Aaron Mooy is relishing his time at Celtic and the Socceroos World Cup star has certainly proved himself to be an outstanding signing for Ange Postecoglou who of course knew all about the qualities that the midfielder would bring to his Celtic project.
After a low-key beginning to his Celtic career Mooy slowly but surely made progress as his fitness levels improved. And in the matches ahead of the World Cup Mooy seemed to reach a new level playing in the Hoops and that set him up for an outstanding tournament in Qatar.
And like his teammate Daizen Maeda, the World Cup adventure saw Mooy return to Celtic in outstanding form and he’s now gone from a player coming off the bench to a first piece starter in the team.
The weather may have been awful at Hampden on Saturday and the pitch a national disgrace from the Scottish FA but none of that stopped Mooy oozing class throughout his time on the park.
The 2-0 win over Kilmarnock, who were denied a late penalty while the score was 1-0 but it really should have been 2-0 at that stage as VAR wrongly ruled out a goal for Reo Hatate. Derek McInnes might prefer to overlook that but Celtic were on the wrong end of the VAR shambles on Saturday, the difference this time was that the errors where shared out equally.
: Reo Hatate of Celtic celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal which was then judged to be off side by VAR during the Viaplay Cup Semi-final match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Hampden Park on January 14, 2023. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Mooy recognises the significance of Celtic reaching another final, his first as a Celtic player. “It’s important for our club to be in these finals,” the Celtic star said after the match, as reported by Glasgow Times. “That’s what is expected of us. We’re in another final and we’ve got something to look forward to but we just take it game by game.
“One of the reasons I came here is to compete for trophies. Celtic’s a massive club and they’ve got a massive history and they are always challenging so it’s a big plus for players looking at coming here.
“I’m really enjoying my football just now, it’s an amazing club to play for and I’m just trying to make the most of it.”