Nadir Ciftci needs parent club Celtic to lose to Rangers if he's to star for Motherwell in Scottish Cup final

Motherwell loan ace Nadir Ciftci is in the unique position of needing his parent club Celtic to lose to Rangers tomorrow if he is to fulfil his aim of playing for the Steelmen in the William Hill Scottish Cup final on May 19.
By The Newsroom
Published 14th Apr 2018, 22:02 BST
Updated 15th Apr 2018, 02:39 BST
Motherwell ace Nadir Ciftci battles it out with Aberdeen's Scott McKenna on Saturday (Pic by Alan Murray)Motherwell ace Nadir Ciftci battles it out with Aberdeen's Scott McKenna on Saturday (Pic by Alan Murray)
Motherwell ace Nadir Ciftci battles it out with Aberdeen's Scott McKenna on Saturday (Pic by Alan Murray)

The 26-year-old Turk, on loan from the Hoops until the end of the season, played the final 11 minutes as 'Well thumped Aberdeen 3-0 in Saturday's semi-final at Hampden to book another date at the national stadium against one of the Old Firm in next month's showpiece."I want to play the final and win it with Motherwell," said Ciftci, who the rules ban from playing against the Scottish champions."There's nothing that I can control about tomorrow so I will just sit back and see the score. Whatever comes I'll just pray for it to win."I still belong to Celtic and obviously if I'm going to play in the final it needs to be a win for Rangers."But I'm not going to cheer for nothing. Just see how it comes and hopefully I can play in the final."Whoever we play in the final, if we turn up like this today I think there's nothing to worry about."Ciftci, well out of favour with Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers, returned from injury on Saturday to help the Steelmen progress to their second cup final of a memorable season.“It’s special to reach a final just after joining Motherwell,” Ciftci said.“Like I said when I came here first in January, I would love to have another cup final with Motherwell as well.“We have achieved it and all the boys deserve the credit for it.“We have worked hard for it and there we are.“If you look at the score it looks like a comfortable victory but it wasn’t really like that.“You have to deserve it to get the 3-0 but we all know what Aberdeen can do.“We lost against them just a couple of weeks ago or something.“We know what they can do and they know what we can do and I think we were on our game today.“It was meant to be for us today.”If Ciftci isn't eligible for the final, at least Main and Bowman would be available to take on Celtic if the Hoops do beat their arch rivals tomorrow.Ciftci added: “I started with Curtis in the when I came here at first, Bowy was injured.“When Bowy came back it gave us loads of options up front.“Now I’ve had a wee injury, Bowy’s come in and done really well.“And then obviously Curtis doing really well.“So we know what we can do up front and that’s only a positive thing for us.“Just keep on like this, keep scoring the goals and we’ll get there."

Related topics:CelticRangersBrendan RodgersOld Firm