Derek McInnes knows Aberdeen weren’t good enough on the day at Hampden – but he’s hoping they can remember this Celtic experience.
The Dons lost 2-0 to Celtic on Sunday in Scottish Cup semi-final action. Goals from Ryan Christie and Mohamed Elyounoussi sealed victory for the holders, setting up a final battle between Celtic and Hearts next month.
Celtic were victorious on Sunday. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
Two goals in 23 first half minutes ended this game as a contest on another disappointing trip to Hampden for McInnes and Aberdeen. There was optimism heading into this clash too.
Off the back of a 3-3 draw with their Sunday opponents the weekend previous and Celtic stuttering of late, the Dons support felt they had a chance. But matters were settled very quickly in Glasgow.
McInnes has reacted to this defeat. Whilst he believes his men did ok in stages, he knows they’ll have to improve if they meet Celtic again in cup competition.
Improvement needed. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“We came here with a really attacking team, that’s been our pattern this season and we’ve had a lot of benefit from that,” said McInnes. “We wanted to try and strike that first blow in the game and show the confidence that certainly we showed in last week’s game.
“We wanted to do that from the outset and let Celtic know we were there and I thought we did that. In possession we had some good moments during those early stages. We wanted to try and make it that type of game. We did not want Celtic to enjoy the game and wanted to make them think twice.
“We needed that goal to spark us but unfortunately for us, it wasn’t enough on the day. We acknowledge the better team won, we needed a better 90 minutes performance and we needed to be more clinical and braver with our starting positions.
A 90-minute performance was required. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)
“Hopefully if we can get through this season’s cup competitions, if we come up against Celtic in a final or semi-final we remember that.”