Elena Sadiku looking forward to Hampden derby date

Celtic F.C.

·25 April 2024

Elena Sadiku looking forward to Hampden derby date

The excitement of last Saturday’s Hampden date has barely subdued than the club are back at the National Stadium again this Saturday for yet another Scottish Cup semi-final, this time represented by Celtic FC Women.

If the Ghirls’ Saturday game against their Rangers counterparts is anywhere near as rousing as the men’s battle with Aberdeen last weekend, then the crowd are in for a treat – just as long as we have a similar outcome with the team in green and white going through to the May final.

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This will be Elena Sadiku’s first trip to Hampden in charge of the Celts, and the Ghirls will be going all out to repeat their last game against the Ibrox side in Mount Florida when they came out on top last May to lift their second consecutive Scottish Cup.

A win this weekend would put the chance of a third successive Scottish Cup win on the immediate horizon as the women’s side, like their male colleagues, have their eyes set on a league and Scottish Cup double to round-off the run-in.

So, fresh from a 5-0 win over Hearts at the biggest venue in Scottish football, the Ghirls now turn their attention to a game at Scottish football’s second-biggest venue just a week later as they switch Celtic Park for Hampden, and speaking at the iconic venue today (Thursday), the Head Coach said: “This is obviously a big game for us.

‘It’s also in a very nice and beautiful big arena so we can take the confidence of being at Celtic Park. We love playing on grass, so it’s going to be a great feeling coming here on Saturday.’

“Overall, on the pitches that we’ve been playing on recently, we know we can perform good football, but obviously it’s always nice to play on grass.

“Because, for me at least, you always want to play on a good grass pitch

“I don’t know if it’s going to help but we get that confidence from playing on grass and in a big arena, so that’s something that we can take advantage of, or get that experience into this game.

“It’s not only about taking that experience, we have a big game. We know it’s about a title and that’s something everybody want to be involved in.”

Not only are the Celts currently on an 11-game unbeaten run, racking up an aggregate score of 39-5 in those matches, over the past couple of months, the Ghirls have also held the upper hand in derby meetings.

In February they were unlucky to come away from Ibrox with only a 1-1 draw, then on St Patrick’s Day they recorded a 2-1 win over Rangers at The Excelsior.

Results like that could bode well for Saturday, and Sadiku added: “It’s a derby game, it’s against Rangers. Obviously since I’ve came here I’ve been seeing it everywhere that Rangers are chasing the treble.

‘We are Celtic and we want to come into every game and win our games, and that’s something that we’ve been doing really well and getting points in.’

“We’re really looking forward to it. There’s no better feeling than showing up in big games when you know you have to go through.”

And they will be cheered on by a support that have also played their part in the recent run of unbeaten games.

The coach said of the support: “It means everything. I’ve been saying it in the media before that the girls have been performing so well, and, for me as their coach, I just think that they deserve the best.

“And the best is when our fans come together and support my players to achieve and perform the best they can do, so we can get more trophies in.

“And that means also that it’s a big thing for Celtic to show that the team gets trophies in.”