MOUSSA Dembele last night claimed that he can improve even further this season and score more goals against Rangers after netting a dramatic late winner for Celtic in the Betfred Cup semi-final at Hampden.
The Old Firm match had looked to be heading for extra-time yesterday after Brendan Rodgers’s team passed up several outstanding goalscoring opportunities against Mark Warburton’s team.
However, Dembele audaciously backheeled a Leigh Griffiths cross past Rangers keeper Matt Gilks with three minutes remaining to send the Parkhead club through to the final.
The 20-year-old has done superbly since signing from Skybet Championship club Fulham for just £500,000 during the summer and netted a hat-trick against Rangers last month.
He has also scored important goals in Champions League games – including a double in the 3-3 draw with Manchester City in a group match at Celtic earlier this month.
However, the French centre forward, who was booked by referee Craig Thomson for running into the crowd the celebrate his goal, still believes he has more to offer the Scottish champions.
“This is the beginning for me at Celtic,” he said. “There is a lot more to come as I have only been here for three months. I train hard every day, I give my all on the pitch.
“In the big games you have to make sure you are ready. In the two games against them, that’s what I have done. Hopefully that can continue in the next games against Rangers."
Dembele added: “It was great. That’s us in the first final of the season and we deserved the win. We did everything we could to win the game and we are happy.
“Scoring one goal or three, it doesn’t make a difference to me. The only thing that matters is we win the game. I wouldn’t say this was any better or worse than the last game. It was just different.
“We did that and I was happy to score. But the most important thing is we are in the final. Now we want to go and win the trophy. I was just happy to score the winning goal and I wanted to celebrate with the fans. It was worth the booking.
“It would mean a lot to win the trophy because it would be my first medal at this level. That’s why I came to Celtic – to win things and play in big games like this.”
Dembele linked up well with Griffiths for the winning goal – something that is sure to increase the calls for Rodgers to play them up front together.
He believes they have struck up a good relationship on the park, as well as a friendship off it, since he moved to Glasgow, but stressed he was happy to play alongside anyone.
“Leigh is a good player,” he said. “I don’t mind playing with him as two strikers or alone. That isn’t up to me. The manager picks the team. But, yes, we have a good understanding. He is a clever player and we link well, but that’s up to the manager.
“It was just instinct for the goal. When Leigh crossed the ball, I didn’t have time to think. I just did my best to score and I was so happy when it went in the net. Leigh scored a lot of goals last season, but I don’t have a number in mind. I just want to score as many as I can.”
Griffiths, who was once again overlooked for the starting line-up by Rodgers, stressed he was happy to tee up Dembele and help the team win, but predicted he could forge a good partnership with his team mate up front.
“The manager just asked me to go on and create something for the team,” he said. “That’s what I’m all about, trying to score goals or create chances for the boys.
“There’s always a worry when you don’t score. Their keeper has kept them in with a few good saves but I knew that we’d get another few chances to win the game and thankfully I put it on a plate for Moussa and he scored.
“I wasn’t going to shoot at the goal - not from that angle. I knew Moussa was in a great position and I just had to keep it low. The big man is powerful and can bold off defenders, so he got in front of the defender and tucked it away.
“We are always confident of scoring goals. Our chances of playing together have been limited but when we’ve done it, we’ve linked up well. You saw that against Astana and we linked well again today. But it’s up to the manager whether he decides to go with two up.
“I had a chip at the death and should have scored. Nine times out of ten I would have smashed it across goal. I thought Gilks was going to go down so I tried to put it over him and it wasn’t to be. I’m just glad we got through because if they’d gone up the park and scored, I’d have dug myself into a hole.”
Celtic have lost three cup semi-finals in a row at Hampden – to Rangers, Ross County and Inverness Caledonian Thistle – and Griffiths admitted he was pleased to help his side bury their last four hoodoo while targeting final success against Aberdeen next month.
“We’ve had a few disappointments here. That’s part and parcel of football- you win some and lose some. The boys in the dressing room are delighted that we are into another final and hopefully we can go one better and lift the trophy.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel