Fashion Sakala is adamant that he scored the goal that took Rangers past Celtic and into the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park.
In the 114th minute of an enthralling semi-final at Hampden Park, after Gers substitute Scott Arfield had cancelled out Greg Taylor’s second-half opener, Ibrox defender Calvin Bassey took a Ryan Kent pass down the left and fired the ball across goal.
Ibrox sub Sakala, who came on for Kemar Roofe in the 108th minute, slid in along with Celtic defender Carl Starfelt and it looked like the Hoops player had scored an own goal, with Rangers going on to secure a dramatic win and set up the final meeting with Hearts next month.
Asked if it was his goal, the Zambia international said: “Yes, that is my goal.
“I had the last touch.
“There was a bit of a misunderstanding, I didn’t know what to do, the players were all running in different directions. But after a minute we all came back together.
“It was a brilliant feeling to finally get the victory. We have had disappointing results in the last couple of matches against Celtic.
“I’m just happy and so proud of the team because of what we achieved.
“The most important thing was the victory, it means a lot to us.
“It was beautiful at the end to share the moment with the fans.
“We always try to give something back to them because they are always there for us even in the bad moments.
“We so much wanted to give them the victory.”
After taking 120 minutes to beat Braga in their Europa League quarter-final clash at Ibrox on Thursday night, Sakala described Rangers’ mental strength as “brilliant.”
He said: “We had a game against Braga three days ago and another 120 minutes here.
“We didn’t have any time to rest but we were still going strong.”
