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2009-03-15: Celtic 2-0 Rangers, League Cup (CIS Cup Final)
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Celtic 2-0 Rangers AET
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Trivia
-
Nil Nil at full-time, so extra time and Celtic score twice.
- Walter Smith's first Rangers v Celtic cup final!
- O'Dea's first goal for Celtic for two years (an unlikely hero).
- Both goals scored by Rep of Ireland players, two days before St Patrick's Day.
- McGeady wins us a penalty in the last minute of Extra Time to seal the victory.
- Loovens had a cracking game!! Not something said before.
- Celtic's first win over Rangers in a Cupf final for twenty years.
- Bright sunny day, Hampden in the sun!
Review
Amazingly the first Celtic v Rangers Cup final that Walter Smith has been involved in as manager of the Huns! Also WGS' first also come to think of it.With Celtic out of the Scottish Cup and the League as close as can get (3pts ahead only of the Huns), this is supposedly meant to have been our effort to ensure the Huns can't do a Treble! For them, a chance to get a psychological boost in their efforts to stop us winning the league. In all honestly it's window dressing, and the league is far separate for all. Regardless, any match against the Huns must be won and this is for a trophy.
Almost full-strength squads for both with no excuses, a bright sunny day (first this year) and we're all off to Hampden on the Sunday before "St Patrick's Day". First surprise of the day is that WGS has bamboozled us again with team selection including the unpopular inclusion of Loovens in defence and moving Caldwell to midfield. Nice one! Baffled Celtic fans as miffed with the manager as they have been through much of the last quater of the season so far.
Before the game, credit to the Hampden staff for putting up a good display at the final. Was wonderful to watch.
Anyhow, match itself is covered more fully in the match reports below, and low and behold we are winners again! Our first victory over the Huns in a cup final in twenty years! Great stuff. Looked as if this would go all the way to penalties at the end of the 90mins, both sides impotent in front of goals, but Naka swung round a great corner kick for O'Dea to get his head at the end and become an unlikely match winner. His first goal for two years and a crackign way to celebrate St Patrick's Day (sort of).
In truth, we should have had this wrapped up in the 90mins, albeit Rangers did have their chances, and again we are making things hard for ourselves. The 4-5-1 was changed to 4-4-2 with Samaras on after we squandered much of our advantages during the game. Biggest surprise was the form of Glenn Loovens! Written off by 99% before the start of this game, he was excellent and was unfortunate not to get a goal which was cleared off the line by the Huns.
Hinkel was another deserving credit, although in the first half Kyle Lafferty had the measure of him but things were different in the second half. McGeady, Naka & Brown played some great football with some nice touches. A joy to watch. Tireless running saw McGeady finally bagging the goal he deserved, albeit from the penalty spot after Kirk Broadfoot brought him down in the final minute of extra-time.
However, shooting was appalling and for all our good work we had few shots on goal. Samaras was woeful and squandered some gilt edged chances. The league is most important, and peformances in front of goal like this are going to lose us the league.
At the end of it all, we stopped the Huns treble chances, we picked up our morale and way outsung the curiously quiet Huns! Two Rep of Ireland players scoring the goals on St Patrick's day made it a great little Hampden in the Sun. All the Huns had streamed out of the stadium before the end of the Extra Time. It was great.
Onto the league now.
Teams
Celtic (4-5-1, until Samaras was brought on then 4-4-2):
Boruc,
Hinkel, Loovens, McManus, O'Dea (Wilson 105),
Caldwell, Nakamura, Scott Brown, Hartley (Samaras 72), McGeady,
McDonald, Samaras (Vennegoor of Hesselink 120).
Subs Not Used:- Mark Brown, Crosas.
Booked: Hinkel, O'Dea, McGeady, Boruc.
Goals: O'Dea 91, McGeady 120 pen
Rangers:-
McGregor, Whittaker, Weir, Broadfoot, Papac, Davis, McCulloch (Dailly 82), Ferguson, Mendes, Miller (Novo 58), Lafferty (Boyd 76).
Subs Not Used:- Alexander, Edu.
Sent Off:- Broadfoot (120).
Booked:- Novo, Weir, McCulloch.
