Celtic Became The First Scottish Side To Win Successive Domestic Trebles After Beating Motherwell In The Scottish Cup Final

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Brendan Rodgers’ side took an early lead at Hampden through Callum McGregor’s sweetly struck half-volley.

Olivier Ntcham’s low shot doubled their advantage in a dominant first half.

Well improved after the break with Curtis Main denied by Craig Gordon and substitute Gael Bigirimana’s free-kick coming back off the crossbar.

The Steelmen’s wait for a first trophy since their 1991 Scottish Cup final win continues and their defeat means Hibernian, who finished fourth in the Premiership, go into next season’s Europa League qualifiers, with Celtic already bound for the Champions League qualifiers.

Jock Stein’s Celtic team in 1970 and Walter Smith’s Rangers side of 1994 came within one game of doing the ‘Double Treble’ but both fell at the final hurdle.

After beating Aberdeen to all three domestic trophies last term, Rodgers’ men set about securing another clean sweep with a 2-0 League Cup final win over Motherwell in November and the clinching of the Premiership title – Celtic’s seventh straight top-flight triumph – followed in April.

And they enhance their reputation as the most successful club in the Scottish Cup with their 38th title.

Rodgers has won six domestic trophies in two seasons with Celtic

Celtic’s record in cup football under Rodgers was already terrific before a ball had been kicked in this final. Seventeen games in the League Cup and Scottish Cup, 17 victories, 58 goals scored and only six conceded. The scale of Motherwell’s task in winning the trophy and stopping the Double Treble was vast.

They went into it with some good memories of playing Celtic this season. Stephen Robinson’s side drew twice with Rodgers’ team and were unlucky not to win one of those. They would have felt confident that they had enough artillery to bother the champions if the champions happened to have a bad day. That’s where their dreams perished. The champions did not have a bad day.

Motherwell had a few encouraging moments early on when Celtic’s defence looked vulnerable to the physicality of Ryan Bowman and Main, but such optimism was short lived. It only took 11 minutes for Celtic to hit the front. A Mikael Lustig cross from the right was headed out of the penalty box with McGregor more alive to the loose ball than anybody else inside Hampden.

He burst between two Motherwell players to touch the ball forward and then, on the half-volley on the edge of the box, he rifled a sumptuous shot into the top right-hand corner of Trevor Carson’s net.

This season has seen all sorts of gongs bestowed on Celtic captain Scott Brown and all manner of tributes for his team-mates James Forrest and Kieran Tierney. All deserved. They have been excellent.

McGregor’s contribution has been huge, too. He’s a such clever player, a guy for big occasions such as this. That goal set Celtic on their way and they never looked back.

They went 2-0 ahead after 25 minutes and again it was a sweet strike from a midfielder that did the job.

This time it was Ntcham who drilled it low to Carson’s right after Moussa Dembele’s excellent hold-up play, and Motherwell’s inability to appreciate the danger they were in, set it all up.

Ntcham rounded off a fine debut season in Glasgow with his ninth of the campaign

Dembele, hungry for work, was a nuisance to Motherwell who grew increasingly narky as the opening half wore on. Tierney in particular, came in for some treatment. Celtic were no saints either, it has to be said. Tom Rogic put in a bad one early in the second half as Motherwell attempted to pull off the unlikely.

Main tested Gordon at one end and, at the other, Carson made a magnificent save from a close-range Dembele header before kicking away a Dembele shot just after. Motherwell never dropped their heads. They kept driving on, kept trying to drag themselves back into it with a goal.

With 11 minutes left, Chris Cadden burst through a gap in the Celtic defence and was hauled down just outside the box by Dedryck Boyata. The defender got a yellow card, the red staying in referee Kevin Clancy’s pocket only because Tierney would probably have snuffed out the chance in any event.

Well had a free-kick, though. And what a free-kick. Bigirimana’s gorgeous effort came slapping back off Gordon’s crossbar. Would it have made a difference? Impossible to say, but Celtic had lost all the fluency they had early in the match at that point.

They had done their work, in fairness. Not just in this cup final, but in the Premiership and the League Cup before it and how their supporters serenaded them at the end.

Double Treble winners. History men. This domestic season may not have been as thunderously impressive as last season, when they were unbeaten domestically, but when Clancy blew his final whistle, it confirmed the same glorious end result. Not invincible this time, but unstoppable all the same.

 

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