Daizen Maeda celebrates scoring the winning goal during the Scottish Cup Fourth Round match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
LORD KATSUMOTO – 7/10 – Daizen or duff? Similar to Reo, he looked wired for action, big chance early, great ball on a plate for Kyogo, plenty roving around, basically Daizening. But you await that final ball, the moment; and it looked lost on him today. Then, well, out of nowhere he’s a match-winner just as he appeared spent. Really, we should always expect the Looney Tunes’ jingle and Bugs Bunny presenting an adjusted end caption when the Japanese dynamo is at large – ‘That’s Daizen, Folks…”
“Big moment, big goal!” 🎙️
Daizen Maeda delivers again for @CelticFC 🍀#ScottishCup | @ScottishCup pic.twitter.com/3n0TwaACdR
— Premier Sports (@PremSportsTV) January 18, 2025
Kyogo Furuhashi runs with the ball during the Scottish Cup Fourth Round match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
KILLER MUSHROOM – 6/10 – Are these the end of days? Before our diminutive Gojira departs these emerald shores for the deep wide ocean of planet football once more? Every deft touch, sleight of movement, sweet goal, carries a sigh of inevitability; hearts both lifted and sunk as we realise that may have been the last of him amid the joy of his talent. And how we waited this evening… Uncharacteristic narrow miss at one-on-one, failing by a whisker at other critical moments. Movement sharp, but finishing like Idah on tramadol; did everything but score; worryingly, that’s his biggest attribute…
Nicolas Kühn accidentally collides with Robby McCrorie during the Scottish Cup Fourth Round match between Celtic and Kilmarnock at Celtic Park on January 18, 2025. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
TAKINTE – 8/10 MOTM – Why? With CL nirvana awaiting just one good performance, why risk the current talisman? Winning, that’s why. And Killie knew it. And toil they did to stifle his influence. Maybe there was a passage of time – short-in Deek’s head where he believed the Kuhn threat was nullified. But not so. True class adjusts, and that he did – forsaking the wide berth, the dazzling wing action; in he came, cutting, chopping them up, skipping, gliding, marauding really… Chaos embodied. All that was missing – like most – was a finish and he had plenty openings. Set up the winner with a sweet insurgence and may have scored four himself but for unusual inaccuracy. That will return. The German Jinky will triumph. Shades MOTM for his inventive early face-lift of former Ibrox fluffer McWhorie.
The wee mushroom seems to have his mind on somewhere else; never seen him miss so many as he’s done the last few games. Hopefully they get back to normal after hitting that wall.
Nonsense, great for 30 minutes and as mentioned could have been out of sight, but after that we fell to pieces under the high press. The inability to play through the press and lack of bottle were evidenced when McGregor chooses to sky the ball into the air, rather than bring it down unchallenged, then doing the exact same thing 30 seconds later, under the same circumstances. Granted we could still have taken one of quite a few chances, but they could’ve also taken one of their few, again. I obviously watched a different game from most, with quite a few lauding a great performance, yeah for the first 30 minutes, after that it was just like the Dundee game, for the same reasons, inability to cope with a high press.
YB Bern must be licking their lips!!.