The season is finally over for Celtic defender Alistair Johnston, but not in the way he would have wanted it to end.
Many Celtic players are back in pre-season, but Johnston’s 57th and final game of the 2024/25 campaign ended with Canada suffering a shock quarter-final Gold Cup exit to Guatemala on Sunday evening.
Only 24 hours earlier, Luis Palma, who is out of favour at Celtic, helped Honduras reach the last four when they beat Panama on penalties.
Palma didn’t just put away his spot kick, but he stepped up first for his country, showcased his cool and dispatched a brilliant penalty.
The same can’t be said for Johnston, who might have had flashbacks of his penalty miss from Celtic’s Scottish Cup final loss to Aberdeen in May.
Canada suffer a shock Gold Cup exit to Guatemala
Jesse Marsch’s side were favourites before a ball was kicked, as Johnathan David opened the scoring after 30 minutes from the spot, but then Canada were down to ten men just before the break.
It put extra pressure on the Canadians, and they could no longer withstand the pressure, as Guatemala found an equaliser in the 69th minute, and then took the tie to penalties.
A total of seven men stepped up to take a penalty for Canada, with two of them missing, as Guatemala won 6-5 on penalties.
Johnston didn’t step up to take a penalty, which is rather interesting, and you wonder if he still had negative flashbacks from his miss for Celtic against Aberdeen at Hampden.
How Celtic’s Alistair Johnston rated for Canada
Remember, for large parts of the match, Johnston and his teammates were under the pump because of the man advantage for the opposition.
Despite that, Sofascore still provided Celtic’s starting right-back with a rating of 7.3 for the match; only two other players on the Canada side rated higher.
- Minutes played: 90
- Clearances: 6
- Total tackles: 5
- Ground duels won: 7/7
- Aerial duels won: 0/5
- Possession lost: 14
- Was fouled: 1
- Key passes: 1
- Long balls: 3/6
- Dribbles: 1
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