Celtic thump Aberdeen 4-0 to qualify for the final of Active Nation Scottish Cup
Celtic beat Aberdeen 4-0 in the semi-final of the Active Nation Scottish Cup at the Hampden Park on Sunday, 17 April 2011.
The Bhoys will take on Motherwell in the final of the competition next month.
Aberdeen manager, Craig Brown named an unchanged team from the 1-0 defeat at the hands of Rangers recently. Scott Vernon and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chris-Maguire-c9024 started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation.
On the other hand, Neil Lennon made several changes to his team from their last match against St.Johnstone. Gary Hooper and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Anthony-Stokes-c6239 started upfront in a 4-4-2 formation.
The game got off to a sedate start as both teams passed the ball around in the early minutes. First real chance of the game fell for the visitors in the 13th minute of the game, Stokes made a blistering run from the right flank and found himself
one-on-one with the goalkeeper, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jamie-Langfield-c17731, who made a nice save to deflect the ball out for a corner.
Moments later, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Andrew-Considine-c5906 was shown a straight red card after he hauled Hooper inside the box, leaving the referee with no other option but to send him off and award Celtic a penalty. Stokes stepped up to take the spot kick and Langfield guessed his
direction and made a stunning save down his right to deny the Celts.
After the penalty miss, the game dried up for major portions of the first half and neither of the two sides created any clear-cut opportunity till the half-time whistle.
Moments after the resumption of second half, Celtic came close to open the scoring. Stokes made a lovely move before shooting a powerful strike and Langfield made another tremendous save to deny the visitors.
However, The Hoops finally broke the deadlock and opened the scoring in the 49th minute. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Charlie-Mulgrew-c8844 bended a 25-yard free kick which missed everyone in the box and found the corner of the net to make it 1-0 for Celtic.
Celts continued to pile up the pressure and managed to double their advantage just before the hour mark. Joe Ledley scuffed a left-footed shot from Stoke’s pass and the goalkeeper had no chance of stopping it.
Just six minutes later, the visitors were awarded a penalty after Stokes was brought down inside the box by an Aberdeen defender. This time Kris Commons took the penalty kick and stabbed his shot into the bottom corner of the net to make it 3-0.
Neil Lennon’s men created several threatening opportunities and dominated the proceedings as Aberdeen did not manage a shot on target and struggled to cope with the pace of the game.
Three became four, just minutes before the full-time whistle; http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Scott-Brown-c32660.
The Celts stormed into the finals of the competition after a commanding performance.
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