A brilliant injury-time goal by Tom Rogic gave Celtic a 2-1 win over Aberdeen, and a domestic treble, after a thrilling and breathless game at Hampden 5.15pm BST And I reckon that’s a good place to leave it – especially with the English final starting soon. We’ve seen a brilliant, breathless final here. It was ultimately won by the superior team but, again, we must give credit to Aberdeen. They were the better side in the first half, definitely, and if they’d made the most of that break in the 53rd minute by Hayes and McLean the second could have turned out rather differently. But Celtic started to purr after that, created chance after chance, and made it count in wonderful style. Let’s hope for a game this good at Wembley now.You can follow that one with Scott Murray here: Related: Arsenal v Chelsea: 2017 FA Cup final – live! Related: Celtic strike at the last to beat Aberdeen in Scottish Cup final and win treble 5.11pm BST Brown hoists the cup aloft! The green and white end roars. The treble is rubber-stamped. It’s an historic moment. 5.10pm BST Celtic are still absolutely high on this. Hugs, smiles, giddiness. They’d cranked the pressure up and up there, expertly turning the screw, and timing the killer blow to perfection. Scott Brown will shortly receive the Scottish Cup as a reward. 5.04pm BST Aberdeen were toe-to-toe for an hour or so there, but ultimately Celtic were – and are – just too good. 47 domestic games unbeaten. Whatever you think of the level they play at, Rodgers has done a wonderful job and they deserve the credit they get. 5.03pm BST Rogic: “I’m lost for words. I don’t know what to say. It happened so quick, I’m just over the moon.”He’s then engulfed by Griffiths jumping all over him. 5.01pm BST It’s fair to say, too, that our correspondent Alan Clark (see half-time) got what he wanted! 5.01pm BST They deserved it in the end, but boy they left it late. Rodgers celebrates. McInnes and Aberdeen look desolate. What a wonderful final that was, though – and what a piece of genius that won it! 4.59pm BST 90+4 min: Aberdeen come back and do have a half-chance, Taylor winning a header in the box that just can’t quite find a team-mate and ends up with Gordon. That must be it now . 4.58pm BST It’s superb from Rogic! He’s helped, no doubt, by the fact that Aberdeen are out on their feet but he has so much to do when he picks the ball up, 40 yards out, wide on the right. He motors forward, beats one man, enters the box, holds off and then beats another . and then, with only Lewis between him and the net, and the angle tightening, he slips the ball under him and in! What a solo effort, and there’s absolute pandemonium here! Aberdeen just couldn’t take any more of this! 4.57pm BST They’ve won it!! 4.56pm BST 90+1 min: Into three minutes of stoppage time and Celtic win a corner through the indefatigable Griffiths. Lewis punches it away, but it had already curled out of play. Has that done enough to force extra time? 4.54pm BST 89 min: Celtic just keep on coming; Aberdeen just keep on blocking. They have not been able to get out for a long, long time . and might at last be made to pay when Hayes gives the ball away and the misfiring Sinclair, from a tight angle but still close to goal, ends up blazing off target. 4.51pm BST 87 min: A period like this in the game was inevitable, I think. Aberdeen – effectively down to 10 now as Hayes can barely move and they need to replace him – need to hold on and regroup for extra time. 4.50pm BST 85 min: The latest excellent chance for Celtic sees Lustig get it all wrong when running unattended onto a Griffiths free-kick and he completely misses his free header. It glances off the side of his head and behind him! 4.48pm BST 83 min: And now it’s Roberts, found by the slaloming McGregor, whose effort is repelled desperately by a diving Aberdeen body, flinging itself into the rain and the muck. A goal seems a matter of time . but we’ve seen more than enough not to write off Aberdeen here. 4.47pm BST 82 min: Now Griffiths pulls a shot not far wide of the near post. There have hardly been any dull moments in this match – seriously. 