Maeda treble fires Celtic into Scottish League Cup final

Daizen Maeda blasted Celtic into the Scottish League Cup final as the Japan stars hattrick inspired a 60 rout of Aberdeen on SaturdayFuelled by Maedas treble Brendan Rodgers side ran riot in the semifinal 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 1992But they were dismantled either side of halftime as Jimmy Thelin suffered his first defeat as Aberdeen boss Cameron CarterVickers 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 targetAlso ReadGeographique fancied for feature eventThe Dons came into the game having won 15 games and drawn one under Thelin They were on a 21match unbeaten run since losing to Celtic on penalties at the same venue in last seasons Scottish Cup semifinalsA 22 draw at Celtic Park two weeks earlier and a midweek win over Rangers seemed to have established Aberdeens credentials as a threat to Rodgers men Kickoff was delayed by 13 minutes after a prematch pyrotechnic display from both sets of fans led to visibility problems for the VAR technologyBut CarterVickers sparked Celtics fireworks on the pitch when he rose to head home Engels corner in the 29th minute Celtic doubled their lead on the counterattack three minutes later Maeda intercepted a pass meant for Slobodan Rubezic and set up Furuhashi to finish off the underside of the barThe 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 scoringKuhn 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 Aberdeens wounds Maeda tapped home Alistair Johnstons cross with five minutes leftThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever