After beating Aberdeen on penalties last weekend, Celtic supporters can finally rest easy knowing that their team will play Rangers in the Scottish Cup final.
The Bhoys’ Nicolas Kuhn, James Forrest, and Matt O’Riley scored points, but Bojan Miovski, Ester Sokler, and Angus MacDonald made them fight for their return date at Hampden.
Penalties followed, and although though Joe Hart scared us earlier in the shootout by hitting the post from his spot-kick, he turned back time by sparing Killian Phillips’ attempt to seal a close win.
Veteran winger Forrest, 32, had a lively afternoon against the Dons, consistently open for the ball and willing to commit defenders.
Brendan Rodgers praised the 32-year-old for his “brilliant contribution” off the bench. “He was absolutely brilliant, he changed the game for us,” he said after the game. It was simply his demeanor and his character.
In the last third, we started to maintain the ball, and he scored. He is merely an experienced player in large games.
Adam Idah, Luis Palma, O’Riley, Paulo Bernardo, Alistair Johnston, and Tomoki Iwata deserve special recognition as well for their outstanding calm from 12 yards out while being under a lot of pressure.
We now go on, and the first of five crucial post-split games is coming Sunday against Dundee, which will be prepared for.
Canadian right-back Alistair Johnston discusses what he found “incredible” about the Celtic victory Johnston acknowledged that his anxiety was through the roof throughout the proceedings on Saturday, but he went on to praise his teammates’ “incredible” composure in getting over the finish line against Aberdeen.
The 25-year-old predicts that Celtic will soon forget their thrilling victory as they assess Scottish Premiership success in the upcoming weeks.
“Every attacking player at Celtic is always judged on if you can make things happen,” he said [quoted by The Daily Record]. You need to have an influence; the manager doesn’t need to tell you that. I’m happy I could pull that off.
Although we would have preferred to finish in 90 minutes, it might have added a little bit of character.
“It was amazing how the boys stood up to accept the penalties under duress. The worst it is always with you watching! We have five league games left, so we can put this behind us now. Afterwards, Johnston stated, “Getting through was the most important thing.” As we say it here at home, survive and progress. “You disregard it. We’ll be back here in four or five weeks with the opportunity to win a trophy because that’s the main focus at Celtic. We’re happy about it. It was one in which you kind of felt like the football gods were on your side. It was merely an absurd football game.
In recent months, some Celtic fans have adopted the motto “by any means necessary,” and the players embraced it at Hampden, going all out to defeat a determined Aberdeen team.
Although there were certain problems with our performance that needed to be carefully examined, the most important thing that day was that we succeeded in the end.
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