Scotsman deputy editor Alan Young and sport editor Marl Atkinson look back at the weekends action in the Scottish Cup semi finals at Hampden
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00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy
00:14Editor of the Scotsman and I'm joined this morning by our Sport Editor, Mark Axton, to
00:20take a look back at the weekend action. Hi Mark.
00:23Morning Alan, how you doing?
00:24Good, let's take a look at the front page first off. There we go, and we lead today
00:33on an exclusive from our Deputy Political Editor, David Ball, and this follows on from
00:38the Scottish Government ditching their 2030 climate target last week, a highly controversial
00:44move, and reports today on how the Net Zero Secretary, Mary McAllen, was faced with a
00:52potential ban on all cars if the Government were going to have any chance of meeting that
01:00target. Really interesting story, which you can read about in today's paper. We also cover
01:08the Scottish Cup action, which is what I want to speak to Mark about. Mark, two semi-finals
01:16this weekend. I think we should probably start with the incredible match on Saturday.
01:23Yeah, what a classic that was at Hampden on Saturday. I think anyone that was there will
01:27say it's one of the best semi-finals they've witnessed in the flesh. Look, Aberdeen were
01:32desperately unlucky, did so well to come back not once but twice against Celtic, forced
01:38a three-all draw, it went to penalties. What a penalty shooter that was. Joe Hart, the
01:43Celtic goalkeeper, had the chance to win it with his own spot kick. He hits the post,
01:46then redeems himself by saving Killian Phillips' effort to win 6-5. I just thought it was a
01:53classic. I really enjoyed it. We saw a side to Aberdeen that we've not seen that much
01:57recently. They were really, really enterprising. They were spirited. They played with a lot
02:02of determination. They didn't look like a team that is in potential relegation trouble.
02:08Conversely, when you think Celtic are about to improve and take control of the title race
02:14and take control of the remaining competitions, they faltered a little bit but they got the
02:18job done and they're in the final where, of course, they'll play the Rangers.
02:22Before we get on to the Rangers, sticking with Aberdeen, they are still potentially
02:28in relegation trouble. How much of a boost do you think that performance on Saturday
02:34is going to give them?
02:35I think it should give them a boost. There's no doubting that. You play like that against
02:39any of the bottom six teams, you should be victorious. They're five points ahead of Ross
02:45County who currently occupy the relegation playoff. They played Motherwell on Saturday
02:50at the Todry. I think if they win that, they are safe. But one thing that Aberdeen haven't
02:55done this season is be consistent, especially in Scottish matches. So they need to take
03:01that and move on. Bozsian-Miawski was excellent on Saturday. With him in the team, I think
03:06they'll be fine.
03:07So, second semi-final yesterday, Hearts against Rangers?
03:12Yeah, our back page has it there. It was a pretty straightforward win for Rangers. I
03:17think we all turned up yesterday expecting Hearts to put up a real fight against a Rangers
03:22team that had struggled in its past two matches in the league. But Rangers scored early through
03:26serial deaths. Hearts were dreadful in the first half, really uninspiring. They definitely
03:32improved from the second period. They had some moments, but never really created a clear-cut
03:35chance when it mattered. And Rangers got the second goal, quite a perfunctory performance
03:40and win for Rangers. They'll be happy just to get through that tie with no damage. And
03:47look, they had Mohamed Diomondi back in midfield, which made a real difference. They were streets
03:53ahead of Hearts and all the other departments. And it sets up a pretty mouth-watering final
03:57the first time in 22 years, which is remarkable that the Scottish Cup final will be contested
04:01between Rangers and Celtic.
04:02That is incredible. It feels like it's happened much more recently than that.
04:06Yeah, we had a League Cup clash at Hampden not that recently, but just for the showpiece
04:11end-of-season event. That final 22 years ago, Peter Lovancrantz's final, Rangers won 3-2.
04:17It was a classic match as well. So yeah, plenty to look forward to.
04:21And we know when it's going to be played now?
04:24We do. It's Saturday, May 25th. 3pm kick-off, which is really important. Last season's Scottish
04:30Cup final kicked off at 5.30pm to avoid a TV clash with the FA Cup final. Now, the
04:37FA Cup final kick-off time hasn't been set yet, but 3 o'clock on Saturday, it's where
04:41the Scottish Cup final belongs. And yeah, what a great game to end our season.
04:47Indeed. Thanks very much for that, Mark. Much more throughout the day at Scotsman.com. If
04:52you are on site, please do subscribe if you can. Then you will be able to read absolutely
04:58everything. And if you're out and about today, please do pick up a copy of the paper from
05:02me and from Mark. It's bye for now.