Category Sports News

Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin called it all “a little bit surrealistic”.

Captain Graeme Shinnie spoke with glistening eyes about taking an open-topped bus down a heaving street where he used to shop as a child.

And chairman Dave Cormack wondered whether he might have been “swinging off the chandeliers” in celebration had it happened a few years before now.

But perhaps Scottish Cup final game-changer Shayden Morris encapsulated a remarkable afternoon in the Granite City most succinctly.

“This is just unreal man,” the Englishman said, awestruck at the sight of close to 100,000 Aberdeen fans engulfing the city’s streets to welcome home their Hampden heroes.

Morris reckons it was “the best day of our lives” and few of his team-mates would disagree, judging by the smiles on their bleary faces as they hung off the slow-moving bus and cavorted on the Town House balcony.

A “couple of the boys are hanging”, confirmed midfielder Dante Polvara when asked about the riotous celebrations both on the road back north from Glasgow and when Aberdeen party arrived home.

Captain Shinnie’s crackly voice hinted it had been a big one. He reckoned he might have got “a couple of hours sleep”.

“I always knew that this was possible if you won a trophy for this club,” the 33-year-old said of the city centre scenes. “But I didn’t expect it to be as good as what it is.

“This is what I was always desperate to do. It’s phenomenal. You’ve shared it with your team-mates but now you’re sharing it with the city.

“There are close to 100,000 fans and you can see what it means to all of them. It’s a very special weekend.”

Cormack has been part of crowds hailing Aberdeen trophy successes in the 1980s, so also had an inkling about what Sunday’s celebrations would hold.

“This is very special,” he said. “It’s supposed to be raining today and the sun has come out as well. Maybe if I was 40 I might have been swinging off the chandeliers.”

The chairman also paid tribute to Thelin, whose debut season at the club has been one of the most polarised that anyone could have imagined.

Cormack insisted the Swede is at Pittodrie for the long term and is “not a job-hopper”, should his success attract interest from elsewhere.

Certainly, days like this should help convince Thelin to stay where he is.

“It’s been unbelievable. Much, much bigger than I thought,” he said, looking every inch his a man who had enjoyed his evening.

“You imagine what’s going to happen but it was much, much bigger than that. It was actually a little bit surrealistic.

When Aberdeen last won the Scottish Cup in 1990, I was on a bus embarking on a school trip to Germany, listening to it all unfold on my pocket radio.

So being at the celebrations really hammered home how long – too long – it has been since the club last won this trophy, and what it means to the city.

The Dons fans lined the streets in their thousands – well into the tens of thousands, in fact – as the open-top bus weaved its way through the city centre.

They were in fine voice too, with ‘Shinnie, he is one of our own’ and the now trademark ‘Shady Mo’ song being among the choruses belted out as the bus crawled through the throng that filled the granite streets.

Prior to the final, there was a mood of trepidation, and very little expectation among the Red Army.

What a difference a day can make – this was a scene of jubilation and celebration.

It was a fitting reception for the Aberdeen players and staff, who now have their names etched in to the club’s history books.

As they took it in turns to hold the trophy aloft from the balcony at the Town House at the Castlegate end of Union Street, each lift was greeted with delirious joy.

Of course, the challenge will be to build on this success.

Fans lined the streets to see the bus go down Union Street, along Union Terrace and Schoolhill before making its way onto Broad Street.

Chris Nicholl, 30, who was at the game, said the experience was “amazing”.

“It was 35 years of emotion held in for my dad,” he said.

His wife Leah, 30, added: “He didn’t even cry for our wedding!”

The win was especially sweet for a father and son who travelled from Australia to support Aberdeen.

Allan McCarlie, 51, and his 18-year-old son Jamie flew more than 10,000 miles (16,000km) from Sydney for the match on Saturday.

They admitted beforehand people thought they were making a pointless long journey as Celtic were heavy favourites.

“I was told I was mad,” Allan said afterwards. “Spending so much money to travel from Sydney.

As former champion Primoz Roglic lost a lot of time to the rest of his general classification rivals, Spaniard Carlos Verona won stage 15 of the Giro d’Italia with a long-range solo attack on Sunday.

With less than 20 kilometers to go, Slovenian Roglic, one of the pre-race favorites, dropped a minute and a half to the rest of the contenders for the leader’s pink jersey.

The 35-year-old Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe rider is now three minutes 53 seconds behind race leader Isaac del Toro after dropping from fifth to 10th overall.

Verona, 32, a breakaway rider for Lidl-Trek, fought back against a chasing pack of his breakaway teammates to claim his second professional victory and his first Grand Tour stage victory.

Verona finished 22 seconds ahead of Florian Stork and Christian Scaroni in third place, “I certainly didn’t come to the Giro thinking I could win a stage,” she said.

After crashing on stage 14 on Sunday, I was standing ovation for points leaders Mads Pedersen and Giulio Ciccone.

When Cicco was lost, “everything changed yesterday.” My day today is today. Knowing how hard Giulio had worked for this race, I knew I didn’t want to do it for myself.

The British rider, Team Visma-Lease a Bike Simon Yates, leads by one minute and 20 seconds heading into the final week of the UAE Team Emirates-XRG competition.

In the Women’s World Tour event, Swiss Marlen Reusser claimed the title of overall champion at the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas.

The Movistar rider, who had almost two minutes to win the general classification, won back-to-back stage victories.

Stuart Kettlewell has been appointed as Kilmarnock’s new manager, and an appointment is on the horizon.

Derek McInnes, who left Rugby Park last week to join Hearts, will take the place of the former Motherwell and Ross County boss.

Kettlewell, 40, resigned as Motherwell’s CEO in January citing personal abuse during a downward spiral.

