Celtic are through to the semi-final of the Scottish Cup, thanks to a late winner by Daizen Maeda then a very late dagger by Kyogo Furuhashi. But fans at the game and on social media were very concerned at the team’s performance and let me tell you it was rightfully so.
Celtic started off strong looking to go at Livingston early and had a few chances go begging, that was until Daizen Maeda made it 1-0 in the seventh minute after a brilliantly weighted ball over the top by Nicolas Kuhn had defenders sent to the shops. From there it was an easy finish for the Japanese winger. But not even five minutes later Stephen Welsh was nowhere to be seen as Livingstons left back Cristian Montano plays a long ball over the top to Daniel MacKay who found himself one on one with Joe Hart before going on to make it 1-1. Thus the first of the defensive errors begin.
The topic of the Celtic back line has been polarising this season with some fans holding out hope, but to those fans I’d say watch this game back. Welsh and Scales both looked nervous on the ball and very often gave it back to Hart or tried to play it forward and end up giving it away. Greg Taylor would press high up the pitch and get involved on the attack, but wouldn’t track back and would leave a big gap on the left. Alistair Johnston was the only redeeming quality as he put in a shift as usual.
In the 21st minute Maeda then put Celtic back in the lead with a rebound header off of a deflected Matt O’Riley shot much to the delight of the fans. From then unitl half time, Celtic were all over Livingston but were missing a lot of chances as Maeda looked to seal his hattrick but no luck.
From the start of first half Celtic were making chances and not taking them, I thought to myself, I hope we don’t regret not taking one of these chances. My fears were proven right when Livingston made it 2-2 as Iwata gave the ball away at the halfway line to Jamie Brandon who then gave it to Tete Yengi, who found himself getting the better of Matt O’Riley in the box before firing it into the top corner. Another occasion where Stephen Welsh was nowhere to be seen.
From then onward Celtic looked terrible while Livingston sat back. Kyogo and Daniel Kelly came on for Adam Idah and Paulo Bernardo who both didn’t impress me much. This spell of football was bordering on unwatchable, while we struggled to make chances in Livingstons half, Scales and Welsh struggled to get the ball out of our half. I thought to myself, we aren’t going to score here this is a disaster. Until the hero of the day Daizen Maeda decided he’d take matters into his own hands. If you count scoring a third tap in as taking matters into his own hands. As Alistair Johnston found Tomoki Iwata in the box who squared it to Maeda who didn’t have to do much to put Celtic ahead in the 85th, absolute scenes.
Kyogo then sealed the deal in the 95th minute as substitute James Forrest sent him in behind with barrels of space one on one with the keeper, and we know he isn’t going to miss.
Overall we’re through to the next round and that’s all that counts, but letting Livingston put two past us is a big worry. We need Calum McGregor back desperately as the midfield is a shell of its former self without him. With that I personally think we need to sign a new centre back and definitely a winger, but we’ve known about these problems for months now.
Overall, good win, bad performance this game highlighted everything wrong with the club right now.
