Celtic captain Callum McGregor spoke to the media after yesterday’s disappointing 2-1 (AET) defeat at Hampden against theRangers. It was Celtic’s first home defeat since losing to Livingston last September and brings to an end the Treble dream in Ange Postecoglou’s first season. The loss of Giorgos Giakoumakis was huge for Celtic yesterday, there is no doubt about that. The high press tactic that theRangers employed coupled by Madden’s reluctance to bring an end to their hacking down any Celtic player breaking the press were perhaps the to most significant factors.
The from three were ineffective and not even Kyogo coming on could change that. Matt O’Riley did make an impact and of course after Greg Taylor got his goal – and what a celebration that was – Cameron Carter Vickers was leaning back just a little too much and hit the bar rather than the back of the empty net and that was where the Treble chance was lost.
Losing both full-backs caused Celtic problems. Steven Welsh’s forward passing was very poor indeed and James Forrest was invisible – so adding to Kyogo’s underpass performance the impact from the bench we expected never materialised.
Sandman named Joe Hart as the Man of the Match and that tells you something about the rest of The Celtic team and how they failed to perform, perhaps with the exception of Callum McGregor, who faced the music afterwards. Here’s some of what he had to say on what was a hugely disappointing day at Hampden for the club, the players and the absolutely magnificent Celtic Support who were the ones who were Putting on a Show.
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“Both teams were going for it. There was not much in the game at all. It was fine margins. We have to accept that we did not do enough over the piece of the game. We have to accept that.” Asked about Celtic losing their way after theRangers scored, The Celtic captain responded. “Just experience from the group I think. Being in those situations and understanding how to handle it and stick to your beliefs and strick to the way you want to play. It is difficult and you have to respect that. We are a new group and we are always trying to get better and pushing to be better individually and as a collective and experiences like that will no doubt make us stronger.
“I think both teams played with a fear of losing the game as it was a big semi-final and you can understand that. You can understand the psychological aspect of that. That is why we have been so good as we have been really aggressive and got after teams and played our football.
“You probably put that down to the experience of the game and the experience of the group and we have to accept that we are not the finished article. We know that. We are always trying to push to be better and this is our first season and things like that will make us stronger moving forward.”
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Asked if theRangers performance was a surprise: “To be fair they looked strong and it did not really surprise me, to be honest as we have played two to three games a week for numerous years and sometimes when you are in the rhythm it is a little bit better with match sharpness and everything else so that didn’t surprise at all.
“They are obviously in a good moment and we did not play to our potential. Having said that we can still win the game 2-0. That is disappointing especially as we go 1-0 up and don’t see the game out and move on from there. Again this is a learning curve for the group of players and everyone at the club moving forward and these experiences will make us better.”
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And on that post-match Huddle that the Celtic captain called and the importance of re-enforcing the message: “Absolutely. We have had a great season so far and we are in a really positive position with five games to go it’s important we do not let one result affect the whole season as we have put ourselves in a really good position with a lot of hard work, sacrifice, dedication and a lot of good football and a lot of strength within the group.
“It is important that we don’t lose that and these types of games cup semi-finals are always on a knife-edge and can go either way.
“We are disappointed, that changing room is not a good place, but we have to put that out of our mind and we can still make it a very successful season for the club and ourselves as a group and that will help us grow. It is important that we don’t get too downbeat and let everything fall apart after one bad result.
“We will learn from it and we have to show what we are about next week and that becomes our biggest game of the season as we have to go there and win.”
