In the high-stakes theatre of a Glasgow derby penalty shootout, Viljami Sinisalo didn’t just help Celtic to victory; he found his inner Emi Martinez.
As the pressure reached a breaking point at Ibrox, the Celtic goalkeeper channelled the dark arts made famous by his former Aston Villa mentor, turning the penalty spot into a psychological battlefield.
It wasn’t just about piling more pressure on the Rangers players – it was the calculated goading of the opposing hitters.
Two Rangers players missed their spot-kicks, including captain James Tavernier smacking the crossbar, whilst Sinisalo was inches away from saving the other two, as he tried everything to put them off.
Either way, Sinisalo played a crucial part in Celtic beating Rangers 4-2 on penalties and securing their ticket to the Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden.
You can pick any Celtic player from history to take a penalty to win a game…
Who do you pick and why?
Viljami Sinisalo channels his inner Emi Martinez as Celtic beat Rangers on penalties
Sometimes it just isn’t about saving the spot-kick, but forcing the opposition to do something different, or in the case of Djeidi Gassama, firing the ball out of Glasgow.
In case you missed it, when the Rangers players were stepping up to take their penalties, Sinisalo was leaning forward and throwing verbals at them before they could take a breath and try to score.
That’s exactly the methods Martinez has used during shootouts for Villa, but the ones that made him famous for Argentina, including winning the 2022 FIFA World Cup against France in Qatar.
That included saving one penalty, but he forced Aurélien Tchouaméni to drag his effort wide after picking the ball up and throwing it away before the Real Madrid midfielder could take the spot kick.
Make no bones about it, those types of mind games force such actions, and Sinisalo was quietly doing it in his own way at Ibrox.
The rising Celtic keeper has clearly taken a leaf out of Martinez’s book after regularly working with him at Villa Park, and hopefully, the Bhoys will see much more of it in the near future.
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