Stevie Hammell has revealed his belief that the second Celtic goal, scored by Liel Abada, was the turning point of the quarter-final. Hammell, who succeeded Graham Alexander in September, believes that this goal deflated his Motherwell side, who had created chances in the first half.
Celtic soundly defeated Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final, putting four past them with no response. This means the Hoops will advance to the semi-finals to face Kilmarnock. Strikes from Hatate, Kygo and a double from Liel Abada gave the Bhoys a well-deserved victory in Fir Park this evening. Motherwell simply couldn’t compete with the high standard of football Celtic were displaying under the management of Ange Postecolou.
The Motherwell gaffer believes Liel Abada’s strike in the 56th minute was the turning point of the match, which killed the belief in his team and made defeat almost certain. As reported by Daily Record, Hammel said…
“The second goal takes the life out of us, it takes the life out of the stadium, it deflated us a little bit, lifts them, lets them make some changes and be a little bit more free in their play. The second goal is the disappointing one. It’s a good goal from their point of view, but from our point of view it’s absolutely avoidable.”
“We understand their threats, and we know where they are in terms of how quick and sharp they are in and around the box, but we can stop that at source, especially the time of the game. It doesn’t really matter what kind of style you’re playing, what your approach is or the formation that you’re playing – the scenarios we found ourselves in we should be dealing with it better.”
“It’s disappointing. We came here to do well and the way it played out it’s still a little bit fresh but we’re massively disappointed. I thought for large parts of the first half we did OK, we were in the game, we were strong, and wanted to get after them. We’ve come up against a very good team, there’s no getting away from that, it’s a team that’s on a certain level that we can’t compete with.”
“But we wanted to make this game as competitive as we could and I think we did for a large part of the first half. As everyone knows that’s associated with football that time, and the time we lose the goal, which was avoidable and probably consistent with the other goals we ended up losing as well.”
“Losing games is a concern. We came up against a good team in a good moment, they’re playing well, you almost need to be perfect to come away from here with anything. We’re disappointed with the way it has played out.”
Celtic will take on Kilmarnock in the semi-final at Hampden on the weekend of 14th/15th in January. It was a great result for Ange and his players as he continued with his rotation as he and the squad look to navigate a testing period, which takes us to Tynecastle on Saturday.
The turning point. The bloody kick off at the start was the turning point.