Celtic stumbled into the semi-final of the Scottish Cup yesterday after Brendan Rodgers’ side made difficult work of seeing off Livingston at Parkhead.
After twice taking the lead through Daizen Maeda, Rodgers watched from the sidelines as his Celtic side twice threw away a lead to make heavy weather of the quarter-final win.
The game was wrapped up in the dying minutes after Maeda sealed his first Celtic hattrick and Kyogo Furuhashi hit Celtic’s fourth but it was at Livingston’s equaliser where Craigan noticed the reaction of Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers.
Craigan said [Viaplay Sports], “There’s just been a real slackness in Celtic as well. Brendan’s arms are folded and that full body language tells me that, inside, he is absolutely burning.
“Because they were in complete control of the game and they’ve conceded two goals that were completely avoidable because of individuals switching off or not doing their job.”
And he wasn’t the only one that was fuming. The Celtic fans could also not believe what they were witnessing.
Defensively, Celtic looked ropey yesterday and, in truth, David Martindale’s side could have taken the lead not long after had Joe Hart not made a point-blank save from a Livingston corner.
However, Celtic are now in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup and will find out who they will face when the draw is made tonight after the conclusion of the Morton vs Hearts fixture.
With Aberdeen and Rangers both booking their place in the next round at the weekend, Rodgers knows that if he has any ambition of retaining the Scottish Cup for Celtic, his team will need to be more clinical in front of goal and water-tight at the back.
Because if we squander opportunities like we did yesterday, Rangers, Aberdeen and Hearts (if they go through) will punish us and we can forget about reaching the final in May.
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