After 120 minutes of football on Sunday afternoon, Celtic FC Women booked their place in their second cup final of the season after beating Hearts 2-0 in extra-time of the Scottish Cup semi-final, and captain, Kelly Clark shared just how much it means to her side after two goals in the second half ion extra time by Charlie Wellings booked Celtic’s place in the Women’s Scottish Cup Final.
The Celts will head to Tynecastle on Sunday 29 May to face Glasgow City in a repeat of December’s League Cup final, and the significance of the feat isn’t lost on Clark. Kelly said after the game:
“It feels amazing. The last one was an unbelievable occasion for us and there’s such a difference when it’s a final, it’s such a big event and we’re delighted to have got ourselves there.
“We’ve not had an easy run, we’ve obviously put out (the)Rangers, and fair play to Hearts today they were excellent and defended for their lives to make it really hard for us.
“The girls are very, very fit and we were relentless in our efforts to try and get the breakthrough and eventually we took our chance and you could see the relief that we scored right after it.”
Celtic boss Fran Alonso was also delighted with the victory, crediting both teams for their part in the semi in what he knew would be a tough tie. He told Celtic TV:
“We’ve said all week it wouldn’t be an easy game. The league positions don’t matter and the final is at their home ground so for them it would have meant the world to get there, so we knew it was going to be very tough.
“I thought we played quite well but in the final third I don’t think we had a very good day until the second half of extra time. We had clear opportunities in the first half but we didn’t take them.
IMAGO / Pro Sports Images. Charlie Wellings gives Celtic the lead late into extra time during the Biffa Scottish Womens Cup semi-final match between Celtic and Hearts at Falkirk Stadium, on 1 May 2022. Photo Colin Poultney PSI
“I have to give credit to Hearts – they defended outstandingly. They put bodies on the line, didn’t leave any space and worked very hard for each other.
‘But I have to give credit to our girls because they kept believing until the end and kept going and going. We didn’t panic or force it and kept playing our football and got our reward, that, I think despite the opposition being good, we deserve to be in that final.”
The Celtic support now have a tremendous opportunity to get along to Tynecastle for the 2021 Women’s Scottish Cup Final between Celtic and Glasgow City on Sunday 29 May and roar the Ghirls on to compete an historic cup double this season. Over 5500 supporters attended the League Cup Final at Firhill in early December and it’s fir to say that the vast majority were in green and white. Let’s beat that on 29 May and get as many Celtic fans inside Tynecastle as possible. More details in tickets etc when we get them.
Meanwhile here are the highlights from the AET 2-0 victory over Hearts in the semi-final on Sunday afternoon.
