CELTS’ PUNCH OF FIVES
Hibs looked to world champ Josh for inspiration but it was Hoops who delivered knockout blows after quick one-two
They talked about taking inspiration from Hibs-daft world boxing champ Josh Taylor.
But there’s only one knockout king in Scottish football. Celtic racked up an incredible 30th straight cup win to reach their seventh final in a row, unstoppable on the front foot despite a couple of wobbles on the back.
A brutal one-two punch in four first-half minutes put the Easter Road side on the seat of their pants.
The y showed the stomach to get up from the canvas twice with counters of their own but just couldn’t go the distance. Doubles from Mo Elyounoussi and skipper Scott Brown and a goal from
Callum McGregor were more than enough to book their retur n to Hampden on December 8, despite a couple of switch-off moments allowing Melker Hal lberg and Flo Kamberi to give the Hibs fans a flicker of hope.
And nine months on from being emptied out the back door in dubious circumstances by Hibs, no one will have been happier at the outcome than Neil Lennon, if he allows a little of the personal to seep in with the professional.
After dealing superbly with the pressure of ushering the treble Treble over the l ine last s e a son, the Hoops manager can be deeply
satisfied at the way his players kept themselves right on track for a quadruple.
Before the game it looked like Lennon’s biggest decision would be who was going to replace thigh-strain victim Brown .
In the end the skipper did a more than adequate job of playing himself, an absolute inspiration from first minute to literally the last.
The Hoops boss’ other shouts were maybe more interesting, Fraser Forster getting his first League Cup start of the season ahead of Craig Gordon.
Jeremie Frimpong for Hatem Abd Elhamed and Tom Rogic in the 10 slot ahead of Ryan Christie, the latter two choices you’d bet would be reversed in Rome on Thursday night.
In the end, though, whatever Celtic side he put out was always going to have too much pace and dynamism for Hibs.
This might have been pretty much the same XI Paul
Heckingbottom used to take a point from the champs in the league five weeks ago – Daryl Horgan for Glenn Middleton the only change – but barring Horgan’s curled 30-yard effort early on, they struggled badly to contain Celtic.
And as usual this season, a large chunk of their undoing was all their own work.
The Hoops had just been denied a pretty big penalty shout 17 minutes in when Paul Hanlon left an arm dangling at a corner, but it was rendered meaningless seconds later as Celtic showed up Hibs’ woeful defence for what it was.
James Forrest broke on the right, capitalising on some slack ball retention from Hibs, but it was the work – or lack of it – on the other side which was embarrassing.
Tom James was sucked towards the ball like a magnet, Stevie Mallan in right mid was jogging back and watching it all unfold like a spectator 30 yards away, leaving two Celts
waiting patiently in a queue for the Scotland winger’s cross to drop at the back post.
In the end it was the first of a deserved double for Elyounoussi, heading home from behind Odsonne Edouard.
Four minutes later, a Chris Jullien ball over the top found Hibs trying to hold a line against French Under-21 star Edouard.
If we had VAR, it might have found him six inches off – but we don’t and the flag stayed down.
He was in and although his square ball on the six-yard line was into the traff ic of three purple shirts, the only man hungry enough to get there first was in green and yellow, McGregor barrelling in to ram the ball home.
Most of Hibs’ performances this season would have had you expecting them to go under there and then.
But, to be fair to the Easter Road men, they found a little of the resilience that saw them take a last-minute point against
Liv ingston in midweek. Eight minutes from the break, with the ball ping- ponging around the edge of the Celtic box, Boli Bolingoli snaked out a leg to challenge but ended up playing the perfect ball in for Hallberg to slide under Forster.
It should have been the boost they needed to get in at the break with the wind in their sai ls – instead they had it knocked right back out of them.
Again, defensively the Hibees were woeful.
Rogic found Edouard out wide, he went one on one with James into the box, and the Hibs full-back looked like when he’d had the choice of mouldies, screw-ins or concrete for his boots in the dressing room, he’d chosen the latter.
Even his last-resort shove in the back couldn’t stop the square ball.
And, despite two defenders in decent spots, this time Elyounoussi was the man with the appetite to bury the ball into
the roof of the net. Both sides made changes at the break, Kamberi replacing Josh Vela as Hibs tried a 4- 4-2, and Johnny Hayes coming on for Bolingoli.
The winger-turned-full-back quickly realised he could join in the hunt when it came to James , and within three minutes had blown past him like he wasn’t there, only to smash his shot over.
The Hibs’ right-back was a tormented soul and next up to strip him was Elyounoussi, who was unlucky to see his shot come back off the post.
The same fate that befell Forrest a minute later as his shot def lected up off Lewis Stevenson onto the woodwork.
Celtic were clearly going for an early burial, though, and it seemed like it had come before the hour was out, thanks to another howler from a Hibs perspective.
Keeper Chris Maxwell came for Elyounoussi’s corner, lost it as Jul lien powered in and
Brown rolled the loose ball home from six yards.
Maxwell pleaded with ref Bobby Madden for clemency but it must have been more to hide his embarrassment than out of any great belief he was impeded. He wasn’t.
Again, though, back Hibs came and quickly silenced the majority of Hampden with a cracker, Horgan’s pacey ball in from deep on the right headed home beautifully by Kamberi.
It could have been even tighter, Mallan clattering a brilliant volley inches over.
But Celts cruised it home in the end with room to spare, Brown slotting in his own rebound after some superb work with Elyounoussi to seal his ow n dream
double.