Celtic Women booked their place in the final of the Scottish Cup thanks to Natasha Flint’s first half strike against Glasgow City in a pulsating match at Hampden Park.
The English forward, on loan from Leicester, showed great awareness to race on to a long ball from Caitlin Hayes before cooly slotting past Gibson in the City goal. It was Flint’s third goal in two games against City having bagged a double last weekend in the league.
Having got their noses in front after a cagey opening, Celtic settled into the game and pressed for a second goal that would give them some breathing space. City, on the other hand, were doing their best to gain a foothold on the game as they sought to pull level.
Celtic had the ball in the net again shortly before the interval, however Amy Gallacher was adjudged to be in an offside position before striking past Gibson. At the other end, Tajonar was called into action at the death making a fine stop to ensure Celtic in ahead at the break.
Celts dig deep
The second half was a largely scrappy affair with neither side able to keep possession for long spells and truly put their opposition under real danger.
The normally effective Jacynta was having one of her quieter afternoons as the City defence shut down most Celtic attacks before they could come to much. While the Celtic backline was equally effective at keeping City at bay.
There was a bizarre few minutes when Celtic played on with 10 players on the park as substitute Kit Loferski was unable to enter the pitch. Fran Alonso eventually had enough of the situation and subbed Loferski off before she had even made it on to the pitch with Shen returning Celtic to their full complement of 11 players.
As the clock ticked on, City became more restless in their pursuit of an equaliser and the traffic was directed towards Tajonar’s goal. The Celtic defence, led by Kelly Clark, remained strong, repelling everything that came their way.
In the closing minutes Celtic’s Mexican keeper made a fantastic 1-on-1 save from Lisa Forrest who was clean through on goal.
Natalie Ross then saw red for Celtic following a second bookable offence but it all came too late for Glasgow City as Celtic held on to book their place in the final against Rangers.
Celts set for exciting season finale
Having not lost a domestic game all season, City has now lost three in the space of a week, seen their 8-point lead in the league reduced to 2, and been knocked out of the Scottish Cup.
Conversely Celtic have put themselves back in a position where the destiny of both the league and Scottish Cup is firmly within their own hands.
Fran won a cup double last season, League and Scottish Cup double this season is not out of the question.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.