Att: 51,193
Ref: D McDonald
Articles
Pictures
KStreet
Stats
Celtic v RangersPossession
| 53% | 47% |
| 9 | 6 |
| 11 | 9 |
| 8 | 2 |
| 8 | 27 |
Quotes
"One or two 'voices of football' - I've been told - said that we played 4-5-1. That was terrific to work out because I never worked that out. You must be better geniuses than me. I must be really ordinary because I sent out a 4-4-2. If you saw something else then that was fantastic. I was wasting my time getting my badges - I should have just joined a radio station."WGS after the League Cup Final in an interview (Apr 09)
16 March 2009
Provided by: The TimesCeltic 2 O'Dea 91, McGeady 120 (pen)
Rangers 0 After extra-time; 0-0 at 90min
Referee D McDonald. Attendance 51,193
Celtic won this brutal, sometimes engrossing slog of a Co-operative Insurance Cup final at Hampden Park yesterday, and it was one of those unarguable occasions when the better team won. Gordon Strachan's side were far more creative and dangerous than a cautious Rangers, to the point where it would have been galling for the Celtic legions inside this stadium had their rivals speared them at the death.
As it transpired, Celtic failed to convert four or five good chances inside the regulation 90 minutes, yet ironically required just two of the added 30 minutes of extra-time to pave the way to victory through a Darren O'Dea header. The eventual 2-0 outcome was harsh on Rangers, but only in terms of the Ibrox men's sheer guts and effort. Open, attacking desires Rangers did not have.
On a shambles of a newly-laid Hampden pitch, with players stumbling and sliding over every square yard of it, Rangers were made to pay for their cautious approach. Walter Smith's game plan was to go with Kenny Miller as a lone striker but for too long it left his side bereft of attacking instincts. Rangers changed their strategy as the match wore on, introducing both Nacho Novo and Kris Boyd and playing a more attacking 4-4-2, but they were to suffer for their earlier dourness.
Rangers had no one to match the squirrelling, unrelenting pest that was Aiden McGeady. The Ireland winger gave Celtic endless energy and ideas, popping up here, there and everywhere to taunt and sometimes humiliate Rangers. There still remains something unfinished about McGeady's game, but on days like these his oldfashioned tanner ba' skills are a joy for his team-mates and a thorough nightmare for opponents.
In this context, this final reached an apt climax after 118 minutes of sapping football, when McGeady, once more running at Rangers with the ball, scampered past Kirk Broadfoot and into the Rangers area only for the big, clomping defender to trip him. Given his performance, there was only one man to take that penalty for Celtic, and after Broadfoot had received his red card and headed for the tunnel, McGeady calmly pinged the ball past Allan McGregor for Celtic's second goal..
It was a strange final in the sense that both teams went with lightweight — not to say midget-like — strike forces. Celtic, suffering their current dearth of strikers' goals, played McGeady off Scott McDonald in attack, while Rangers played Miller through the middle, with Kyle Lafferty some distance away on the left flank. Given that, in Scottish football, the ball spends quite a bit of time in the air, both attacks were left helpless when it came to an aerial threat.
For too long in the game it just didn't work for Rangers, and Smith will surely have questioned his game plan of going with Miller alone and isolated, with Lafferty a pained onlooker.
It was a strange strategy that often left both Miller and Lafferty looking frustrated, and only seemed to feed into Celtic's hands.
Smith had his own reasons for going 4-1-4-1 and leaving Kris Boyd on the bench until the 75th minute, and the Rangers manager has won plenty of football games in the past with formations that others questioned.
Yesterday, however, the system made Rangers impotent for more than an hour. For fully 42 minutes, until Lafferty threw in a shot that Artur Boruc palmed away, Smith's side looked abject while Celtic created three or four decent chances.
Rangers did eventually change things as the second half wore on, first bringing Novo into the fray after 58 minutes, and then Boyd. And the upshot of these changes was simple and clear: they gave Rangers, now playing 4-4-2, an aggressive edge they had previously lacked.
Strachan had said that, in terms of his fallow strikers, he couldn't "hang around waiting for something to happen... you have to try to make it happen." In this context Strachan was true to his word, dropping both Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras to his bench, and playing an eyebrow-raising team, with Glenn Loovens in defence, Gary Caldwell in midfield, and McGeady off McDonald in attack.
Celtic certainly lacked height and physique in attack, but at least they had mobility, and the plan served them well. They took this game to Rangers throughout and thoroughly deserved their win. And McGeady caused all four of Rangers' big defenders quite a toll of anxiety.
Celtic should have taken the lead before they did through O'Dea.
McGeady had already set up McDonald, who volleyed over, and then, from the same creator, Scott Brown volleyed over McGregor's bar from 14 yards. Loovens then headed over from Shunsuke Nakamura's high, looping free kick, by which point, just before half-time, Celtic were looking thoroughly dominant. When Brown then crashed a shot a foot over Mc- Gregor's bar, it left a distinct impression that Celtic's game plan was proving more effective than that of Rangers.
