Scottish Cup semi-final
Sunday, November 1, 2020
Hampden Park, Glasgow

CELTIC…2
(Christie 17, Elyounoussi 22)

ABERDEEN…0

CELTIC outclassed Aberdeen at Hampden to win 2-0 and book their place in next month’s Scottish Cup final against Hearts. Neil Lennon’s side extended their remarkable unbeaten run in domestic cup competitions to 35 with a confident and assured performance.

Ryan Christie opened the scoring early in the first half with a wonderful goal from distance before Mohamed Elyounoussi doubled the lead just minutes later.

Aberdeen threatened early on with Sam Cosgrove heading wide from Matty Kennedy’s cross. Celtic immediately responded at the other end, but Ryan Christie’s shot from the edge of the penalty area couldn’t find a clear path to goal inside a packed box.

Celtic should have taken the lead inside 10 minutes when Christie threaded a perfect first-time pass into the path of Edouard. The Hoops striker timed his run to perfection but Joe Lewis rushed off his line to make an excellent save.

Aberdeen were undeterred by the pressure from the champions and looked to attack them at any opportunity. A quick counter-attack led to Ryan Hedges darting into the box, cutting inside and firing off a shot with his left foot, but some excellent defending from Nir Bitton blocked the shot.

The opening goal came in the 17th minutes and was a moment of magic from Christie. Tom Rogic rolled the ball into Christie’s path as he cut in from the right wing, and the 26-year-old curled the ball over the Don’s keeper and into the far corner with his left foot from 30 yards.

Celtic kept the pressure on following the goal as they completely took control of proceedings. Aberdeen struggled to regain their footing as Neil Lennon’s side played with the kind of free-flowing attacking football that saw them outplay Lille in the first half of their midweek Europa League game.

Christie nearly doubled Celtic’s lead moments later when Mohamed Elyounoussi whipped a cross into the far post, but the midfielder appeared to only see the ball at the last second and could not steer his header goalward.

The champions' work-rate paid off again in the 22nd minute with another goal. Edouard played a through ball into the box for Rogic who lifted a cross towards the back post from the byline and Elyounoussi side-footed the ball over the line from a yard out.

Edouard won a free-kick 25 yards from with 10 minutes remaining in the half, but his shot up and over the wall ended too close to Lewis, who was able to save comfortably.

Celtic started the second half well and were bearing down on the Aberdeen goal moments after the restart. Christie did well to evade a challenge from two opposition defenders inside the box and cut a pass back for Elyounoussi, who saw his close-range effort blocked by Ross McCrorie.

Scott Bain was called into action at the other end in a similar chance, with Scott Wright cutting the ball back to Sam Cosgrove who fired straight at the Hoops stopper.

Aberdeen threw everything at Celtic as they tried to battle back but the organised Hoops defence were solid and denied the Dons any shots on target. Hedges and Kennedy both had efforts blocked inside the box and Lewis Ferguson’s ambitious long-range effort was way off target, while Hedges picked out the head of Tommie Hoban from a free-kick, but the defender's effort was over the crossbar.

In the end, it was a comfortable and controlled win for the cup holders, who will now look to secure their fourth consecutive domestic treble just before Christmas.

CELTIC: Bain; Duffy, Bitton, Brown, Christie (Elhamed 72), Rogic (Ntcham 83), Edouard (Griffiths 72), Elyounoussi (Ajeti 72), Frimpong, McGregor, Laxalt
Subs: Barkas, Taylor, Klimala, Soro, Turnbull

ABERDEEN: Lewis; Hoban, Taylor (Leigh 63), Considine, Hedges, McCrorie, Ferguson, Kennedy (McGinn 85), Wright, Watkins (Main 78), Cosgrove (McLennan 63)
Subs: Logan, Devlin, Ojo, Edmondson, Woods

Website Man of the Match: Ryan Christie

Celtic book their place in Scottish Cup final after outclassing Dons