2017-10-21: Celtic 4-2 Hibernian, League Cup

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Trivia

• League Cup semi-final
• Played at Hampden
• Rodgers' side, who won the treble last season, have now gone 60 domestic matches without defeat.
• Hibs didn't sell 10k seats, so annoyingly they were left empty. Poor management when lots of Celts wanted the tickets.
• Unlikely hero of Lustig who grabbed a double. Dembele also grabbed a double.
• Main talking point was "Was it a penalty?" Hibs awarded a penalty but many believe it was wrongly awarded.
• Sevco lost 2-0 to Motherwell the next day, so Celtic will face Motherwell in the final.
• BT Sport came in for severe criticism during the week when a promotion for the Hibernian v Celtic and Rangers v Motherwell games was released, making it look like it was only Celtic and Rangers playing. Hibs hit back with their own humorous take on the ad as they sold tickets for the game. Handled not bad at the end.
• Celtic have been linked with an approach for forgotten Liverpool striker Danny Ings,
• The Celtic team that defeated Inter Milan 2-1 in the European Cup final in 1967 has been inducted into the Scottish Football Hall of Fame. Surprising it wasn’t done before, even on day 1.
• Broadcaster and writer Archie Macpherson's contribution to Scottish football was also marked at the event as he too was inducted. A genuinely well deserved honour.
• Sevco boss Pedro Caixinha has backed proposals to radically redraw football rules and have games played over two 30-minute halves with the clock only ticking when the ball is in play.

Review

"In the last year we've written history at this club in terms of a treble and going unbeaten. But let's keep rewriting history."
Brendan Rodgers

(bmh of KDS)
Job done – hibs lifted by a disgraceful decision from the ref

Stuck to it – subs did very well

Post CL defeat it was a great outcome

Eff rob McLean though – listening to such a bias commentary is shampooe

And my god – the negativity from so many on here during a match thread!

Players getting written off after 7 or 8 minutes

Panicking and moaning galore – is this what the success we are having brings ?

If you have an off day – no scratch that, a bad effin pass – you can get to?

Got very noticeable today

(tenenbaum of KDS)
Another semi-final, another potential game-changer goes against us. Forget a judicial review, we should hire a private detective to follow these cheating officials around 24/7 to see who exactly it is they're getting their instructions from. If this was a tight game like the league match, we could be out off the back of that.

Great to see Dembele back to his marauding best; should start the next match for me. McGregor should be keeping Ntcham out of the team indefinitely on the back of that performance. Rogic didn't quite have the same level of impact as in the last game, Stuart still struggling to find last season's form, but he's still a player you want to be able to call on. Gordon had a bit of a mare, he looks like a man in three minds every time he kicks the ball; Brendan needs to address it one way or the other.

Very good win, especially after the efforts midweek.

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Hibs 2 – 4 Celtic: 60 games unbeaten as Celtic reach final
Moussa Dembele of Celtic celebrates scoring against Hibs in the Betfred Cup semi-final at Hampden Park. Picture: Steve Welsh/Getty Images
Andrew Smith

