League champions Celtic beat Rangers 1-0 to win Scottish Cup in 90th minute

Celtic FC defeated local rivals Rangers 1-0 in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland thanks to a goal in the 90th minute to end the season with both league and cup titles in hand.

Celtic celebrate with the trophy after the Scottish Cup final between against Rangers at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

Celtic FC on Saturday won the 2023-24 Scottish Cup, defeating local rivals Rangers 1-0 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland thanks to a goal in the 90th minute to end the season with both league and cup titles in hand.

It was a well-matched affair between the two Glasgow-based clubs, with No. 1 Celtic and No. 2 Rangers battling it out for the final clash on the Scottish football calendar.

Celtic kept possession for more of the first half, but neither side managed to score before the break.

It looked like Rangers might have scored the opener when forward Abdallah Sima capitalized on a corner to knock the ball into the net off the back post. But Celtic goalkeeper Joe Hart called for a foul, and a VAR check disallowed the goal as it showed Rangers midfielder Nico Raskin pushing Hart with both hands — denying Rangers a crucial lead.

The score stayed 0-0 until the last minute, when two substitutes helped Celtic to an eleventh hour victory. Celtic midfielder Paulo Bernardo, subbed in at the 78th minute, got the ball down the center to make an attempt on goal, which was denied by Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland. But Butland didn’t have time to breathe before forward Adam Idah, subbed in at minute 63, slotted the ball into an empty net for the winner.

Celtic's Adam Idah scores the opening goal in the 90th minute during the Scottish Cup final against Rangers at Hampden Park in Glasgow, Scotland on Saturday. [AP/YONHAP]

“He’s been the real catalyst for us, over the course of this and particularly the last few months,” said manager Brendan Rodgers of Idah, on loan to Celtic from Championship side Norwich City, after the match. “He’s fast, he’s dynamic, he has strength. And I felt with just some better positioning he would get goals. I think what he’s done since coming in, he’s shown that he is a goal scorer.”

The win seals both Cup and league titles for Celtic, who won the 2023-24 Scottish Premiership title after beating Kilmarnock 5-0 earlier this month to lock in their third straight league win.

Neither of Celtic’s active Korean players were in the squad on Saturday, but the Cup win adds another piece of silverware to each of their trophy cabinets.

Center forward Oh Hyeon-gyu, who joined the squad in the middle of the 2022-23 season and helped lift the club to the league title last year, has been out of the squad or on the bench for all but two league games in 2024, last playing in February.

February was also when Idah, who scored Sunday’s Cup-winning goal, joined Celtic on loan from Norwich.

Korea’s Yang Hyun-jun, who plays as a winger, has also been left out of the squad or benched for a month, last playing on April 13. And Kwon Hyeok-kyu, a midfielder, joined Celtic with Yang before the 2023-24 season but was loaned out to St. Mirren in January, missing out on both league and Cup titles.

Oh’s contract, signed with Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postcegolou at the Celtic helm, runs through May 2028, as does Yang’s. Kwon is set to return to Celtic from St. Mirren at the end of this month. His contract runs through June 2028.

Oh and Yang have both played for the senior Korean national team, but the roster for Korea’s upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Singapore in China in June has yet to be announced.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]