The most acutely dangerous play Rangers enjoyed after an hour of football came from a bizarre piece of theatrics in his own goalmouth from Boruc. Taking Stephen McManus's back-pass on the bobbly pitch right in front of his goal, the Celtic goalkeeper attempted a Johan Cruyff-style flick between his ankles, only to slip on the surface and invite Lafferty to lunge in.
Boruc eventually bashed the ball clear, but might easily have conceded a goal. With the game threatening to drift into an agonising penalty shoot-out, O'Dea broke the deadlock two minutes into the extra period. The defender got ahead of Boyd to head Nakamura's free kick past McGregor.
Then, with the game in its deaththroes and the Celtic fans in full song, McGeady once more ran at Rangers — this time, at Broadfoot — and won the penalty. The little winger swept home his side's second goal with aplomb from the spot.. "Smith had no one to match the squirrelling, unrelenting pest that was Aiden McGeady
(c) 2009 Times Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved
The Times
McGeady magic puts him back in good books Strachan hails Celtic winger as past is forgotten
16 March 2009
Provided by: The ScotsmanTHREE months ago, Aiden McGeady appeared destined to leave Celtic in ignominy after his insubordination towards Gordon Strachan had seen him fined and suspended for two weeks by the Celtic manager.Yesterday saw the Republic of Ireland international winger complete his rehabilitation in the eyes of Strachan with his contribution to Celtic's 2-0 extra-time defeat of Rangers at Hampden in the Co-operative Insurance Cup final.
McGeady put the seal on a hugely satisfying afternoon for Strachan when he won and then converted the 120th minute penalty kick which secured the sixth trophy win of his manager's tenure.
It remains doubtful the pair's relationship will ever be any better than lukewarm, but Strachan was more than happy to give credit where he felt it was due yesterday. He praised McGeady's part in the triumph, initially as an auxiliary striker behind lone front man Scott McDonald and then in his more accustomed wide position in the latter stages of the contest.
"Aiden got it right today," said Strachan. "He played in two different roles. He played as a striker in the first half and then he went wide, because we knew he still had plenty of energy left in him. That's what he has got, fantastic energy. He did well, because it wasn't really a running pitch as such. You could see it wasn't conducive to running, but he got it right today."
Strachan was even more fulsome in his praise of a less likely hero for Celtic, Republic of Ireland under-21 international central defender Darren O'Dea, who filled in at left-back and headed home the opening goal in the first minute of extra-time.
The 22-year-old had been agitating for temporary leave from Celtic earlier this season as he grew frustrated by his lack of first-team opportunities at the club, but Strachan's refusal to let him go was spectacularly vindicated for both parties yesterday.
"I couldn't be more pleased for Darren," said Strachan. "If anyone deserves something like this, it is him. He has had disappointments this season. He wanted to go out on loan in January, just to become a better player and come back to us as a better player. But I felt we were going to need him between then and the end of the season.
"He was disappointed by that decision, but he didn't let his disappointment affect himself or the rest of the squad. It is great when you see young men getting the rewards like that. Both of the guys who scored today have come through the club's academy, which is good for us."
Strachan caused no little surprise with his team selection and tactical approach yesterday, opting to leave both of his recently misfiring strikers, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras, on the substitutes' bench.
"I think most things I do in Scotland raise a lot of eyebrows," added Strachan. "I knew very early in the week how we were going to play. You have to make decisions as a manager and sometimes you make good ones.
"Sometimes you make bad ones, but it worked out alright today.
"I could have gone with Jan up front and I'm sure we would still have won. I could also have gone with Sammy and could have gone with Marc Crosas in midfield. But we explained to them what we were going to try and do and they were good about it. They didn't let their disappointment affect the squad in any way.
"Forget tactics, it is all about players. I heard all that on Saturday with Manchester United and Liverpool. They both play the same tactics every week, but good players win on the day."
Strachan identified O'Dea's goal, heading in a Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick, as the signature moment of Celtic's victory but admitted he was concerned when his team missed several opportunities to increase their lead before McGeady's late clincher.
"The free-kick made the difference," he said. "The delivery of it (by Nakamura) and the bravery (of O'Dea) made the difference. The first goal makes a big difference in these games.
"I liked our composure after we scored the first goal. We didn't panic when there was a bit of pressure on us.
