Celtic clinches domestic treble after winning Scottish Cup

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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.

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.

Celtic’s Alistair Johnston controls the ball, during the Scottish Cup final between Celtic and Inverness Caledonian Thistle, at Hampden Park, in Glasgow, Scotland, Saturday June 3, 2023. (Andrew Milligan/PA via AP)

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 by being sidetracked.”

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