Daizen Maeda blasted Celtic into the Scottish League Cup final as the Japan star`s hat-trick inspired a 6-0 rout of Aberdeen on Saturday.
Fuelled by Maeda`s treble, Brendan Rodgers` side ran riot in the semi-final at Hampden Park to book a final date with Rangers or Motherwell on December 15. Aberdeen fans travelled to Glasgow filled with hope of seeing their team beat Celtic at the national stadium for the first since 1992.
But they were dismantled either side of half-time as Jimmy Thelin suffered his first defeat as Aberdeen boss. Cameron Carter-Vickers headed the first half opener and the Scottish champions never looked back. Maeda set up Kyogo Furuhashi to score the second and Nicolas Kuhn was also on target.
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The Dons came into the game having won 15 games and drawn one under Thelin. They were on a 21-match unbeaten run since losing to Celtic on penalties at the same venue in last season`s Scottish Cup semi-finals.
A 2-2 draw at Celtic Park two weeks earlier and a midweek win over Rangers seemed to have established Aberdeen`s credentials as a threat to Rodgers` men. Kick-off was delayed by 13 minutes after a pre-match pyrotechnic display from both sets of fans led to visibility problems for the VAR technology.
But Carter-Vickers sparked Celtic`s fireworks on the pitch when he rose to head home Engels` corner in the 29th minute. Celtic doubled their lead on the counter-attack three minutes later. Maeda intercepted a pass meant for Slobodan Rubezic and set up Furuhashi to finish off the underside of the bar.
The third goal came in the 40th minute as Kuhn played a brilliant through ball for Maeda, who eluded Nicky Devlin and swept home. Celtic were equally dominant in the second half and took just four minutes to add to the scoring.
Kuhn ran from the halfway line, waltzed into area and saw a shot saved before Maeda tucked home the rebound. In the 59th minute, Engels helped the ball on to Kuhn and he curled his shot in off the bar from just inside the area. Rubbing salt into Aberdeen`s wounds, Maeda tapped home Alistair Johnston`s cross with five minutes left.
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