"We made more chances after that because we were composed. But from the first chance we didn't take after that, though, I was thinking 'here we go'. I thought both sides were up for it. There was a great spirit out there from both teams.
"The result and performance today don't tell me anything I didn't know before. I don't think it makes any difference. All it gives you, as manager of Celtic or Rangers, is a couple of days leeway when you are able to stick your head above the parapet."
(c) 2009
The Scotsman
Celtic grind their way to glory
16 March 2009
Provided by: The Irish ExaminerTRY telling Darren O’Dea that the Scottish League Cup is worthless. The Dubliner set aside months of frustration at Celtic to inspire the Bhoys to deserved extra-time triumph at Hampden yesterday and dash Rangers’ hopes of a clean sweep of domestic trophies.
After 90 tense but mediocre minutes had failed to produce a goal, O’Dea, who had not scored since Celtic beat Livingston in February 2007, leapt to head a Shunsuke Nakamura free-kick past Allan McGregor in the first of the additional 30 minutes.
Then, in the dying seconds, Rangers defender Kirk Broadfoot was red-carded by referee Dougie McDonald for denying McGeady a clear goalscoring opportunity and the Republic of Ireland international scored from the spot.
There was little between the sides in normal time but Celtic’s superior fitness paid off and they must take a psychological boost in their bid for their fourth Premier League title in succession, a race in which Celtic lead Rangers by three points.
The extra time eventually brought some drama to an indifferent match but there was plenty to talk about before a ball was kicked.
Celtic manager Gordon Strachan surprisingly dropped both his off-form strikers Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Georgios Samaras, leaving McGeady to partner Scott McDonald.
Rangers defender Madjid Bougherra failed to recover from a calf injury, leaving Broadfoot to partner David Weir at the heart of the defence with Lee McCulloch protecting just in front.
Kris Boyd, who had patched up his very public rift with manager Walter Smith which had seen him sent home form training, started on the bench.
Stripped bare of the tribalism which poured down from the packed stands, the first half was little more than mediocre.
The tactical and personnel changes seemed to unsettle both sides and the newly-laid Hampden pitch, which began cutting up from the first whistle, did little to help the flow.
In the 25th minute, with the game slowly suffocating, Hoops’ bustling midfielder Scott Brown came close when he sent a shot from 25 yards whistling over the bar.
Four minutes later Celtic stopper Glenn Loovens rose highest in a packed six-yard box to meet a deep Nakamura free-kick but directed his header just wide of the far post, seconds before the on-rushing Brown knocked a McGeady cross over the bar.
There was more heat than light generated but two minutes from the break, Celtic goalkeeper Artur Boruc was called into action for the first time and he pulled off a terrific save from Kyle Lafferty’s volley, after the Northern Irishman had easily held off Hoops defender Andreas Hinkel.
The second half was marginally more eventful, although ultimately just as frustrating. McGregor made a fine save from a Nakamura free-kick before O’Dea headed over the Japan international’s subsequent corner.
The Hoops came even closer in the 71st minute when, following a Paul Hartley corner from the left, Loovens stabbed the ball in at the far post only to see Pedro Mendes clear off the line.
Extra time came as no surprise but it took little more than a minute for the breakthrough to come through the unlikely figure of O’Dea.
After Whittaker was adjudged to have fouled McDonald just outside the Rangers box Nakamura’s curled free-kick was met by the Dubliner, who headed high past the helpless McGregor.
Rangers were clearly rattled and McDonald and Samaras both missed good chances to finish the game before Brown drove over again from the edge of the box.
The extra-time interval did little to revitalise Rangers, and in the third minute of added time, after Broadfoot conceded the penalty with a trip on McGeady to earn a red card, the Celtic midfielder sent McGregor the wrong way with a perfect spot kick.
CELTIC (4-4-2): Boruc, Hinkel, Loovens, McManus, O’Dea (Wilson 105), Caldwell, Nakamura, Scott Brown, Hartley (Samaras 72), McGeady, McDonald, Samaras (Vennegoor of Hesselink 120).
Subs Not Used: Mark Brown, Crosas.
RANGERS (4-4-2): McGregor, Whittaker, Weir, Broadfoot, Papac, Davis, McCulloch (Dailly 82), Ferguson, Mendes, Miller (Novo 58), Lafferty (Boyd 76).
Subs Not Used: Alexander, Edu.
REFEREE: Douglas McDonald.
© Irish Examiner, 2009. Thomas Crosbie Media, TCH
The Irish Examiner
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