Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers praised Joe Hart’s mentality after his goalkeeper sealed a Scottish Gas Scottish Cup final place despite missing a penalty.
The Hampden crowd thought they had seen it all following a dramatic 3-3 draw between Celtic and Aberdeen, until Hart stepped up to take his side’s fifth penalty of the shoot-out at 4-3 up.
The former England goalkeeper, who celebrated his 37th birthday on Friday, hit the post himself before Aberdeen took the game into sudden death.
But Hart had the final say by saving Killian Phillips’ spot-kick to earn a 6-5 shoot-out win and set himself up to close the curtain on his career with a final against Rangers or Hearts on May 25.
Rodgers said: “We were going through it in the last couple of days and he was one of the designated takers, for the fifth one.
“I think he is trying to get it as wide as he can, he sees their goalkeeper (Kelle Roos) is injured, he is trying to move him as much as he can in the goal.
“But he lets it go and comes up and makes the crucial save for us.
“Joe is very upbeat and positive. I always say to players to take risks, and he is a very good penalty taker, we see it in training.
“He has taken it, he has missed it, but he didn’t get down on himself, and ended up being the hero.”
An afternoon of drama started in two minutes when Bojan Miovski fired Aberdeen ahead.
Nicolas Kuhn levelled after stand-in Aberdeen skipper Angus MacDonald was caught in possession and James Forrest looked to have won the game for Celtic after scoring 90 seconds after coming off the bench.
But Ester Sokler headed home in the 90th minute and MacDonald equalised in the 119th minute from a near identical goal after Matt O’Riley had fired Celtic back in front in extra-time.
Rodgers, who maintained his perfect Hampden record on his 10th visit, said: “It was a fantastic game. I said to the players, we don’t need football sessions over the next couple of days, we need therapy sessions after that. It will stand us in good stead going forward.
“Listen, it is part of the game, if you don’t close it out, then that can happen.
“We had to put it to one side, once we went to extra-time, and then didn’t quite see it through and then you have to focus on penalties, and what we worked on in the last couple of days. The players just had to commit to their side of the goal and they did that very well.”
Peter Leven missed the chance to lead Aberdeen out at Hampden in his final game as caretaker manager before the summer arrival of Jimmy Thelin, but his introduction of Sokler and Junior Hoillet, who set up two goals, sparked much of the drama.
Leven said: “The boys were brilliant and gave us everything. We had very good chances against a very good Celtic team. I am gutted but proud of the boys.”
Aberdeen had two notable penalty claims, once when Liam Scales was ruled to have handled just outside the box and a later one when Hoilett was felled by Cameron Carter-Vickers only to be penalised for an aerial challenge seconds earlier.
Leven said: “The fourth official said to me ‘it’s a penalty but there might have been a collision before that’, so they were checking that first. They gave the foul.”
Hart was not the only goalkeeper to be at the centre of drama in the shoot-out. Roos went down and needed treatment after the first seven penalties were scored, before Ryan Duncan hit the post following a long delay to set up Hart’s first chance to win it.
“I think he got cramp,” Leven said of his keeper. “We were trying to tell Ryan to get away from Joe Hart, I don’t know if Joe Hart was trying to get into his head. But two academy graduates, Ryan Duncan and Jack Milne, stepping up to take a penalty; I am proud of them.”
Silva grateful Fulham's dominance was rewarded with late win
Marco Silva believes Fulham claimed a "deserved win" against Brentford, though admits they should have secured the three points much earlier in their 2-1 victory.
It looked like Vitaly Janelt's 24th-minute strike against the run of play was going to wrap up all three points for Brentford, but Harry Wilson proved the Cottagers' hero off the bench, scoring twice in stoppage time to snatch the three points.
Fulham had dominated from the first whistle and had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, though they struggled to find a way past their opponents' staunch defence until the 92nd minute.
Wilson became just the sixth player to score an equalising and match-winning goal from the 90th minute onwards in the Premier League, while his second goal was Fulham's latest-ever Premier League winner at 96:46.
Silva was delighted with how his team pushed until the final seconds to ensure they came away with a win.
