Celtic are through to the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup after an exciting 5-2 victory at home to Falkirk on Sunday afternoon.
The Bhoys were made to work for their win after John McGlynn’s side showed up with real belief to find themselves ahead in the match on two occasions.
Paulo Bernardo equalised at 1-1 in the first half before Adam Idah netted two goals in a minute after the interval to reverse a 2-1 deficit into a Celtic lead.
Substitute Nicolas Kuhn raced away from a high defensive line to brilliantly finish in a one-on-one situation, then banged in another from the edge of the box, to round off the scoring.
Falkirk gave Celtic as good a game as they’ve had all season which is to the Bairns’ credit. Ultimately, though, it was the home side who showed their quality to book their place at Hampden.
These are the big talking points coming out of the 90 minutes.
Adam Idah comes up big to show his Celtic worth
It has been a big week for Idah. After scoring his first goal of the season against Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League, he showed his true worth to the Bhoys today.
His price tag has put more expectation on his shoulders but he continues to demonstrate he is a viable rotation option to Kyogo Furuhashi.
The Japanese star offers more in his all-round game than Idah does, again apparent against Falkirk, but you’d always back the Irishman to net a goal – especially with the pressure on.
He relishes big moments in big games and with Celtic behind in a cup match with less than half an hour left, it was the striker who stepped up to lead the way to bang in a quickfire double. He has the right stuff about him.
Alex Valle makes his debut
The Barcelona loanee was given an opportunity to impress in place of Greg Taylor at left-back but, in truth, the 20-year-old struggled throughout his hour on the pitch before being substituted.
He did provide the headed assist for Bernardo to fire home but looked uncomfortable in his overall performance, both on and off the ball.
Falkirk winger Alfie Agyeman gave him a very difficult afternoon and the youngster couldn’t establish himself in the match.
It’s far too early to make firm assessments about his suitability for Celtic this season but it seems he still has a fair bit of work to do to get up to the levels that will be required.
He now knows what those levels are and hopefully he can rise to the challenge as a young, developing player.
All new signings need time to adapt and it’ll be interesting to see what he can do in a full-strength Celtic eleven.
With Luis Palma in front of him today, he didn’t have the kind of support that Daizen Maeda would have provided ordinarily on the left flank and that’s an important factor to consider.
The signs aren’t good for Luis Palma
Another given a big chance today was Luis Palma. The Honduran international started on the left wing but it’s fair to say fans won’t be clamouring for another starting appearance soon.
He couldn’t provide much inspiration in the final third and generally looked a good step below what others such as Daizen Maeda and Nicolas Kuhn can offer.
The form of his first couple of months at the club has disappeared and he has a proper mission to turn around the direction of his Celtic career now.
Palma has ability – it’s undoubted. We witnessed that in the Champions League last season. However, he just isn’t the right fit with the way Rodgers has his team functioning now.
Nicolas Kuhn is the real deal
Kuhn changed the game with his substitute impact. Celtic needed to be bailed out by the four who came on after an hour and it was the German who took that responsibility on his shoulders.
He was electric, pinning Falkirk in, providing pace and penetration that they just couldn’t cope with. His two goals and two assists were the leap in quality that Celtic needed to get the job done today.
The German now has five goals and six assists in eight appearances this season and he’s quickly becoming one of Rodgers’ most important performers. It’ll be exciting to see where he goes from here.
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