Sky Sports Cup
Friday, January 19, 2024
Excelsior Stadium, Airdrie

CELTIC… 2
(Craig 55pen, 89pen)

RANGERS… 3
(Hill 68, MacLean 80, Hardy 90+5pen)

Celtic FC Women suffered late heartache in the semi-final of the Sky Sports Cup, conceding a last-gasp penalty to lose 3-2 to rivals Rangers.

After taking the lead through a Chloe Craig penalty, the Hoops were pegged back and found themselves behind heading into the final 10 minutes of match.

However, another spot-kick from Craig pulled Celtic level, potentially taking the match to extra-time before the visitors were given a penalty of their own in the fifth minute of additional time, which was duly converted to knock the Hoops out of the competition.

It was new Head Coach Elena Sadiku’s first match of charge of the Ghirls, taking her place in the dugout for Friday evening’s match.

The Swede was looking to implement her ideas straight from the off, and it took some time for the Hoops to settle into the match.

In the opening stages of the match, Rangers had the better of the openings with several decent opportunities to grab the first goal of the evening, but they squandered those chances.

Despite that, it was the Celts who had arguably one of the biggest openings of the first half as the ball fell into the path of Celya Barclais inside the penalty area.

The defender looked to find the bottom corner with her finish, but was unlucky to drag the ball wide of the target.

After the break, Sadiku’s side looked to settle more into the match and ultimately found their way to goal first.

Chloe Craig was given the chance to open the scoring just before the hour mark after Katherine Hill was judged to have handled Paula Partido’s powerful strike, and the Celtic defender made no mistake from 12 yards to give Celtic a 1-0 lead.

However, it was the away side who scored the next two goals of the match as Hill and Kirsty MacLean turned a one-goal deficit into a 2-1 lead.

With the match going into the closing stages, the Celts pulled themselves back on level terms in dramatic fashion with just one minute of regular time remaining.

Chloe Craig was on hand once more to calmly slot the ball into the bottom corner of the net, scoring her 100th goal for the club.

There was to be one more twist in the match, though, when Rangers were awarded a penalty of their own, and Rio Hardy scored from the spot to hand the visitors the win.

It was a disappointing way to lose out on her first gamebut, there will be plenty for Elena Sadiku to take from the match as the Celts look to bounce back against Glasgow City next weekend.

CELTIC: Daugherty, Barclais, Ross (Agnew 64), Craig, Gallacher, Shen, Cavanagh (Goldie 84), Clark, Hayes, Partido (Smith 84), Menglu (Ashworth-Clifford 64).
Subs: Logan, Cummings, Burchill, Sharkey, McAneny

Late cup heartache for the Hoops as they lose derby clash