Published: 14:08 Saturday 21 October 2017
http://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/teams/celtic/hibs-2-4-celtic-60-games-unbeaten-as-celtic-reach-final-1-4592894A second-half double by substitute Moussa Dembele gave Celtic a 4-2 win over Hibernian at Hampden Park and booked the Hoops’ place in the Betfred Cup final.
• READ MORE: Celtic rage at Hibs over 10,000 empty seats at Betfred Cup
Celtic had the gears, Hibernian had the gumption, and the game was gilded because the two elements were grafted together. An undulating, fascinating League Cup semi-final was made so because the Leith club refused to give up on it, despite a two-goal deficit at the interval. Ultimately, though, Brendan Rodgers’ treble-holders never really looked like they would fail to extend the club’s domestic unbeaten sequence to 60 games, and in the process reach a third straight domestic final.
The Celtic manager didn’t deny his men were physically on their uppers in having only returned to Scotland from their Champions League runaround at the hands of Bayern Munich little more than two days before taking to the Hampden turf.
Reinforcements, then, were required to take his side over the line. The arrivals from the bench of Moussa Dembele, James Forrest and, later,Tom Rogic proved instrumental in thwarting a second-half comeback from Neil Lennon’s side, who had Celtic wobbling after a controversial penalty converted by Anthony Stokes halved the advantage the Scottish champions had earned through a double from the unlikely source of Mikael Lustig.
The denouement was Dembele also delivering a double that signals his own personal comeback after only one goal in the previous six months following back-to-back hamstring injuries, to ensure, as Rodgers noted with a smile, that no-one will question his decision to go with practically the same side as were battered by Bayern – and only days before a hazardous assignment in Aberdeen.
“‘It was clear there was a bit of fatigue in our play but that was only natural,” the Celtic manager said. “All the players were tired. You have to manage it and we will be ready to go again in a couple of days’ time. When you have that it affects the technique but then you have that mentality and concentration. I tip my hat to the players because, as a lot of people would have thought, it could have been a real banana skin for us today. We dealt with that really well.
“I felt that the momentum of bringing fresh legs into the game was going to be quite important for us. They brought it, but of course you are never comfortable until you get that fourth goal in the last five or six minutes.”
Celtic looked entirely comfortable when Lustig struck after 15 minutes. John McGinn then scuffed a clearance straight to Armstrong on the left. He chipped a ball in that slid off head of Ambrose as he challenged with Dedryck Boyata, dropped to unmarked Swede at the back post. His effort was sclaffed but Ross Laidlaw could not get strong enough hand on it to keep it out.
The keeper was unfortunate then, but he was unforgivably lax to allow Lustig to double his tally just before the break, a 16-yard volley following an outswinging Leigh Griffiths cross bouncing beyond him when he seemed to have it covered at his left-hand post.
Lennon rolled the dice by turning to Martin Boyle and Steven Whittaker in the second period and as a result Hibs were able to force Celtic on to the back foot.
Boyle then removed certainty about the outcome when he drove into the box and went down as Boyata came diagonally across him to toe-poke the ball away but clashed with the forward in the process. Referee Kevin Clancy delayed a decision before being convinced by assistant Frank Connor to award the penalty that was despatched with assurance by Stokes.
“‘There are two poor decisions. One from the referee who is on his way back and then he is looking for help from the linesman who is facing it – how he gave the penalty I will never know. It gave Hibs a little bit of oxygen and made us really refocus on our game and the players pulled themselves back into it.”
They did so by making it 3-1 five minutes later through Dembele, who tucked the ball in from close range after a Scott Sinclair mis-hit fell to him. Another act was still to be played out, though.
Teenager Oli Shaw netted his first goal for Hibs, only a minute after being introduced, when he rounded off a sweeping move with a nerveless finish after a superbly-timed run to latch on to a smart Whittaker through ball. The need to push for a third by Hibs as the minutes ticked by created space for Celtic to pour forward. Following a miscued Laidlaw clearance, this allowed Rogic to produce a curling crossfield pass that Dembele shouted at the offside Sinclair to leave before striding towards goal and lashing the ball into the net.
“He has shown the quality that he has today,” said Rodgers of the 21-year-old he turned to after Griffiths had “run himself into the ground”. “Moussa is getting there game by game, day by day, and you know when he is up there he is a goal threat, his finishes were exceptional and he has that physical presence in and around the box.”

BBC

By Tom English

BBC Scotland

From the section Football 220

Moussa Dembele
French striker Moussa Dembele scored a double after coming on as a substitute at Hampden

Holders Celtic held off a second-half fightback from Hibernian at Hampden to reach the Scottish League Cup final.

Mikael Lustig twice took advantage of poor defending at the far post to sweep Celtic into a 2-0 lead at half-time.

Anthony Stokes pulled one back from the penalty spot, but Celtic substitute Moussa Dembele beat the offside trap to restore the two-goal lead.