However, he was given the job because of his strong impressions of Kilmarnock chairman Billy Bowie and his fellow directors in interviews.

Steven Naismith and John Carver, a former Kilmarnock forward, had also been linked with the position.

In choosing a new manager, Kilmarnock clearly had an eye on avoiding any issues that came with McInnes’ departure.

With the growing rumors, a defeat at Motherwell, and some understandable dismay from some fans, things got a little tricky.

It was obvious that McInnes’ decision to not take over for his final game against his prospective new employers was a case of “damage limitation.”

Kettlewell didn’t come along unexpectedly. He is accessible and capable of citing compelling work history at Ross County and Motherwell.

David M: At Motherwell, he had no real chance. His sincerity is always mine.

Adam, I’m not entirely sure about Kettlewell. However, I believe John Carver would make a wise choice.

Ryan, Kettlewell has a lot of risk. If he wasn’t happy, surely it has to be considered a real possibility that he would walk again on his own terms when you consider how he left his previous position?

John, I would choose either Carver or Kettlewell.

Ross: Given some of the other names being hailed, Kettlewell’s potential is a little unwelcoming. During his previous job, he didn’t specifically ignite the heather.

Taylor: I don’t see him staying in the job past Christmas, if it’s Kettlewell. I’m sorry, but I just can’t see it.

French Open 2025

Location: Roland Garros, May 25 – June

With a dominant straight-set victory over German qualifier Yannick Hanfmann, eighth-seeded eighth seed Lorenzo Musetti triumphed decisively into the second round of the French Open.

The Italian won the final 11 games on Court Philippe Chatrier, growing to 7-5, 6-2, and 6-0.

Musetti, the eighth-ranked men’s player in action on day one of the clay Grand Slam, looked just like Hanfmann throughout their tie.

Musetti, 23, is in top form on clay, having for the first time entered the top 10 earlier in May.

He reached the semi-finals of the Madrid Open and Italian Open this month after Carlos Alcaraz defeated him in the Monte Carlo Masters final in April.

“This month has been incredible,” he said. He claimed that many of his goals have been met.

“But I believe the future holds out for the best.” I was able to increase my level and the click necessary to move up in the rankings.

In the second round of Roland Garros, he will face either Colombian lucky loser Daniel Elahi Galan or French wildcard Valentin Royer.

American 12th seed Tommy Paul defeated Dane Elmer Moeller 6-7, 5-7, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 on Sunday in another match.

French champion French tennis player Frances Tiafoe defeated Russian Roman Safiullin 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.

In the Irish 1, 000 Guineas at the Curragh, Lake Victoria withstanded a strong challenge from California Dreamer, a 50-1 outsider.

The 10-11 shot was out to recover from a subpar performance at Newmarket, just like Field of Gold did in the Irish 2, 000 Guineas on Saturday.

Prior to the 1, 000 Guineas this month, Aidan O’Brien’s filly had won six of the 10 runners and had been unbeaten, including a win at the Breeders’ Cup.

The three-year-old had to be patient before showing her class in an impressive response under Ryan Moore, riding along the rail before advancing two-and-a-quarter lengths ahead of California Dreamer, who came in third (20-1) with Cercene (20-1).

After winning this race for the fourth time, Moore told RTE Sport, “She ran beautifully today.”

She has significantly improved since Newmarket. It’s really exciting.

Lando Norris, a McLaren driver, had the first copybook drive and was in charge from beginning to end of the Monaco Grand Prix.

For the Briton’s second victory of the season, Norris overcame the potential pitfalls of a new rule that requires drivers to use three sets of tyres throughout the race to maintain lead throughout.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton was a distant fifth place, ahead of Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who finished third.

The race broke out amid rumors about how the new law, which would increase risk, would be implemented, and amid rumors of wild strategies and potential chaos.

The only intervention by the safety car was an early virtual one following a Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto crash on the first lap, it turned out to be relatively straightforward for the front-runners.

As the top 10 walked away from the grid in order, Norris created a lead at the first corner from his excellent pole position, his first since the season-opening in Australia.

Norris fought through both pit stops because Leclerc, Leclerc, and Piastri all used the same formula to split the race roughly into thirds: starting on a medium tyre and then two stints on a hard.

Verstappen was disadvantaged when he entered the race with only one set of the available medium and hard tyres, which made him use the softs.

Red Bull ran him using an inverted approach, starting with the hards and moving up to the mediums, before holding off on until the final pit stop was as late as possible.

After Norris, Leclerc, and Piastri made their second stop with about 28 laps left, the Dutchman was in the lead.

Red Bull appeared to be hoping for a crash and a red flag, which would have allowed him to maintain the lead and switch to a third set of tires for free.

Although the new rule was intended to spice up the race, it only served to theoreticalize because teams were huddled around waiting for unexpected events that would require quick judgment.

There was not a safety car that caused a strategy scramble, though Alpine’s Pierre Gasly crashed into Yuki Tsunoda’s Red Bull early on and broke his suspension, and Fernando Alonso retired his Aston Martin with an engine failure.

Hamilton was the only one to jump ahead of Alonso at the first pit stops while managing his engine issue before retiring.

Alonso, who is still on zero points, has had his worst season ever, coming in at no. 3 on McLaren-Honda’s disastrous 2015.

Isack Hadjar, a Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar, made two pit stops just before the start of the race to end up on hard tyres and run the finish line behind Hamilton.

Esteban Ocon, a Haas driver, placed seventh, ahead of Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz’s Williams and second Racing Bull, Liam Lawson, and Carlos Sainz, a Williams driver.

George Russell was irritated by Albon’s maneuvering of the race to allow him and Sainz to pit and both earn points.

Russell eventually cut the chicane to take the position and refused to return it, saying he would “take the penalty.” He complained that Albon was driving erratically.