Celtic loanee Maryan Shved has suffered heartbreak in the Ukrainian Cup quarter-finals this afternoon.
The little winger produced another moment from his box of heroics by scoring a 97th-minute leveler for Karpaty Lviv. This tied the score at 1-1 with Inhulets’ in today’s quarter-final clash heading into extra-time.
But, unfortunately for Karpaty and Shved, they lost out 5-4 on penalties at the end of the day. Shved didn’t take any of Karpaty’s penalties in the end.
The result will come as a shock for Shved’s side. Inhulets sit seventh in the Ukrainian First League – the second tier of Ukrainian football. Karpaty, meanwhile, sit ninth out of 12 in the Premier League.
It’s a body blow for Shved, but he can clearly be pleased with his individual work in recent weeks. It was only last week that he was given the Player of the Month award. Today’s cup quarter-final goal may just be consolation in the end, but it proves to Celtic supporters once again that he’s a goal threat.
Avoiding relegation is now the priority
Karpaty Lviv now have nine games remaining to make sure they avoid relegation to the second-tier. That will likely be Shved’s primary goal between now and the end of the season. Lviv are nine points clear of the bottom, so there is still some work to be done in that regard.
But Shved’s latest set-back hopefully won’t hit him too hard. Celtic look like getting a fine player when he returns to Parkhead at the end of the campaign regardless.
The idea has to be that he finally provides some solid competition for James Forrest next season. This is something we would all have hoped Oliver Burke would’ve provided this term, but Celtic have decided to play him as a striker. Hopefully, there aren’t similar plans for Shved.
He looks like he’s doing just fine down the right for Karpaty this season, and this really looks like a player who could make a big impact next season.
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
