Michael Beale revealed he told his Rangers players to stop being "anxious" after they again fell behind in their Viaplay Cup semi-final, but turned things around to book a final showdown with Celtic.
The Light Blues will face off against their city neighbours next month, who beat Kilmarnock on Saturday evening to reach a second successive League Cup final after lifting the trophy last year. They had to come from behind after Bojan Miovski gave the Dons a first half lead. But Rangers hit back through former Pittodrie captain Ryan Jack's deflected effort.
They couldn't be separated before the 90 minutes were up, but Jim Goodwin saw his job get harder in extra time when skipper Anthony Stewart was shown a straight red for a wild lunge on Fashion Sakala out on the touchline. And they were punished by their numerically superior opponents when fit-again Kemar Roofe's close range finish gave Beale's side an extra-time lead.
However, the numbers were soon evened up temporarily when the Jamaican was forced off with an injury and was eventually replaced by Charlie McCann. Beale admitted they won;t know how bad the damage is until the striker goes for a scan on Monday.
“We won’t know until he has a scan tomorrow," he told Viaplay "It’s a pretty heavy landing on his shoulder but it’s not a dislocation. Just a heavy landing.
“We’ll have to hope for the best. Obviously with Antonio (Colak) being out today and then Kemar just coming back, we can’t catch a break there at the moment.
‘All in all, it's a group that’s had some tough moments this season. Now they’ve got to a final and I've told them to stop being anxious.
“The last few weeks when there’s been moments where we’ve been behind, we’ve shown unbelievable mentality and unbelievable strength in terms of out style of play and sticking to it. We’ve managed to turn results around.
“It would have been unjust if he hadn’t gone through today, but credit to Aberdeen. I thought they were terrific in the game.
“It’s always nervous until that final whistle goes, but that’s part of the team living together and knowing how to see things out at the right moments of the game. Both teams did some really good things today; we’ve hit the bar, they’ve hit the post.
“There were other moments when their keeper has made a big save. Allan made a good one down to his right as well.
“It was a good semi-final and we’re just glad we’re through. Semi-finals are there to be won.
“Today we were victorious and we can forget about that now for a month or so and get on with the heavy league schedule.”
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