The Scotland international was the hero as the Hoops advanced to the Scottish Cup semifinal.
It’s possible that Daizen Maeda was holding the match ball and a small glass memento in appreciation for winning man of the match. Despite missing a tenner, the Celtic attacker appeared to have found a fiver.
A first-ever competitive hat-trick for Hoops was stunning enough, capped off by an industrious performance that had the Parkhead supporters applauding their cult hero. However, Maeda acknowledged that he was a little bit frustrated that he hadn’t scored more goals and made Livingston’s life much easier. The Japanese player said that instead of depending on his late goal to barely make it into the Scottish Cup final four, he ought to have scored FIVE goals against the Lions.
Maeda expressed his gratitude for the assistance and said, “I am happier that we won the game than that I am happy with my hat-trick.” I haven’t scored a hat-trick since the preseason friendly versus Yokohama. We sensed there was more to come when we scored the first and then the second goal. So, obtaining the third was beneficial. I also had a chance to score a fifth goal! But the fact that we prevailed was crucial.
Maeda ought to be kinder to himself. Yes, he did manage to miss a few easy goals from a yard away, but Celtic wouldn’t be able to afford to maintain the wide player if he were even slightly more prolific in front of goal. He put on another of his signature performances, the kind where watching him was nearly exhausting.
Maeda, the marathon specialist, ensured that Celtic continued on towards Hampden by logging more miles than Mo Farah. Though Livi twice pegged them back and resisted until the last five minutes, it was a far from easy afternoon.
Still, Maeda never lost hope that it would arrive. “I wasn’t concerned that much because I felt we could score again,” he remarked.
To be fair, the mood was much the same among most of the Parkhead crowd. When the clock was running out, there were none of the customary groans or growls. Maeda and the others had a more than satisfactory day’s work in the end.
“It was very difficult for me earlier, but I kept working hard and doing my best, and that’s why I am here today,” the winger, who has been a member of Celtic’s walking wounded this season, added. I’ll keep putting in a lot of effort for the club.
Firstly, the crucial game is going to be the next one. I try not to plan too far ahead. All we think about is the next game. We have had difficulty in some of the harder games. However, we must strive hard and compete. For the remainder of the season, we must continue to put in a lot of effort.
The Hoops haven’t had it easy this season, and against Livi, they were without their starting tandem of Cameron Carter-Vickers and Callum McGregor. However, Maeda remarked, “Injuries happen, and that applies to every team, not just Celtic.” To go past it, we must put forth a lot of effort.
Although Maeda is a man of few words, his gaffer was more than willing to heap praise on the Hoops workhorse. “It was great,” stated Brendan Rodgers. He exerts so much pressure, effort, and intensity on the ball.
He received a lot of satisfaction from winning the hat-trick. He finished his opportunities really effectively, and all of his dashes and actions were incisive.
On the opposite side, Rodgers was happy with Nikolas Kuhn as well; the German appeared to be the “quality” addition that was promised back in January. “All of our creativity was on the right side, and the finishing was on the left,” stated the supervisor.
Nicolas resembled what we wanted to see a lot more. After returning from his sabbatical at Rapid Vienna and dealing with a few health concerns, he is currently regaining his vigour. That was much more our style in terms of his directness and speed.
He created a fantastic cross to help Daizen score. Daizen could have had more than three goals, but he had a terrific mindset and passion in that situation.
Livi succeeded in two as well, although from a Parkhead standpoint, neither was particularly attractive. Rodgers was aware of it. “Yes, they are poor goals, they really are poor goals,” he stated.
“With all due respect, you can see that the team’s security is compromised whenever Cam is absent. Thus, no, we weren’t very adept at handling that, in my opinion, and we were responsible for the goals.
“We let bad goals go away. We give the ball away. On the first, second, and third balls, we were unable to avoid it, and we proceeded to move as the ball was being played behind us. We don’t think that’s terrific, but moving forward, we were clearly good.
Rodgers is aware that Celtic cannot afford to be that kind in the final championship stretch. He is aware of the issues, though. “It’s not the vulnerability, it’s when you have the level of players missing that you then don’t have that same security,” stated the Hoops coach.
“Now that those guys are back, I don’t have any fears.” Simply said, I believe that there comes a time in every team’s history when they miss their finest players and may not be as close as they would like to be.
That’s normal, but what matters is that you’ll still have that dynamic and threat moving forward. Well, we have to take responsibility for the poor goals we gave up today. We could have scored a few more, but we still managed to score four.
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