CELTIC have stood still, in the words Brendan Rodgers, but their march to what would be an astonishing triple Treble continues.

They utterly dominated Hearts in the second-half at a packed Murrayfield with substitutes Scott Sinclair and Ryan Christie the heroes of this League Cup semi-final.

Rodgers’s men may struggle in Europe but that's one final made and having found their league form at last it’s far from ludicrous to tip them for a third consecutive clean sweep.

Hearts were poor. For a side sitting top of the Premiership they strangely lacked belief in themselves. They didn’t seem to recover from Steven Naismith going off in the opening minutes. With 30,000 supporters watching, this was big opportunity and it was blown.

The first 34 minutes, that was how long we had to wait for a shot on target, had plenty of incident but neither side could get themselves going, albeit Celtic were the better side.

Hearts’ striker Steven McLean was booked within a minute for a clumsy clatter on Mikael Lustig as they challenged in the air. His arm did connect with the Celtic captain but you have seen much worse go unpunished.

Indeed, McLean got off with a more serious one not long afterwards when he appeared to deliberately grab, or at least touch with unwelcome force, the groin of Eboue Kouassi who collapsed to the ground as they were waiting for a Hearts corner to be taken.

Referee Willie Collum was having none of it. He let off quite a few fouls with a mere warning.

Between those incidents, Naismith, Hearts captain and talisman, limped off after only eight minutes with a knee problem. A blow for his club and Scotland. Danny Amankwaa replaced him. Hearts didn't recover from this setback.

Then Kouassi had to go off, he had been hobbling for a while, with Sinclair taking his place.

Nothing much happened until Olly Lee’s effort from outside the Celtic penalty box was never in danger of causing Scott Brain any real bother.

Celtic had plenty of pressure and possession but Hearts held up well, helped by some poor last passes and crosses.

With the half coming to end, Haring’s shot deflected past the Celtic goal, Oliver Bozanic's corner was headed on by Haring, the ball fell to McLean, inside the six-yard box, whose clever backheel fooled Bain.

The Hearts end rose as one but the joy wasn’t to last as the assistant quite rightly spotted McLean was offside.

Celtic ended the half well. Sinclair, who had been sharp, got a run at the Hearts defence, cut inside Michael Smith and lashed the ball with his right foot which brought of a fine save from Zdnek Zlamal.

Olivier Ntcham stayed in the Celtic dressing room at half-time with Christie coming into the midfield. Within seven minutes the holders were ahead, and the substitute played a big part as he was to do all half.

Christie had the ball at his feet a foot or so inside the Hearts box and was heading out of it when Bozanic clipped the back of his heels.

Collum pointed to the spot, Hearts had little to complain about and Sinclair sent Zlamal the wrong way.

So, what could Hearts do?

They should have started to close down Rogic who kept running down the middle unopposed. The Australian did just that before the hour, after Hearts coughed up possession in a good area, his pass to Odsonne Edouard was perfect, it set up the Frenchman for a shot from ten yards, but the covering Smith superbly not only snuffed out the chance, he also won a goal-kick for his team.

Hearts were offering little and deservedly went two behind on 66 minutes. It was a moment Zlamal will want to forget but never will.

Edouard laid off the ball to Christie at the edge of the box, his left foot effort took the slightest touch off Haring but the Hearts goalkeeper should have dealt with the shot in his sleep.

Instead, he fumbled under no pressure whatsoever, the ball actually crossed the line before the Pole attempted to save his blushes but James Forrest was on hand to make sure with the rebound.

Christie will be credited with the goal and then on 72 minutes enjoyed his best moment in a Celtic jersey. From 25 yards he curled the ball with pace and accuracy into the top corner to make it 3-0.

Zlamal actually made some decent saves later on as Celtic made Hearts work just to keep it at three. Celtic were queuing up in the end to score. Most Hearts fans had long since departed.