A hat-trick from Daizen Maeda along with goals from Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo Furhashi, and Nicolas Kuhn saw Celtic secure their spot with utter ease in the Premier Sports cup final, where they will face fierce rivals in an Old Firm derby clash.
Celtic made six changes to their squad that defeated Dundee 2-0 during the week. Johnston, Valle, McGregor, Hatate, Kuhn, and Maeda replaced Ralston, Taylor, Bernardo, McCowan, Yang and Palma. Meanwhile Aberdeen fielded an unchanged 11 from the 2-1 win against Rangers during the week, which sent them nine points clear of Philippe Clement’s Gers in the Scottish Premiership.
An intense build-up took place, with both teams’ fans feeling confident ahead of the semi-final. Smoke filled Hampden Stadium with both sets of ‘ultra’ fans setting off pyrotechnics when the teams arrived on to the pitch.
Before the game, Brendan Rodgers told Premier Sports: “It’s going to be a great atmosphere in the game. Two top teams.” While Aberdeen manager Jimmy Thelin, who was managing his first semi-final, siad: “We want to go to the final.”
After 28 minutes, Celtic took the lead, almost out of nowhere through a header from Cameron Carter-Vickers. Then Celtic doubled their lead when a Aberdeen mistake led to a counter attack from Daizen Maeda. Maeda squared up Kyogo Furhashi after beating the Aberdeen defence and Kyogo hit it in the net from a couple of yards out. In the build-up to halftime, Jimmy Thelin’s men just couldn’t seem to get a grip on the game allowing Celtic to bury the tie, when Daizen Maeda scored Celtic’s third.
It was clear that Celtic had learned their lesson from two weeks ago, leaving no room for Aberdeen to get back into the tie. Unlike that league game, when Celtic let slip of a 2-0 first half lead, Rodgers men were absolutely ruthless and with just four minutes of the second half played, Maeda scored his second and the Hoops’ fourth.
Celtic continued to pile on Aberdeen’s pain, when Nicola Kuhn continued to add to his impressive goal tally this season, making it 5-0 in the 58th minute.
Celtic comfortably held their lead, leaving a good number of Aberdeen’s fans no choice but to catch an early train home. Things deteriorated even more for them when Daizen Maeda completed his hat-trick, completing a top performance from Rodgers’ men, with the game ending 6-0 and the Celtic fans in full noise.
It was a night to forget for Aberdeen, as they lost their first match of the season. They looked nowhere like the team that defeated Rangers midweek. Not many people would have expected it to be as comfortable as it was for Celtic, but for Rodgers side, it was a big statement win showing they are fighting in all competitions this year.
Brendan Rodgers was full of credit for his players after the game: “It was obviously an outstanding performance against a team who has been really good this season.” He also felt that his players were “good in the first half, but outstanding in the second,” – an indication that his side made up for their mistakes from the recent league meeting at Celtic Park.
“We have things to learn, things to improve,” said Jimmy Thelin in the post-match media conference. He was very vocal about keeping the positivity that is surrounding Aberdeen at the moment, but also congratulated Celtic on their victory. “The most important thing is we learn how to get used to these environments. It is difficult to explain how that happened, but that’s football.”
What started off as a somewhat even contest ended in a Hampden hammering as Celtic dismantled Aberdeen in a 6-0, 5-star performance which saw Rodgers side cruise to the final. Meanwhile for Jimmy Thelin, he can turn his attention back to the Scottish Premiership where his side remains undefeated. Who knows if this is what will send Aberdeen’s season sideways, or if it will inspire them to push even harder towards a potential title race.