Oliver Shaw finished off a sweeping move to make it 3-2, but Dembele raced clear late on to seal a final spot.

Let's keep rewriting history – Rodgers
Lennon laments sloppy defending

Celtic will meet Rangers or Motherwell in the final, with the two meeting in the other semi-final on Sunday.
Mikael Lustog scores
Mikael Lustig turned home the opening goal for Celtic after sloppy defending from Hibernian

Hibs got off to the kind of start that Neil Lennon would have imagined only in his nightmares. The confusion in his defence for Lustig's opener was a catastrophe, Stuart Armstrong dinking in a cross from the left which Dedryck Boyata flicked onwards to the back post.

Brandon Barker went to sleep in the moment, allowing Lustig in to put his shot past Ross Laidlaw in the Hibs goal. The bitter irony for Lennon was that his defence looked at ease before that goal and then again directly after. They did precious little in attack, Stokes being far too isolated up front, but nor were they being peppered with shots at the other end.

Celtic weren't close to their best, but even as an underpowered force they went two goals clear when another calamity befell Hibs at the back. This time it was a corner that did the damage. Leigh Griffiths put it in, David Gray lost Lustig and when his tame volley came at Laidlaw, the Hibs goalkeeper made a desperate hash of making what should have been a routine save.
Lustig celebrates
Defender Lustig was over the moon after netting his second of the day

Lennon made two changes at the break, Martin Boyle appearing for Marvin Bartley and Steven Whittaker coming on for Gray. Immediately, Hibs were better. Where before they posed no threat, now they were giving Celtic something to think about.

Vykintas Slivka should have scored after a terrific pass from Whittaker, but put it wide. That, though, was just the beginning for them. Just short of the hour they pulled a goal back from a penalty that should never have been given.

It was Celtic's turn to get messy at the back, Boyata getting ransacked in possession, a dispossession that sent Hibs on their way. Boyata thought he had redeemed himself when poking the ball away from the falling Boyle in the box. After consultation, referee Kevin Clancy pointed to the penalty spot.

There was a tumult among the Celtic support, but Stokes took no notice. He sent Craig Gordon the wrong way and put his team back in the semi-final.
Anthony Stokes scores a penalty for Hibs
Anthony Stokes gave Hibs hope from the penalty spot

The penalty was down the Hibs end, in front of thousands of empty seats, tickets that the club asked for but could not sell. The deserted section was an eyesore, an embarrassment for Hibs and for the SPFL. Celtic would have easily filled that area had they been afforded the opportunity.

Where before it was Lennon making a double substitution, now it was Brendan Rodgers' turn. On came James Forrest for the ineffective Patrick Roberts and in came Dembele for Griffiths. The Frenchman was on the field for just five minutes before he scored.

Again, it was a goal that would have had Lennon in a rage. Armstrong drove the ball into the box from the left, Forrest picked up on the far side and banged it in from the right to Scott Sinclair who scuffed a shot into Dembele's path. All alone a few yards out, Dembele scored comfortably.
Shaw scores
Oliver Shaw scored his first goal for Hibs to make it 3-2

That looked to be that, but Hibs came again. Whittaker picked up outside the box and slid a gorgeous pass in behind Nir Bitton, playing centre-half, to substitute Shaw. The 19-year-old's run was outstanding and his finish was just as good. Game on again.

Hibs pressed hard for the equaliser but that, of course, left them short at the back and Celtic fed off that. Laidlaw had to save from Forrest, then he made a fine block from Dembele. He was caught in the end, though. And it was Dembele who caught him.

More slack play in their own half opened the door to Celtic. When they came steaming downfield, Dembele curled a precise shot around the advancing Laidlaw for the fourth.

For Hibs, regret and pain. For Rodgers and Celtic a 60th consecutive game unbeaten in domestic football, another cup final and, perhaps most significantly, the return of an old metronome in Dembele.

The striker hadn't got going this season before this. It's safe to say, he has now.