Celtic got there in the end, but not before the introduction of the big guns…
We will face Aberdeen in the semi-final of the Premier Sports League Cup after overcoming Falkirk, but only just.
Don’t let the scoreline – Celtic 5 Falkirk 2 – fool you as the Bairns gave us our toughest test of the season so far. We’ve played Kilmarnock, Hibs, St Mirren, Rangers, Hearts, and Slovan Bratislava this campaign, but John McGlynn’s side have provided us with our toughest challenge at Celtic Park, a fact that Brendan Rodgers himself agreed with, speaking after the exciting cup-tie.
Granted we started with a weakened side, but one that should have had no problems taking care of a Championship side. That however didn’t come to fruition, and after a dismal first half showing we headed in at the break staring down the barrel of a shock defeat as we went in 1-2 down.
It took the introduction of Greg Taylor, Nicolas Kuhn, Arne Engels and Yang to kickstart our comeback with German winger Kuhn being the main catalyst as he scored twice while providing two assists in an astonishing thirty minutes of quality football from the German winger.
Kuhn was absolutely outstanding and the fact he was awarded the Man of the Match award after only being on the park for half an hour tells its own story.
Adam Idah also proved his worth by scoring an all important brace as our quality told in the end. the 5-2 scoreline might have seemed pretty harsh on Falkirk, but the stats don’t lie and we were well worthy of our win on the day. Well done to Falkirk for showing some ambition and as things stand they should be looking at back to back promotions going up to the Scottish Premiership next season.
For some of the Celtic starters, they’ll less of an argument that they might be worthy of a start and while Brendan Rodgers was prepared to take the gamble today there are not going to be too many occasions like today. Every Celtic match this year is now crucial, whether in the Scottish Premiership, the Premier Sports League or the Champions League, and it’s going to be the strongest possible side with much less squad rotation that this afternoon.
It was a gamble worth taking for Brendan Rodgers and he knows more about his squad and where they are at after today.
Just an Ordinary Bhoy
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Wasn’t expecting ourselves to be as fluent with our play, with the amount of changes Rodgers made today?
Yet the lack of match sharpness was on show from so many also, within the first half especially?
The combination play in our wider areas, where quite concerned, and thankfully that all changed when kuhn nearly changed the course of the game single handed for ourselves?
Even could notice just how much Wednesday took out of Calmac and Hatate, as our midfield wasn’t functioning as well as we had become use to seeing?
But the great thing about games such as today, for all concerned, is you learn far more than a very easy victory?
For Rodgers himself, he will know far better for how he intends to deal with the 3 games in a week, with the intensity and tempo that suits ourselves best within matches nowadays, going forward now?
The value of our overall squad will be tested before January, but we still wouldn’t want to find ourselves having to deal with an injury crisis either imo?
Welsh sadly isn’t good enough and Palma never covered himself in glory.