Cameron Carter-Vickers spoke about his role in the Aberdeen penalty appeal late in yesterday’s Scottish Cup semi-final at Hampden. The American defender feared that he’d given a penalty away as he thought he’d committed a foul. CCV was therefore mightily relieved to released that Don Robertson had actually blown for an earlier foul on Alistair Johnston. At first though he was sure he’d gifted Aberdeen a spot-kick.
In the age of VAR why would he blow immediately? He has the safety net to check it, like they did and were happy it was a foul.
Cut this anyway you want, he makes contact with a player in mid-air at speed, no contact on the ball. Its a foul anywhere else on the park. pic.twitter.com/q6kxOxgHKl
— The Celtic Way (@TheCelticWay3) April 20, 2024
“I thought it was given but then when it wasn’t I was happy”
“Yes, I did, to be honest. It probably was a foul. We didn’t get given the foul before but then we did. You obviously don’t want to concede late and then you’re thinking at that point it’s going to penalties. I was praying. I thought it was given but then when it wasn’t I was happy.
“The ref just said it was a foul against Alistair Johnston. And then I saw VAR was checking it. I said to him ‘If you’ve seen it on the pitch then just stick to your decision,’” CCV said, as reported by Scottish Sun.
Aberdeen did get their equaliser and so to penalties, with Joe Hart making his presence felt by missing Celtic’s fifth that would have won it before making the save in sudden death to give Celtic the victory and with it a place in the Scottish Cup final on 25 May. We now know that Celtic will face theRangers after their unsurprising win over Hearts – their FIFTH of the season against the Tynecastle outfit.
“I thought it would be a good fairy-tale for him”
CCV gave some insight into Joe Hart’s dramatic role in the shoot-out.
“Yeah, we knew he was going to take one. We practise them in training and I’ve actually never seen him miss before. When he stepped up, I thought it would be a good fairy-tale for him, in his last season and hopefully scoring a winning penalty in the semi-final.
“It wasn’t meant to be but then he ends up saving the penalty which wins us the game, which is all good,” CCV said.
As far as Joe Hart taking another spot-kick if the final goes to a shoot-out, the Celtic defender was unsure. “I don’t know, you’ll have to speak to the manager. I’m sure he’ll keep practising. But he might.”
“To be fair it was a crazy game”
On the game as a whole, Cameron reckoned that it was uniquely crazy match to play in.
“I haven’t played in a game like that before, to be fair it was a crazy game. I thought on the ball we were good for large periods of the game. But it’s disappointing when you concede three goals. But to stick at it and win the game on penalties was a great feeling.
“As a group we always believe. Like I’ve said, defensively you’re looking to avoid conceding goals and win the game in normal time or extra time. But I don’t think as a group we ever stopped believing.
“We’ve got much more to look forward to, 100-per-cent”
“The three seasons I’ve been here, every time I’ve come it’s been a difficult game no matter who we’ve been playing. I think last season we beat Kilmarnock in a semi-final and that was pretty tight. We won 2-0 but we didn’t score the second until late on.
“I think back to the first year as well, Hibs in the League Cup final was 2-1. So again another tight game. Then the games against (the)Rangers, they’ve always been tight. So I think any Cup game at Hampden is going to be tight.
“We’ve got much more to look forward to, 100-per-cent. Five more league games, all big games, and then obviously a Cup final next month,” CCV said.
