Ryan Christie looking to end long wait for Scottish Cup final with Celtic after stunning strike in semi-final

Celtic’s Ryan Christie hopes his stunning strike in the Scottish Cup semi-final victory over Aberdeen can help him scratch an itch in the competition.

Ryan Christie in action for Celtic during the William Hill Scottish Cup semi-final match against Aberdeen at Hampden (Photo by Craig Foy / SNS Group)

The two years that the 25-year-old has been a regular for the champions have not brought him a Scottish Cup final appearance – the Scotland international missing the May 2019 decider after having his eye-socket fractured in the semi-final win over Aberdeen the previous month.

Now, he is looking to put that behind him when Celtic meet a Hearts they defeated in 2019 when the Scottish Cup from last season’s curtailed campaign is completed on December 20. An occasion that will give the club the opportunity to complete a quadruple treble and become the first club to lift four successive Scottish Cups.

“I was actually thinking about it before the game, thinking back to the injury because I still have to play a proper part in a Scottish Cup final for Celtic, with the injury and then with this one being delayed,” he said. “So credit to the SFA for getting it played even though it’s into this season. We are just delighted to be in a final so now we want to go on, win it and make history again.”

Christie said that the Celtic squad never doubted they would come good again despite heading into the Hampden last-four without a win in four games – their longest such run since 2014.

“When you are a team like Celtic you have to win every single game and when you don’t do that people will ask questions,” he said. “But we have had the mindset for so many years now, since I have been a part of it, of sticking to ourselves, working hard and doing the basics. Certainly in the first half we showed we can still blow teams away. We got a clean sheet, the boys defended brilliantly so there are plenty of positives to take and we’ll go into the next game full of confidence again.”

Christie delighted in his 18th minute opener that was the product of him sweeping in an unstoppable effort from 22 yards. “It was a nice one,” he said. “The gaffer said to get my shots off, it’s wet and slippery so get them away and test big Joe {Lewis] in goal. When it left my foot I knew it had a good chance, so I was happy to see it go in.

“The second one [four minutes later] was a bit important because it settled us and let us get full control. We are delighted obviously and off the back of a few disappointing results, we wanted to get back to winning ways. With this being such a big game, wanting to get through to a final, we wanted to take it on from the second half last weekend at Pittodrie [in the game that ended 3-3]. I felt we started well, we got two goals to settle us and even though Aberdeen came into it in the second half it was job done."

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