4.46pm BST 81 min: Roberts and Rogic both have shots blocked in the area. Aberdeen are under pressure now like no point previously. Not sure they can withstand another 13 minutes or so of this. 4.45pm BST 80 min: Oh, Sinclair has to score there – but Lewis rescues Aberdeen again. Sinclair is onside and completely alone when a cross finds him at the far post, but doesn’t quite make the right contact and Lewis, spreading himself and making himself big, makes the block. 4.42pm BST 77 min: Big hand there from Lewis as Griffiths, clear on the right of the area, drills low and right-footed. On his left that might have been in. Lewis has kept Aberdeen in this; he got down brilliantly there. 4.41pm BST 76 min: What’s admirable about Aberdeen here is that, while this half has really been Celtic’s, they always spring forward and keep them honest with a threat of their own just as they seem on the verge of being overwhelmed. It’s a dangerous game but they are refusing to sit in and take what comes. It might yet win this for them. 4.40pm BST 75 min: That’s the end of McGinn, both for this game and for his time at Aberdeen. He’s replaced by Anthony O’Connor. 4.39pm BST 74 min: Aberdeen have men over on the right and Rooney has space to surge into . but doesn’t quite have the pace or the touch to convert it into a clear chance and McGregor gets a vital block in. McGinn has a corner though – it’s defended by Lustig but picked up by Shinnie, who fizzes one along the wet turf and Gordon does well to get down and turn it around the post. Another flag kick then comes to nought. 4.36pm BST 71 min: Taylor does superbly to head a cross from Roberts, who had reached the byline, away from the poised Sinclair. From Griffiths’ corner, Boyata does the hard bit by timing his run to perfectly but, six yards out, puts a completely free header over the top! And the replay confirms exactly what a good chance that was. You just can’t take your eyes off this. 4.35pm BST 70 min: Simunovic bundles Hayes, who was going nowhere, out on the right. It’s a good position. It’s also pouring with rain now. McGinn’s near-post delivery is met sharply by McLean but he can’t get it anywhere near the target. 4.33pm BST 68 min: Considine leaps superbly onto a Logan free-kick at the back post but his header across goal can’t find a team-mate. Aberdeen come again and Hayes shoots high from 25 yards. This is such a good game. I know I keep saying it but it’s a proper final and the next goal will feel pretty momentous. 4.31pm BST 66 min: Lewis picked up a knock in not really dealing with the corner, but is fine and will now take the goal kick. Aberdeen could probably use the pause. 4.30pm BST 65 min: Roberts hits the post! He gets the ball on the right corner of the box, jinks in, checks out, darts back inside again, and whips in a 20-yarder that Lewis fingertips onto the outside of the upright! From the corner, Lewis can’t claim and Lustig shoots a foot wide. But he’d already saved his team there. Celtic are getting stronger as this one goes on. 4.28pm BST 63 min: Lewis has to beat away an effort from the lively Armstrong, whom Logan had let jink inside. Quite similar to those two Gordon stops in the first half. 4.27pm BST 63 min: Aberdeen now bring Rooney on for Stockley. This is interesting – they pose very different threats, and Rooney is obviously far more of a goalscorer. Has Stockley worked the Celtic defence into a tiredness that Rooney might exploit? 4.26pm BST 61 min: Very blatant tug from Taylor in the centre circle – on Rogic I think – and he gets the first booking of a very feisty game. 4.24pm BST 59 min: And Roberts, quiet to date, is the latest to prove that point, dragging wide from a decent position after beating Taylor far too easily. 4.23pm BST 58 min: Wasn’t sure the game could keep its intensity up but this, with Celtic’s threat ratcheted up a few notches now too, is superb stuff. 4.22pm BST 57 min: Simon McMahon is here at last – “Entertaining game for the neutral so far, let’s hope for a few more goals second half. Lot of talk up here about Celtic doing the treble and going through an entire domestic season unbeaten. Even the Lisbon Lions couldn’t achieve that 50 years ago. Dundee United were the only Scottish team to beat them that season. In fact they did it twice, 3-2 both times. And they beat Barcelona home and away too. Celtic’s scorer Armstrong happens to be a former Dundee United player.” 