Neil Lennon says Scottish Cup semi-final win puts Celtic back on track

Celtic manager Neil Lennon believes an “outstanding” display for his team in their 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final triumph over Aberdeen will allow them to draw a line under their recent winless run.
Neil Lennon congratulates Ryan Christie (left) after the midfielder's goaolscoring conrtribution to a 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen that will put to bed concerns over a winless spell (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)Neil Lennon congratulates Ryan Christie (left) after the midfielder's goaolscoring conrtribution to a 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen that will put to bed concerns over a winless spell (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)
Neil Lennon congratulates Ryan Christie (left) after the midfielder's goaolscoring conrtribution to a 2-0 Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen that will put to bed concerns over a winless spell (Photo by Alan Harvey / SNS Group)

Prevailing over Derek McInnes’ men in emphatic fashion made for a first victory in five for the champions, and now only a Scottish Cup final success over Hearts away from a fourth straight treble.

“It’s not that they needed confidence, they just needed to get that win again I suppose,” said Lennon, who said he had “no problem with the players’ character or form”. “I’m not saying we’ve turned the corner completely because I think we can get better still. [And] I’m not saying it will be plain sailing from here on in. There will be challenges but the important thing was to get through to the cup final and we’ve done that comfortably. We now have another big day to look forward to and they are on the cusp of another treble, which is unheard of. I think that is magnificent for the players and the fans.

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“The semi-final win says a lot about the mentality of the players [after a high tempo, high quality game with Thursday’s 2-2 draw in Lille]. The quality of the two goals was top class. The first was magnificent after we’d been unlucky not to score earlier through Odsonne Edouard. Ryan [Christie] then came up with an absolute pearler. That set us up and I thought we were vibrant after that. We played a lot of good football and the second goal came from a beautiful set-up from Tom {Rogic]. Moi {Elyounoussi] is in fantastic form at the minute and he was in the right place to finish it off. That gave us a cushion and after that we were very comfortable.”

It was made so by the ability of his men to register their first clean sheet in five games. “Physically we looked strong,” he said of the defence. “We dealt with crosses and set plays a lot, lot better, that was something we touched on the last couple of days. I thought Scott [Bain] looked very assured with the ball at his feet or hands and we dealt with anything Aberdeen threw at us very competently.”

A first start for Odsonne Edouard in seven weeks as the result being laid low with Covid-19 proved another major plus for the Celtic manager. It came on an afternoon in which injured trio James Forrest, Kristoffer Ajer and Christopher Jullien were his only significant absentees following a period of severe selection difficulties.

‘We made a few changes today,” he said. “One was enforced with Kris Ajer, but I thought [Nir] Bitton came in and has been playing very well this season. He looked very comfortable and Odsonne getting 70 minutes will help him. Ryan getting 70 minutes will help him after what he has been through. Slowly but surely we are getting more back and allied to that you have [Leigh] Griffiths and [Albian] Ajeti and [Olivier] Ntcham. It’s just a question now of trying to keep the squad fresh and healthy for the volume of games we have coming up. But they can be really happy with today.”

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