Cameron Carter Vickers handed soft Celtic foul verdict ahead of Rangers opener

Simon Donnelly confesses that Celtic got away with a "soft" foul in the build-up to their opener against Rangers.

A well-worked free-kick would see Greg Taylor slot the ball into the bottom corner at Hampden.

Rangers would run out winners with Scott Arfield's leveller and Carl Starfelt's own goal in extra time turning the semi-final around.

However, Donnelly pinpointed the incident that led to the opener in his post-match debrief.

The former Parkhead hero felt that Cameron Carter-Vickers went down easily under pressure from Kemar Roofe to earn the vital set-piece.

Donnelly told BBC Sportscene: "From a Rangers perspective, I think there is a little bit of a soft free-kick.

"I think Carter-Vickers tries to come out of this situation (with Kemar Roofe) and he looks like he is a bit off balance.

"Then Celtic win themselves a soft free-kick.

"But from then they capitalise brilliantly."

Calvin Bassey's cross, which led to Starfelt directing the ball into his own net, also got the Sportscene treatment.

Ryan Kent slid the ball to the full-back before Stephen Welsh could catch the Nigeria international.

The whipped ball would end up in Joe Hart's net, but Donnelly reckons that the linesman should have raised his flag.

He added: "You've got to give them credit. They played 120 minutes on Thursday night, and you see the energy of Bassey.

"You would have thought Celtic would have been showing the energy at the stage.

"It's very tight (Kent's ball to Bassey). Obviously we will have VAR next season, and it's very, very tight. From a Celtic view, you are wanting that to be offside.