‘You just pray…’ Michael Stewart amazed by ‘outstanding’ Celtic star v Aberdeen

Add as preferred source on Google

Celtic breezed into the Scottish League Cup final by beating Aberdeen 6-0 at Hampden on Saturday.

Jimmy Thelin’s side came into this match with a spring in their step because Aberdeen had beaten Rangers in midweek.

It meant that Aberdeen have been able to keep up with Celtic’s pace in the Scottish Premiership, on top of their comeback 2-2 draw at Parkhead last time out.

But Celtic were just too good for their opponents in front of a packed-out Hampden, with Daizen Maeda scoring a stunning hat-trick, Cameron Carter-Vickers opening the scoring, Kyogo Furuhashi scoring again and Nicholas Kuhn netting a rasping effort.

The champions of Scotland didn’t let their opponents breathe and they were 3-0 up inside the first half, before making matters worse during the second period.

For Michael Stewart, there is only one man who stood above everyone in the Scottish League Cup semi-final.

Daizen Maeda named Man of the Match after hat-trick against Aberdeen

Brendan Rodgers is known to improve players and take them to the next level. You sense that he is doing that with Maeda now.

The Japan star is becoming ruthless in front of goal and Stewart thinks he was ‘outstanding’ against Aberdeen.

Nicky Devlin was the man who had to deal with Maeda, but Stewart felt that the Aberdeen star just had to ‘pray’ when coming up against him, as he told Premier Sports (02/11/24 at 7:45 pm).

“Look, Celtic have been outstanding, but there is one in particular, Daizen Maeda, who is my Man of the Match,” said Stewart. “Hat-trick and his all-round performance has been of the highest order.

“He was outstanding. A constant pest. When he is running at you. What do you do? You just pray. There isn’t a great deal you can do, in terms of matching him with his pace.

“It was the brain that was there as well, in terms of the intelligence. Yes, Nicky Devlin has dropped maybe five yards off. But I think, in large parts, that’s due to the fact that he was frightened of the pace of Maeda and still he is getting that diving run in behind. He was a constant threat all afternoon.”

Maeda’s season so far for Celtic

Maeda needs to build and build on this performance because if he continues to add goals, then he will become one of the most dangerous players in the team.

Rodgers has openly spoken about Maeda’s workrate because there aren’t many players in Europe who put in the effort he does.

On top of that, Maeda is one of the quickest players in the league, as he proved with Kyogo’s goal.

So, this could be the season that he produces the best football of his career, as he has already hit nine goals in all competitions, as posted by Tranfermarkt.