4.21pm BST 55 min: Straight after all that Celtic win a free-kick 20 yards out and Griffiths’ blast deflects off the wall, sends Lewis the wrong way, but floats wide! 4.20pm BST 53 min: And now what a chance for Aberdeen! There is NO time to pause for breath here! McGregor carelessly gives the ball away and Hayes is free down the right. Completely free! He has McLean unmarked, free, clear, right in front of goal – and lays the ball off for him. But it’s a combination of two things that scuppers the chance: the ball is just behind McLean, and McLean has gone a little bit too early. The timing is just off. He can’t adjust himself to finish, and the ball squirms away. They should have scored. 4.18pm BST 52 min: Lewis saves Aberdeen! Rogic, with sublime vision, dinks one over for Sinclair, who is going a bit away from goal. He takes it away from Lewis initially but the goalkeeper recovers to block at he tries to squeeze the ball home? 4.17pm BST 51 min: Then Jack goes first-time with his left foot and Considine, ghosting in at the back post, almost arrives in time to divert it home. We have picked up where we left off here! 4.16pm BST 50 min: Griffiths is a lot closer now! Sinclair springs him away down the right channel, he cuts inside, readies himself to curl one into the corner, sees Taylor deflect his shot and it spins just wide of the far post. Breaths were held on all sides of the stadium there. 4.14pm BST 49 min: Griffiths gets another set-piece chance out on the right and it’s a good, teasing delivery but Simonovic can’t get onto it and it drifts out. 4.13pm BST 48 min: The early minutes of this period have been played in Celtic’s half. A couple of bright Aberdeen attacks and a threatening ball from McLean just in front of an offside Hayes. 4.11pm BST 47 min: Tony Hill opines that “Stockley should have been off. Linesman is looking right at it from 5 yards.” It was certainly nowhere near the ball. 4.10pm BST They couldn’t . could they? 4.10pm BST The teams are coming back out. This game will finish fairly late. But who cares? If it’s as good as the first half, the second will be compulsive viewing. Whatever happens, Celtic have Been In A Game – but Aberdeen will feel they can win this now . 4.01pm BST From Alan Clark: “G’day from Mt Helen in regional Victoria where it’s pissing down so hard I’m worried I might lose the beIN satellite signal. What a cracker of a start, no cagey football on display here. I’m keeping a watch-out for Tommy Rogic’s introduction from the bench where his silky close-control skills will come in handy.”You got your wish with Rogic, Alan. Celtic will need something from him, at this rate. 3.57pm BST Phew! However you judge your cup finals, that was one heck of a half. And, despite that late let-off from Sinclair, Aberdeen definitely edged it. They have defended resolutely, rarely allowing any rhythm from Celtic, but have thrown men forward too and the excellent Hayes has been a constant threat. They’ve forced Gordon into a few saves and looked absolutely, unstintingly committed in every aspect of their game. Can they maintain this? And will they regret conceding straight after scoring? We know Celtic can hit you from anywhere, as they showed us right at the end there. It’s going to be fascinating to find out, either way . 3.55pm BST 45+5 min: Big, big chance for Sinclair! Griffiths receives the ball on the left after a patient passing move around the box, whips in the tastiest of deliveries and arriving onto it like a freight train on the six-yard line is Sinclair. He is under some pressure and makes what some might call *too* good a connection. He crashes the ball over on the volley and at speed – but really had to score from there! 3.52pm BST 45+2 min: Considine plays a sublime ball down the line to Hayes, the cross is deflected and Stockley, on the corner of the six-yard box, so nearly gets time to shoot and almost certainly score. But Boyata is in brilliantly to challenge and concede a corner, which ultimately brings nothing. More fine, high-tempo attacking from Aberdeen though. 