Aberdeen 3—3 Celtic (win on penalties after extra-time)

Aberdeen 3—3 Celtic (win on penalties after extra-time)

Aberdeen win the moral victory, but Celtic get to the Scottish Cup final after penalties. Bojan Miovski has a good scoring record against Celtic. He was at it again today. Two minutes in and he’s in behind the defence and scored. Game on.

We’d 88 minutes to retrieve the match. Yang missed an early chance, when he really should have scored with a back post header. He’d an awful match.

I’m not sure Kuhn on the other wing is much better. He did grab the equaliser. Kyogo had robbed Angus MacDonald just outside the Don’s box. His shot was blocked and Kuhn simply slid it into an empty net. We’d another seventy minutes to grab a winner.

Just after the hour mark a real winger came on. I used to slate James Forrest. Lately, (as in before the Old Firm game) I wanted him to start. Here’s the reason why. He came on, drifted in off the wing and bent a shot into the bottom corner of the net. He’d another few chances were he was unlucky. He did more in his cameo that our two other so-called wingers, before bizarrely getting taking off in extra-time of extra-time for  Maik Nawrocki to shore up an increasingly unreliable defence.

But his substitution had the opposite effect. Liam Scales has been on the slide recently. He wasn’t as awful as Yang, but most of the Aberdeen goals came down his side. Scales was also lucky to get away with a hand ball. Replays suggest it might have been outside the box, but it was marginal, on a day when everything Scales did seemed laboured.  

Not as lucky as Carter-Vickers, who looked to have given away a stonewall penalty. He clearly kicked Hoilett. Both luck and VAR came to Celtic’s rescue again. Carter-Vickers has had a great press and pundits are telling us how good he is. Not today. He did make a few blocks but Mivoski got the better of him for the first goal and, generally, got the better of him and Scales.

Aberdeen’s late and even later goals were identical. Substitute, Ester Sokler, headed in at the back post from a cross from fellow substitute Junior Hoilett on the 90th minute.

Sandwiched by a coolly taken Matt O’Riley strike high into the net in extra-time.

Junior Hoilett flung another cross into the back post where Scales et al were found wanting, and the Aberdeen captain, who’d gifted Celtic an equaliser in the opening minutes, scored on 120nd minute to make amends.

Penalties. We all know what happened next. Hart the hero and the villain. Hitting the post with a spot kick, but saving that crucial one that took us to the final.

My man of the match was James Forrest, which says it all. I think we’re fated to win the league but not the cup. I hope we win both, of course. Rangers implosion has been wonderful but there’s still work to be done. The joy of a cup final, but poor in defence, poor in midfield and missing lots of scoring opportunities doesn’t make good reading, but does make a good game for the neutral. I’m never that. Move onto the next game. Dundee away. Play like this and we’ll win nothing.

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