"It was definitely a deserved win. We started on the front foot and dominated all the game. In the first 20 minutes, we had two clear chances to score," Silva told BBC Sport.
"After they scored, we didn't lose the confidence and the trust in ourselves, we kept pushing them back, and we created enough to not be losing at half-time.
"I told the players this is football, it can happen, but we have to keep pushing, working hard and playing our way.
"It was late, it should've been much before, but that's football."
Brentford, meanwhile, have now dropped a league-high 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League as they suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat in the competition.
In fact, they are the first side in the competition's history to score the first goal in four consecutive away games and lose all four.
They had defended resolutely until their late lapse in concentration, and even had a chance to win it, only for Bernd Leno's impressive save to keep out Fabio Carvalho in the 95th minute.
Thomas Frank, though, admitted he was not yet ready to take the positives from the performance after the disappointment of their late defeat.
"It was tough. It is emotionally very tough right now," Frank told Sky Sports.
"When you are leading in the 92nd minute, and you lose, it is tough. I don't think we hit our highest level. I think on the day Fulham were better.
"There was a lot of good defending and effort, and I thought that would have given us the win. We could have won it with the chance for Fabio Carvalho and then we lost.
"When we look at the game back, and we are more cool-headed, we will probably be very happy with the defensive standard. I thought there were unbelievable blocks, and recovery runs and all that we did well. On the ball, we didn't do enough."
Guardiola expecting challenging season for injury-hit Man City
Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City's current injury problems will make it harder for them to repeat the success of recent years.
Depleted by a number of injuries to key players, the Premier League champions saw a 32-game unbeaten league run ended by a loss at Bournemouth on Saturday after a midweek reverse at Tottenham in the EFL Cup fourth round, marking the first time City have lost successive matches in all competitions since September 2023.
While Guardiola says he is aware of the expectations surrounding his team, he knew they were likely to suffer more defeats due to injuries and the increasing level of their opponents.
"I know our standards, but we've lost just one game. Maybe we are going to lose again in the Premier League against Brighton and against Tottenham and against Liverpool," Guardiola told reporters, referring to their next three Premier League games.
"We are just two points behind Liverpool, who are a top-class team. We've started well in the Champions League, but I know people expect us to win 38 league games and win the treble every season as these are our standards.
"The reason it is difficult is because we have had a lot of absentees, which can happen in some seasons.
"Sometimes, to win the treble, everything has to be on the same page with injuries, but this is not possible this time. The teams are very strong and everything is more difficult, and we have to accept that. That is the challenge."
City will be without Ballon d'Or winner Rodrigo and Oscar Bobb for most of the campaign, while John Stones, Jack Grealish and Ruben Dias remain sidelined and have not travelled to Portugal.
Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Kyle Walker still have problems despite being in the squad, Guardiola said, and Kevin De Bruyne and Savinho are improving, while Erling Haaland is fit.
City sit third in the Champions League standings after two wins and a draw and are looking for a third consecutive European win at Portuguese champions Sporting CP, who are eighth but also have seven points and are unbeaten across all competitions this season.
Guardiola's side claimed a resounding 5-0 win at Sporting when they met in the 2022 Champions League last 16, and are looking to extend their record run of unbeaten games to 27 in the competition.
"They play quite similar like we faced two seasons ago, the pattern is so clear," Guardiola added.
"They have changed players but have the same manager and same mentality," he said, referring to Sporting boss Ruben Amorim, who will take over at Manchester United at the start of the international break.
Neymar suffers fresh injury blow
Neymar sustained a new injury as he was forced off during Al-Hilal's AFC Champions League Elite win over Esteghlal.
Aleksandar Mitrovic plundered a hat-trick on Monday to seal a 3-0 win.
But Al-Hilal's victory was soured by an injury to Neymar, who had to make way just 29 minutes after he came on as a second-half substitute.
The Brazilian, who has just returned from over a year out of action following a serious knee injury, was forced off with what appeared to be a thigh issue.
Indeed, Monday's appearance was only the 32-year-old's second for Al-Hilal since his comeback.
He has featured just seven times for the Saudi Pro League champions in all competitions since his big-money move from Paris Saint-Germain in 2023.
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