3.50pm BST 45+1 min: Hayes wins Aberdeen’s latest corner off McGregor. It’s a nice delivery from McGinn and McLean thuds onto it – but heads over. Decent position there, and he’d outmuscled Brown in getting there. 3.49pm BST 45 min: Yep, five minutes extra . 3.48pm BST 45 min: Griffiths take it, makes a fine purchase, and that’s not actually too far clear of the post-bar angle. Good effort. 3.48pm BST 44 min: And now Shinnie is overenthusiastic again, fouling Armstrong once more but in a far more dangerous area – it’s central, it’s direct, it’s 25 yards out . 3.47pm BST 43 min: Shinnie tries his luck with a shove on Armstrong and then makes off with the ball, but Madden doesn’t really seem to be having those anymore. 3.46pm BST 42 min: Griffiths peels out to the left and tries to jab in a fizzing cross towards Armstrong, but it’s into the arms of Lewis. The clock is ticking down but remember this half will go on for a while yet, as the Tierney stoppage lasted a good four or five minutes. 3.44pm BST 41 min: A little more authority from Celtic at the moment but, even so, Aberdeen just aren’t giving them any time to make sure with their passes in the attacking third. They are around them and in their faces so quickly. Can they keep this up? 3.42pm BST 39 min: It’s headed out by McLean, the ball out sliced well wide by Armstrong. 3.42pm BST 38 min: The thing for Aberdeen is that in these periods of pressure and domination they probably need to score. Celtic can hit you at any conceivable moment and they’re not going to be kept under the cosh for all that long, we know that. They win a corner as I type . 3.40pm BST 36 min: Logan absolutely destroys Boyata down that problem right side but his centre finds nobody . although it does end up with McLean 20 yards out. He curls well wide. This is so good from a dominant Aberdeen at the moment. 3.39pm BST This is a terrific game.Our man at Hampden is right, you know. 3.38pm BST 33 min: Aberdeen load the box for the free-kick, Taylor rises high at the back stick but Simunovic averts danger with the concession of another corner. From which Gordon has to save once again! This time Stockley gets up, eight yards out, and heads firmly towards goal. It’s quite central but it’s still too hot for Gordon to handle and he blocks it with his body before the ball is scrambled away. 3.36pm BST 32 min: Griffiths, the scamp, stands in front of Lewis as he attempts a drop-kick. The ball clips him, play is called back and he is suitably admonished. Up the other end and Lustig clips Hayes out on the left . 3.35pm BST 31 min: Now Aberdeen win a corner on the left, which Hayes takes. There’s a foul in there though and Celtic win a free-kick as soon as the corner is taken. Aberdeen, whisper it, have been the better side so far and have responded well to the equaliser. 3.34pm BST 30 min: Two saves from Craig Gordon! First McGinn cuts in from the left and the Celtic ‘keeper dives to parry . then Aberdeen keep the ball alive and Shinnie’s hard work gives Jack a chance to unleash an even more threatening effort, which is parried again! 3.31pm BST 28 min: This might give further encouragement to the excellent Hayes, whose highly accomplished left-back opponent has now departed. I wonder if a few of those Aberdeen challenges might start being penalised now, on the other hand. 3.30pm BST 26 min: Tierney can’t continue. Looks like a hefty blow to the mouth and that’s curtailed his afternoon. Rogic will replace him, and presumably go into midfield with McGregor taking a more defensive role – but we’ll see. Tierney goes off and he’s angry, pointing at Stockley as he departs . 3.28pm BST 25 min: Rodgers isn’t happy with some of these Aberdeen challenges – they are certainly leaving their bodies in there today – and is making his point to the officials while Tierney continues to get medical attention. 3.27pm BST 24 min: Tierney, meanwhile, has been receiving treatment after catching a flailing arm from Stockley. He’s still down. I think there’s some bleeding around the mouth. We await clarity on what’s up. 3.25pm BST 22 min: A no-nonsense shove from Reynolds on Griffiths down by the left touchline should really bring a Celtic free-kick but Madden lets it go. It would have been fine in the 1950s. It does, though, symbolise how Aberdeen have gone about things here. They look intense and “at it”. 