Celtic reach the quarter finals with ease
Celtic thrashed Inverness Caledonian Thistle to progress to the quarter finals of the Co-Operative Insurance Cup.
Georgios Samaras scored a hat-trick and Anthony Stokes grabbed a brace as Celtic made light work of their opponents. Gary Cooper scored Celtic’s other goals in the 6-0 demolition of Inverness.
Samaras had a point to prove to Celtic manager Neil Lennon having been left out of the previous Premier league match and he got his side of to a great start after 17 minutes, when he deflected Joe Ledley’s shot past Jonathan Tuffey in the Inverness goal.
Samaras had a great chance to make it two when Efrain Juarez put the Greek forward through one on one with the goalkeeper, but the striker smashed his shot against the bar.
Moments later Gary Hooper scored Celtic’s second. Samaras turned provider and laid the ball off to Hooper who turned the defender and volleyed the ball into the net from close range. John Hayes came close for the visitors, but the game had an air of inevitability
about it and Samaras ended any hopes of a comeback when he picked up Juarez’s pass and deftly chipped the ball over Tuffey.
Inverness manager Terry Butcher sent his men out fired up for the second half. Ki Sung Yeung had to block a goal bound effort from Nick Ross after a defence splitting pass from Shane Sutherland. Inverness pressed on as they tried to get something out of
the game, but on 57 minutes Samaras knocked David Proctor off the ball and drove a low shot past Tuffey to claim his hat-trick. The goal put Celtic 4-0 up and stopped a Caley revival.
Inverness were completely dispirited and it came as no surprise when Stokes scored his first goal of the match from the penalty spot. The Irish striker was brought down in the box by Tuffey after he latched on to Grant Munro’s poor back pass.
The visitor’s misery was not complete and Stokes scored his second of the night with a fantastic drive from outside the box, which the goalkeeper had no chance of stopping.
Lennon will have a number of difficult choices as to who he will start in the next match when Celtic take on Hibernian. Stokes and Samaras pressed their claims for a start, but Lennon has tended to opt for Daryl Murphy and Shaun Maloney as his preferred
partnership.
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