Somehow, Celtic bottled the chance to win a domestic Treble.
The Hoops led Aberdeen 1-0 in the Scottish Cup final with just under 10 minutes of normal play remaining and seemed destined to reach the finishing line on top.
But Aberdeen capitalised on Celtic’s lack of creativity to draw level and ultimately go all the way through extra-time and penalties to lift the trophy.
The Bhoys missed two penalties in the shootout and that was the difference in the end between two sides who were disappointing on the day.
Brendan Rodgers was closing in on being the first Celtic boss to win three domestic Trebles. But he told Premier Sports post-match that his side’s standards slipped.
Rodgers assesses Celtic’s Scottish Cup final defeat to Aberdeen
Rodgers looked stony-faced and crestfallen in front of the camera as Premier Sports commentator Rory Hamilton questioned the Northern Irishman after the loss.
In an honest assessment, Rodgers said: “Well, we were nowhere near our standards today. Firstly, congratulations to Aberdeen. We could have lost the game, we could have won the game, but unfortunately for us we did lose it.
“Yeah, I just think offensively in the game, we weren’t fast enough and dynamic enough, and sometimes that happens in cup finals.
“But especially in the first-half, we’ve played against back fives many times, and you need your runs and double runs, and you need those 1v1s and the ball to be moving quickly. We just didn’t do that well enough today.
“To win any trophy is difficult, and you have to earn it – we don’t have a God-given right. But it really shows the consistency and the mentality over the years what this group of players and club has done.
“Today is a reminder that we’ve earned all the trophies we’ve ever won, and today we didn’t earn it, so congratulations to Aberdeen. And that will provide us with a great motivation going into the summer and into next season.
“We’re unfortunate at the goal. We’ve got a good number of bodies in the box, but sadly it ended up in the back of the net.
“We still had a good opportunity late on with the 1v1 and the ‘keeper makes a good save. I just think over the course of the game, we didn’t create anywhere near to the level of what I would expect us to.”
Rodgers touches on summer transfer window
Hamilton then moved on to what’s next for Rodgers and Celtic, asking if the Hoops manager now knows what he needs to improve his squad after their Scottish Cup final display.
Rodgers replied: “I’ve got a really good idea of what we need. But as you say, it’s still been a Double-winning season for us, the players have been so good and have given absolutely everything.
“Today wasn’t our day and that’s sport. You can’t win everything and sometimes you get a shrug of the shoulder saying ‘it’s easy’, but it’s not easy and the standards of this club was set.
“It wasn’t our day and we know what it is we need to improve, and we’ll look to do that into the summer and renew the motivation and be ready to fight for all the trophies again next season.”
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