3.24pm BST 20 min: This time a player – Shinnie – does run beyond Simunovic but the Aberdeen man, latching onto a fairly straightforward Considine ball down the left, has a tight angle and blasts into the side netting. Might he have centred? 3.22pm BST 18 min: First significant spell of prolonged Celtic possession now. They haven’t really been able to control things to their liking yet – but getting back on terms so quickly may well have been crucial. 3.20pm BST 16 min: And again it’s Hayes, getting into the area past both Brown and Sinclair, but he can’t find Jack with his cutback. Then Tierney fluffs a centre from a good area at the other end on the counter. Rattling good final here. 3.18pm BST 15 min: Hayes, now darting down the left, almost gets behind Simunovic but the defender does well. The early pace of this game hasn’t let up yet. Nor has the noise. 3.16pm BST We really do have a final! Celtic go straight down the other end and, with Madden playing a neat advantage 25 yards out, the ball ends up with Armstrong just to the left of centre. He brings the ball a couple of yards forward and then laces a low, crisp effort low to Lewis’s left. What a response from Celtic, and a measure for you of the the kind of team they are. That’s silenced Aberdeen, about whom we’ll find out plenty now too. 3.15pm BST Now then! Hayes wins a corner, combining well with Stockley down the right and confirming his status as the game’s biggest early threat. McGinn outswings it, and it seems to have gone beyond everybody . but no! Hayes, running from beyond the edge of the area and catching Griffiths completely asleep, times his dash perfectly and connects equally well, volleying into the net! It’s a super goal and now we have a final! 3.12pm BST 8 min: . which is swung in by Griffiths, headed away by Taylor, then chested down and volleyed over – further over than the dive of Joe Lewis really suggested – by McGregor. 3.11pm BST 7 min: First viewing of Scott Sinclair and he squeezes past Taylor superbly, gets to the line and wins a corner . 3.09pm BST 5 min: Griffiths charges centre-back Ash Taylor and concedes a free-kick. High tempo here but no real chances yet. Aberdeen pressing high and enthusiastically. 3.07pm BST 3 min: Some bright play between Roberts – his last game for Celtic? – and McGregor in the Aberdeen half but a ball through for Armstrong runs behind the goal. 3.06pm BST 1 min: Aberdeen show first, Hayes getting into space down the right after a lovely McLean flick. He drives to the byline and his cross is only half-cleared, Shinnie then trying to make space on the edge of the area before his shot is blocked. Nice start from the team in red through. 3.04pm BST What a roar! Celtic, kicking right to left, do the honours. 3.02pm BST Your referee, by the way, is Bobby Madden. And again, it’s a really belting, old-fashioned atmosphere out there. It will fall silent now, though, as we remember those who were killed in Manchester on Monday night. 2.59pm BST The Aberdeen fans have a huge red and white tifo reading ‘STAND FREE’. There is pyro. There is smoke. You can tell they’re up for this! 2.58pm BST The teams are in the tunnel. Handshakes between the managers. Cracking atmosphere out there. Will Celtic do this? Can Aberdeen? Out they come . 2.55pm BST Matt Loten with a point that I must admit bugs me too: “Though I don’t watch a lot of Scottish football, I worry that Jayden Stockley starting up front for Aberdeen says it all. He was on loan at Portsmouth last season, and whilst he did a decent enough job, he looked relatively average in League Two. The gulf in quality from Rangers down is crazy.” 2.47pm BST Other threats for Aberdeen today – and the men expected to supply Stockley – will be Niall McGinn (edit: this is his final game for them! His contract is up) and the assist machine Jonny Hayes. They can cause Celtic problems. But I’m keen to know what *you* think might swing things today. 2.44pm BST I hadn’t seen Kris Commons, still a Celtic player of course, perform the art of punditry before: wasn’t sure about all the suit stuff but apart from that he’s seemed reasonably interesting and articulate. Is he on often? 