CELTIC 6 ABERDEEN 0
JET-HEELED Daizen Maeda left shell-shocked Aberdeen in his slipstream as he fired in a hat-trick in Celtic’s breathtaking six-goal display in the Premier Sports League Cup semi-final at a rocking Hampden tonight.
The Japanese speedster was unstoppable as he put the Dons to the sword and Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo Furuhashi and Nicolas Kuhn joined in the goal rush against a team who had gone 16 games unbeaten until facing this unstoppable onslaught.
A beaming Brendan Rodgers watched his relentless, ruthless team dismantle the opposition to book a place in the Cup Final at the national stadium on Sunday December 15.
Motherwell and Philippe Clement’s Ibrox outfit meet tomorrow afternoon for the ‘privilege’ of providing the opposition as the first piece of domestic silverware goes up for grabs.
The champions even eclipsed the pyrotechnic display that left the stadium engulfed in smoke that held up kick-off for 14 minutes.
The Hoops produced a disciplined performance that nullified the counter-attacking of opponents who snatched two goals at Parkhead a fortnight ago with the tactic.
NUMBER ONE…Cameron Carter=Vickers rises high to bullet in a header.
NUMBER TWO…Kyogo Furuhashi prepares to leave Dons keeper Dimitar Mitov helpless.
NUMBER THREE…Daizen Maeda sends a right-foot drive arrowing past Mitov.
NUMBER FOUR…Daizen Maeda pops up at the back post to leave Nicky Devlin gasping.
NUMBER FIVE…Nicolas Kuhn clips in a smart left-foot effort.
NUMBER SIX…Daizen Maeda completes his Hampden hat-trick.
On this occasion, the back four of Alistair Johnston, Carter-Vickers, Auston Trusty and Alex Valle were alerted to the swift thrusts and protected Kasper Schmeichel to the extent the keeper didn’t have a solitary save to make during the entire encounter.
The Dons were decimated by a Celtic team with something to prove against pretenders to their throne.
Rodgers’ men were persistent as they surged forward and the raids of Kuhn and Maeda on the flanks kept their rivals pinned back while Kyogo’s pace created panic in cenral defence.
The Hoops took control early in the contest and deservedly took the lead in the 29th minute after Kyogo had won a corner-kick on the left wing.
Arne Engels, who produced another lung-bursting, energetic showing, flighted the ball into the danger zone and Carter-Vickers rose unchallenged six yards out to flash a header past the static Dimitar Mitov for the breakthrough goal.
Jimmy Thelin’s side were still trying to figure what had hit them when they found themselves two goals adrift.
It was a break forward that left the Dons gasping as the Hoops cleared a corner-kick at their own end.
Maeda won a 50/50 tussle in the centre circle to touch the ball to Kuhn. The Japanese attacker took off at blistering pace to accept the return from the in-the-mood winger.
Maeda took the pass in his stride, held up play until the precise moment he decided to roll the ball into the tracks of the galloping Kyogo and his countryman thundered an unstoppable drive into the net off the underside of the crossbar.
Five minutes from the interval, the Parkhead men struck again when Kyogo and Kuhn combined to release Maeda and the fleet-footed flanker whipped No.3 behind a stranded Mitov.
BALL BHOY…hat-trick hero Daizen Maeda with the matchball.
It was all eye-popping stuff with Celtic switching on the afterburners to simply overwhelm their stunned opponents.
The bad news for the Pittodrie side was that the Hoops had no mood of letting up or dropping the pace in the second-half.
Four minutes after the turnaround, there was another mesmerising quickfire move involving Johnston, Engels and Kuhn that saw a shot from the German winger ricochet off Mitov to Maeda at the back post and he hammered the ball into the net.
Ten minutes later, Kuhn got in on the scoring act in another sublime move that saw Valle and Engels combine to set up the right-winger and he danced inside a challenge to take the ball to his lethal left foot before sizzling a drive high into the rigging.
With an eye on Tuesday’s Champions League match against RB Leipzig, Rodgers began making changes to freshen up the team and rest some tired limbs.
In the 63rd minute, he took off Carter-Vickers, Valle and Engels and put on Greg Taylor, Liam Scales and Paulo Bernardo and seven minutes later Adam Idah came on for Kyogo.
James Forrest entered the action for Kuhn in the 72nd minute as the side continued to surge forward in numbers.
Maeda completed a brilliant hat-trick in the 86th minute with a goal which will surely not be bettered this season.
Trusty, Bernardo, Forrest and Hatate were all involved before Johnston raced into the box on the right.
The Canadian whipped a low ball to Maeda and he applied the killer touch for the third time.
Roll on another silverware showpiece at Hampden 10 days before Christmas!
TEAM: Schmeichel; Johnston, Carter-Vickers (sub: Scales 63), Trusty, Valle (sub: Taylor 63); Engels (sub: Bernardo 63), McGregor, Hatate; Kuhn (sub: Forrest 72), Kyogo (sub: Idah 70), Maeda.
