Celtic clinches domestic treble after winning Scottish Cup
By The Associated Press on June 3, 2023.
GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) – Celtic clinched the domestic treble after beating Inverness Caledonian Thistle 3-1 in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park on Saturday. It was the eighth time Celtic has completed the clean sweep of league, League Cup and Scottish Cup, a world record. It was a first treble for Canadian international Alistair Johnston, who started for Celtic. The 24-year-old right back, who has won 34 caps for Canada, joined the Scottish powerhouse in January from CF Montreal. “Living the dream,” Johnston said in a social media post showing him holding the Scottish Cup. Kyogo Furuhashi struck for the 34th time this season in the 38th minute of an otherwise nondescript first half to undo the good early work of Billy Dodds’ rank outsider. The Championship outfit, which had not played a competitive game for a month, fell further behind when Celtic halftime substitute Liel Abada slid in a second in the 65th. Inverness substitute Dan MacKay pulled a goal back with five minutes remaining, only for Portuguese winger Jota to restore Celtic’s two-goal advantage as the game slipped into six minutes of added time. The final was played against a backdrop of mounting speculation around Tottenham’s interest in Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou. He wouldn’t be drawn by questions about him possibly leaving. “Because I think I deserve to enjoy this moment just like everyone else. I worked really hard for this moment,” Postecoglou told the BBC. “There will be a time to come for those kinds of questions but for now, we’ve grasped a small chunk of history for ourselves and I’m not going to pass that by being sidetracked.” — More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports 13-12
