts head coach Derek McInnes looks ahead Sunday’s match against Celtic as the Scottish Premiership leaders host the champions – live on Sky Sports.
“Thankfully, it’s a long season. Hearts have started well, doing the basics of the game well. They’ve got a manager in Derek who knows his way around Scottish football and gets his teams well organised and well prepared.
“But there’s no challenging phases as we just need to be better within ourselves. Thankfully, last night we’ve seen that, and we can take that real positive mentality now into the game on the weekend.”
Celtic’s Cameron Carter-Vickers (L) could be out until March
Celtic have been dealt a major blow with news that Cameron Carter-Vickers will be out for “between three and five months” with an injury suffered in their European win.
“He looks like he’s done his Achilles, which can be anywhere between three and five months,” said Rodgers.
“We’re just awaiting confirmation of that, but it’s not great news. But we’ll see where that one goes.
“Cam’s been a very important member of the squad, of course, and he’s been a great centre-half for the club, but what I always think it does is it opens the door and gives an opportunity to someone else.
“That opportunity came to Liam Scales, and he’s been brilliant in my time here.”
