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Celtic swat swarm of wasps

Discussion in 'TalkCeltic News' started by Callum McGregor, Sep 21, 2016.

By Callum McGregor on Sep 21, 2016 at 10:06 PM
  1. Callum McGregor The Captain Gold Member

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    Celts swat swarm of wasps

    Celtic through to League Cup semi-final after defeating Alloa Athletic 2-0

    [​IMG]

    Betfred League Cup quarter-final
    Celtic Park, Glasgow
    Wednesday, September 21, 2016

    CELTIC - 2
    (Forrest 83, Dembele 90)

    ALLOA - 0

    Sheer determination from a well disciplined Alloa side, made for a frustrating night for the Scottish champions. Playing 2 divisions below Celtic, many bets would have been placed on a large Celtic victory, especially considering how impressive Brendan Rodgers' side have been domestically.

    Celtic dominated possession all match, but were wasteful with their opportunities. 71% possession, 14 corners, 34 shots but only 11 on target for the Hoops showed that Celtic struggled to break through a resolute defence, while also being wasteful in the final third.

    Much like the weekend game in Inverness, Alloa's goalkeeper, aptly named Parry, deserved his man of the match award despite conceding two late goals.

    At the other end of the field, Craig Gordon was involved in a moment of controversy, with Ex-Celt turned pundit, Chris Sutton stating that Gordon was guilty of 'a kung fu kick' on Greig Spence. The pundits on TV stated that Gordon was lucky not to see a red card, with the referee deeming a yellow acceptable.

    With Gordon being dropped in favour of new signing De Vries recently, this was an opportunity to reclaim his number 1 spot, but mistakes like that won't help his cause.

    When the goals eventually came, Celtic's 1st came from a counter attack, beginning with a lovely cross field pass from Ryan Christie. James Forrest found the ball on the right flank, before cutting in, dribbling across the 18 yard box, dodging player after player, before shooting back on himself with his left foot, into the bottom left hand corner of the goalkeeper's net.

    The timing couldn't have been better, as there were a few nerves beginning to show inside Parkhead. Looking at the Alloa players in the aftermatch of the goal, they clearly felt it to be a sucker punch after their extraordinary efforts.

    Moussa Dembele got his 8th Celtic goal on the 90th minute of the match, adding a little bit of shine to Celtic's mostly wasteful performance. Dembele received the ball from Tierney, dragging the ball with his right foot, spinning the defender, then dribbling forward into the box, cutting to his right and smashing a powerful drive into the top corner of the net.

    Rodgers stated in his post match interview that he wasn't entirely happy with the Celtic performance, but it was job done and we now await our semi final opponents.


    CELTIC (4-3-3) Gordon; Lustig, Toure, Simunovic (Christie 70), Tierney; Armstrong, Brown, Rogic (Sviatchenko 85); Roberts (Sinclair 46), Dembele, Forrest

    Not Used: De Vries, Bitton, Gamboa, Henderson

    ALLOA (4-5-1) Parry; Taggart, Gordon, Graham, Waters; Cawley (Holmes 78) Goodwin (Longworth 84) Robertson, Kirkpatrick; Flannigan, Spence

    Not Used: McDowall, Wilson, Hoggan, Marr, Scullion​
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Sep 22, 2016