2.38pm BST Steven Hughes writes in: “Derek McInnes said that he made a mistake in leaving St. Johnstone for Bristol City. I rather liked him at City, at least for a while, as we scored loads of goals while conceding lots of goals as well. It was Keegan-esque fun. Once he started to bend to the fans’ requests for an actual defence, we couldn’t score to save our lives and it all became a mess. Never listen to the fans, is the lesson. Once people wanted him gone, there was a good T-shirt doing the rounds, though: the classic black shirt with the red lines but “RUN DMc” instead of ‘RUN DMC’.” 2.33pm BST Derek McInnes speaks on his own big striker selection – picking Jayden Stockley ahead of top scorer Adam Rooney:“I thought Jayden helped play a part in making the game go our way at Pittodrie (in the league game Celtic won 3-1 last month). It’s always difficult leaving out Adam but we thought Jayden’s size, and that aerial threat (would help us). He gets the nod based on that but we’re hoping he can give a goalscoring threat today.” 2.25pm BST Brendan Rodgers on picking Leigh Griffiths over Moussa Dembele: “Very straightforward, Moussa’s been out for a while, Leigh’s been playing very well, and Moussa is short of match practice.”That was the stand-out issue on the teamsheet, but remember Dembele injured his hamstring in the very one-sided semi-final win over Rangers and is only just on the way back now. 2.21pm BST Aberdeen, as I said, haven’t won the cup final since 1990 and they haven’t even reached this stage since 2000. That day they lost 4-0 to Rangers.A very idle thought that has occurred to me on and off since the original Rangers meltdown: why, with one of the two big guns out of the game for a few years, did someone not use that chance to invest some serious money in getting one of the other key players up to a level where they can challenge seriously? Wouldn’t that have been an open goal? Imagine a big, strong Aberdeen competing for a place in the European Cup again. The history is there, the latent fanbase is there, it’s a very distinct city in Scotland – couldn’t someone have stirred them into filling that Rangers-shaped hole as something more than best-of-the-rest? Scottish football is, I know, not exactly a moneyspinner and these are very ill-refined musings, but does anyone know where I’m coming from? 2.09pm BST Celtic: Gordon, Lustig, Boyata, Simunovic, Tierney, Brown, Armstrong, Roberts, McGregor, Sinclair, Griffiths. Subs: De Vries, Bitton, Dembele, Gamboa, Rogic, Sviatchenko, Forrest.Aberdeen: Lewis, Logan, Taylor, Reynolds, Considine, Jack, Shinnie, Hayes, McLean, McGinn, Stockley. Subs: Alexander, Rooney, O’Connor, Pawlett, Wright, Ross, Storey. 2.05pm BST A bit of early consternation in the Sky studio – well from Kris Commons anyway – about the Aberdeen players doing their pre-match walkaround in tracksuits rather than actual suits. Avoids any risks of pitfalls such as Liverpool ‘96, at least. 1.55pm BST A cup final between the teams that finished first and second in the Scottish Premier League, you say? This should be tight!And perhaps it will be, but you’re probably quite aware that Celtic finished exactly 30 (THIRTY) points ahead of Aberdeen over the piece so there is only one hot favourite here. Brendan Rodgers and co seek to wrap up their treble here against a team they have already beaten five times this season, with an aggregate score of 12-2 – with one of those occasions a 3-0 win at Hampden in the League Cup final last November. Celtic have not lost in 46 domestic games. So it’s pretty much a done deal . isn’t it? 12.14pm BST Nick will be along shortly. Meanwhile, why not check out Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers’ pre-match appraisal of Derek McInnes, his Aberdeen counterpart, who has been linked with the vacant manager’s job at Sunderland: “I saw that [link] during the week and I think he is absolutely perfect for it,” said Rodgers. “It’s a big club that has had a change and now needs someone who can go in there and who can organise, someone who has been at a big club and Derek has been at big clubs.“He has been down in England and had a difficult time so he gets that and he has done a great job with Aberdeen, which is a big job. Continue readingreadfullarticle
