Kudos to Celtic and Aberdeen for providing a vintage cup match at Hampden on Saturday. Even though you and I watch a lot of football, we rarely get to witness two teams competing from the opening to the very end.
Jimmy Thelin, the incoming manager of Aberdeen, must have wondered how a side that can play football for two hours straight can be ranked ninth in the Scottish Premiership. We’ll let him think about that one. When Cameron Carter-Vickers got caught directly in the play in the second minute, instead of shifting his body shape to follow Bojan Miovski, the game came to life. Aberdeen had an early lead despite Joe Hart getting a leg to the Macedonian’s shot.
Angus MacDonald, the central defender, ruminated on the ball, which incited Kyogo to charge and take possession of the ball. Due to Kyogo’s shoddy first forward touch, Gartenmann was able to get a leg in front of the striker and stop his shot while bearing down on goal. But Nicolas Kuhn was there to smash the ball into an unoccupied net. After an hour, Yang—who had trouble playing out of position on the left—was substituted by James Forrest. James marked his area with a drive inside and shot in three minutes. He then repeated the move and scored on his second try. Keeper Roos had little opportunity to stop because he was blind.
Normally, that would be the end of it, but Aberdeen had fought the entire way and weren’t going to give up without a fight. Junior Hoilett beat Hart in a goalmouth scramble, but Carter-Vickers stopped him on the line. At the ninetieth minute, the game reached its zenith. A 33-year-old international from Canada named Hoilett made the best move of the afternoon. He threw a cross that fell into the six-yard-box in front of the goal for Sokler to score, sandwiched between the goalkeeper and a deep Celtic defense line. Though this goal was excellent, Brendan Rodgers will undoubtedly question the other two Celtic goals that were lost.
During the first extra time period, Aberdeen appeared to falter. Even if Aberdeen interim manager Peter Leven chose to forgo making a substitution after Connor Barron sustained an injury five minutes before halftime in extra time. When the first session went into extra time, Matt O’Riley scored Celtic’s third goal and gave them a lead that most supporters believed would be insurmountable after Alistair Johnstone struck the bye-line.
Barron and Miovski, Aberdeen’s two greatest players, were out of the game as the second extra time session got underway, but they would not be defeated. Brendan Rodgers hooked James Forrest in the final minute of extra time to add Maik Nawrocki, another center defender. Aberdeen discovered a spot on the wing James Forrest had been working before the Pole settled in.
Nawrocki was positioned to the right of the central defensive trio, keeping an eye on the box, as Celtic deployed a five-man defense. That was unsuccessful. When the ball soared high, Nawrocki was caught in a no-man’s-land, unable to stop the cross even if we applied pressure to stop it low. MacDonald, Aberdeen’s temporary captain for the match, atoned for his error at the first Celtic goal to force a penalty kick. I had no idea Celtic had six skilled penalty takers. Iwata, Johnston, Palma, O’Riley, Bernardo, and Idah all scored with cold-blooded accuracy.
The first of three missed penalties came after the Aberdeen keeper went over on his ankle, which resulted in a long wait until teammate Ryan Duncan could attempt the penalty. It just so happens that we discussed the consequences on Thursday when a penalty taker is forced to postpone kicking. In the match against Real Madrid, it cost Bernardo Silva of Manchester City and came before Ryan Duncan’s kick against the crossbar.
Joe Hart witnessed the goal in the shootout by Real Madrid’s goalie Ederson while watching his old team play. He was probably more motivated to take Celtic’s fifth penalty after seeing Ederson on Wednesday than after weeks of diligent work showing he was one of our better takers. In these circumstances, confidence is crucial, but practice is more crucial. Joe used his smile as a coping method following his miss. As much as everyone else, he needed to show himself that he was still in charge. Although he may not be a skilled penalty taker, he is a seasoned professional.
Twelve of the fourteen penalties that were called upon found the back of the net. To stop Killian Phillips’ effort to send Celtic to the championship, Joe raised his arms. Sometimes, the instant the losing kick is made, supporters of the team will turn and walk away. Both sets of supporters stuck around on Saturday to give their teams credit for a performance that left the crowd as exhausted as the players. This is football from Scotland.
Due to his ability to dive like a nuclear submarine, Oldco had a forward known as “Polaris” forty years ago. I’m not sure if John MacDonald and the match officials had an unwritten agreement, but to his credit, MacDonald worked in an era before to video assistant replays. When VAR can examine your play, how completely foolish would you have to be to smash into the ground in the face of an open goal, hoping for a penalty instead? You wonder what information Silva has been given about Scottish life.
Wolves made Fabio an offer in January. Not only did his £50,000 weekly salary turn off everyone except the most credulous, but neither did his showmanship. Fabio’s aptitude led him to end up where he did.
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