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In a time dominated by wind and rain and storm this and storm that, the sun came out at Hampden on Saturday and the men of Aberdeen and Celtic came out to play – and play and play.
This was a Scottish Cup semi-final that gave you palpitations, a thrill-fest, a mad ride on a football rollercoaster that carried on and on. Has there been a better cup game in this country? Possibly, but not many. Wherever this one resides, it unquestionably has a place in the pantheon of greats.
Celtic made it through but only after they fired stake after stake into an Aberdeen team that displayed monumental amounts of resilience. They were behind twice during the game and recovered. They were behind five times in the penalty shootout and kept coming back until those fateful final kicks.
How fitting that a cup tie that contained such character on both sides was won in the end by a man called Hart. The Celtic goalkeeper bounced back from his miss in the shootout to make the save from Killian Phillips that settled it almost three hours after it started.
At 1-0, Aberdeen looked big and strong and a serious danger to Celtic’s bid for a double. Trailing 2-1, they looked done and dusted. Then, from only the Lord knows where, they summoned their bench and found energy and belief and threat. Junior Hoilett had two terrific chances to level it, but couldn’t. Poor Aberdeen. Another narrow loss at Hampden.
But, lo, an equaliser and 2-2. An incredible twist. And then, lo again, a chance for Adam Idah to win it, only to be denied by a desperate, and brilliant, intervention by Jack MacKenzie. Into extra time we went and, quite frankly, if the players needed a breather then so, too, did everyone watching this absorbing craziness.
Where do you begin summarising it? There were pages upon pages of facts that told you that Celtic were winning this semi-final and the heavy possibility existed that they were winning it with ease.
It had been 24 games since the Dons had beaten Celtic. From both teams, only Callum McGregor was in the starting line-up then and now. Andrew Considine scored the winner, which tells you something about how long ago it was.
Since then it’s 57-15 to Celtic. From 1-0 to 6-0 and every nil in between, Celtic have dominated Aberdeen and the expectation here was for more of the same. Sure, it was a 1-1 draw the last they met back in February – but February had been a toil for Celtic with that draw against the Dons and another with Kilmarnock and two late, late wins against Motherwell and Hibs.
Brendan Rodgers’ team were in a much better place now. And Aberdeen? Improving after the pantomime of Neil Warnock’s time, but not really functioning as a threatening force.
Bojan Miovski, the pedigree North Macedonia striker, had one goal in 11 coming into this semi-final. One of Warnock’s extraordinary accomplishments was to turn a terrific goalscorer into a barren space. The striker has been trying to rebuild himself in recent weeks and, as Cameron Carter-Vickers and Liam Scales would probably testify, he’s getting there.
It was Miovski who got Hampden buzzing, Third minute, beautiful ball from Leighton Clarkson in behind Carter-Vickers and a goal. It was his 24th of the season and his fifth against the combined might of the Glasgow Two.
Unless the football scouts of European football have morphed into Mr Magoo, Miovski will depart Pittodrie in the summer. It’ll take a hell of a fee, you suspect. He’s 24, an international player and a class act. And, here, he lit up this semi-final for a spell.
In that opening half, Celtic were not themselves. Pressed to distraction. Inaccurate in their passing. Struggling. They needed the helping hand – or tangled feet – of Angus MacDonald to get them level.
It was a calamity for the captain, ransacked, as he was, by Kyogo and then punished by Nicolas Kuhn. Celtic settled and exerted control. James Forrest, the picture of eternal youth, came off the bench in the 62nd minute and came close to scoring in the 63rd, then did score a blink of an eye later.
Forrest fires light up Celtic
Forrest has been the most extraordinary Celtic player, a guy who came into the team as a teenager in May 2010 and who has never wanted to play for anybody else.
When he scored the kind of goal he’s been scoring for his club for 15 seasons in a row, the urge was to reach for the record books to find out what kind of history the winger is potentially looking at this season, if his strike turned out to be the winner.
It was his 106th for Celtic. Until the Dons came back from near-death, it looked like it had set up a bid for a 23rd trophy, which would put him on a par, in sheer numbers, with Billy McNeill and only a couple behind Bobby Lennox.
Forrest’s first team-mates on that goalscoring debut against Motherwell were Morten Rasmussen and Edson Braafheid, Zheng Zhi and Marc-Antoine Fortune. How many players has he seen come and go at Celtic Park? Think of all the legions of wingers the club has signed in those years, all those supposedly bright young things who arrived to take his place. How many times has it been said that his time was up, that he was too slow, too beaten up by injury?
He’s still there, still contributing. Rodgers’ first spell was huge for Forrest, the player being nurtured and revived by the new manager to the point that Forrest played his very best stuff in those seasons.
Before the manager’s return, Forrest once again looked dispensable and once again he’s been reinvented. Used sparingly, for sure, but still capable of enormous moments. There’d be another in this semi-final soon enough.
Before it came, though, there was mayhem. There was the jaw-dropper that was the Aberdeen equaliser, then the Idah shot and the MacKenzie block that had Hampden in awe of what was going on down there.
Into extra time and the blows kept on being traded. Having scored the equaliser, Ester Sokler should could have made it 3-2. Minutes later, Forrest, having scored from the left was now a creative force on the right.
Forrest to Alistair Johnston to Matt O’Rliey and 3-2. Done, surely? Only minutes to go. No, of course not. The Dons got up off the canvas again, had loud claims for a penalty turned down and carried on with a force that Celtic couldn’t contain.
A villain of before and now the hero – MacDonald nutted in to make it 3-3 and confirm this as one of the greatest Scottish Cup ties of them all. Penalties now. More tremors. More thrills. A goalkeeper with cramp, another goalkeeper given an opportunity to win it – and missing.
And then Hart. ‘Super Joe’ the Celtic fans chanted. It was amazing they had the energy left in their bodies. This was an exhausting, exhilarating classic, nothing less.
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