Celtic lost out on a place in the final of the Hong Kong Sevens shield event to Chelsea earlier today.
A single goal settled the issue to end Celtic’s interest in the competition with Chelsea facing Leicester in the final of the shield event.
Earlier in the day Celtic had lost 2-1 to Newcastle in the quarter-final of the main competition despite going 1-0 up thanks to a goal from James Keatings.
Newcastle will face Aston Villa in the final with both sides previously meeting in Group D of the popular 7’s event.
The event has again attracted lots of attention and big crowds and is well established as the highlight of the footballing year in Hong Kong.
In yesterday’s group stage Celtic had been drawn in the toughest group alongside West Ham United, Leicester City and local side HKFC Captain’s Select.
Goals from John Herron, Marcus Fraser and Jackson Irvine got Celtic off to a perfect start against HKFC while Leicester beat West Ham 1-0.
Celtic then drew 1-1 with Leicester thanks to a goal from Bahrudin Atajic leaving them needing a draw against West Ham to qualify.
After going a goal behind Callum McGregor equalised five minutes from the end to send Celtic into the last eight and a clash with Newcastle who topped Group D ahead of Aston Villa.
Celtic have been competing in the competition for over a decade and last won the trophy in 2009 when a goal from Paul McGowan was enough to beat Rangers 1-0 in the final.
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Good to see Keats back scoring in the hoops again.
I note that Newcastle won the tourney beating Aston Villa 2-1 in the final…so near. While Chelsea went down 2-3 to Leicester in the plate final.
Rangers got knocked out by Villa, the first UK side they had met 0-1.