On Saturday evening we were expected to put Hibs to the sword and put them to the sword we did.
Right from the get-go, Celtic were at it with a pace and determination to get at the Easter Road club who have struggled all season under embattled manager Paul Heckingbottom.
We should have had a penalty when Paul Hanlon blatantly handled in the box but it mattered little as a few minutes later Mohamed Elyounoussi put us ahead with a header from a James Forrest cross on the 17 mins mark.
Four minutes later it was 2-0 when Callum McGregor tapped home after being set-up by Odsonne Edouard. The Frenchman was offside but truth be told we deserved it after the shocking no penalty call earlier.
Hibs were under the cosh but a defensive lapse allowed them back into it when Melker Hallberg finished from a one on one with Fraser Forster.
But any anxiety that may have caused was eased when Elyounoussi netted his second from close range only a minute before the interval after some excellent work from that man Edouard again in the box before setting up the Norwegian intentionalist winger for a point-blank finish.Â
In the second half, the frantic pace kept up and Celtic should have been out of sight but the post saved Hibs twice, firstly from Elyounoussi whose stunning effort rattled the inside of Hibs keeper Chris Maxwell’s left-hand post denying him a hattrick and then a James Forrest deflected effort came back off the other post. Â
But we got our just deserts moments after the Forrest effort when Scott Brown knocked home from close range when a corner fell nicely for him with the Hibs defence in disarray.
Flo Kamberi gave Hibs some lingering hopes with a nice header on 58 mins but on the 90 mins mark Brown scored his second – something you don’t say too often – when he finished off a breakaway move he started at the second attempt after his first effort came back off Maxwell.
Tom Rogic was in for Ryan Christie in the midfield and sprayed the ball around effortlessly all evening and Jeremie Frimpong once again impressed at left-back with his constant charging at the Hibs backline.
So 5-2 is how it ended and it could have been a lot more and we’ve now hit an incredible 73 goals in 25 competitive games this season.
It’s also our 30th consecutive domestic cup victory.
And it sets us up for a December 8th League Cup final against our beloved city rivals Rangers after the Ibrox side predictably blew Hearts out of the water 3-0 the following day at Hampden.
Dominant from the start against a dispirited side who sacked their manager on Thursday and now under the tutelage of the mythical Austin MacPhee, Alfredo Morelos scored a second-half brace after Swedish internationalist Filip Helander had given them the lead on the stroke of half time.
This ended a six-game losing streak at the national stadium for the Govan side stretching back to their 2016 Scottish Cup final loss to Hibs.
They’ve been pretty free-scoring themselves this season though way behind us with 63 goals in all competitions. 20 of those have come from Alfredo Morelos and 13 for Jermain Defoe with no other player in the team close to double figures.
On the other hand, we have three players on double digits with Mohamed Elyounoussi not far off it himself having scored seven goals in ten games thus far.Â
I think we all knew this final was coming and come it has. It’s our first cup final meeting against them since 2011 when we went down 2-1 in that season’s League Cup final. An even game played on a shocking surface could have gone either way and in the end, it was an extra-time strike from Jelavic which won Rangers their last major knock out cup silverware.
Neil Lennon was our manager that day and in the managerial hot-seat, it’s not been a kind competition for him as he has also suffered a cup final loss to Kilmarnock, a shock semi-final defeat to St.Mirren and an early rounds exit to Greenock Morton in his first stint as manager.
But all that’s in the past and hopefully, he can capture his first League Cup as a manager four weeks on Sunday.
What awaits Celtic in Rome. And it ain’t friendly.Â
Now we move on to Thursday night and our Europa League meeting with Serie A side Lazio.
After the some of the off-field things that occurred before our first match with them at Celtic Park the week before last it’s safe to say that we are in for a warm welcome even if the stadium is partially closed due to a punishment inflicted on the club for racist chants.
On the field Italian internationalist striker Ciro Immobile is on fire with 14 goals in 13 games and a six-game unbeaten league run which has seen them win their last three straight has them sitting fourth in Serie A on 21 points, seven behind leaders Juventus.
Since their match against us, they have hammered Torino 4-0 at home and won 2-1 at the San Siro against AC Milan at the weekend with Immobile hitting three goals across the two games.
They are unbeaten in six home games in all competitions this season with four wins and two draws having scored 16 and conceded 5 in the process.
Whilst we’ve flourished in the Europa League thus far and sit top of the group on seven points Lazio have really struggled and have only three points having lost away in Romania to Cluj along with their defeat against us.
If they maintain any real ambitions to progress in the tournament then they need to start winning matches immediately.
They’ve played in the Europa League in six of the previous eight seasons and in that time not once have they failed to make it out of the group stages once and have reached the quarter-finals twice.
Our record away from home this season in Europe is unusually good with no losses in five away days which has seen us win three and draw two and score and impressive eleven goals with only four conceded but this is easily the toughest trip yet.
It’s difficult to even know how hostile the atmosphere on the night will be. The Stadio Olimpico is a huge bowl of a stadium with a 70,000 + capacity and a large international athletics track running around the side of it.
Their average attendance this season usually runs between 20-30,000 and only 13,000 showed up for their last Europa League game against Rennes.
The Curva Nord part of the stadium which usually houses their ultras will be the section that’s closed though that’s unlikely to stop them taking up other parts of the ground.
For the Rome derby earlier in the season there were still 20,000 empty seats so it’s unlikely they’ll bring much more than 15,000 on the night with rumours that our travelling away support could number 10-14 thousand.
No matter how many are in the stadium I wish all travelling supporters the best of luck in the eternal city and hopefully, no incidents off the pitch will overshadow the game.
At the very least the Scots College in Rome are putting on a Mass for the first team and any supporters who want to attend so there will at least be one friendly place to take refuge as well as the Vatican too I’d imagine. Though stay away from the amphitheatre. It doesn’t have a nice history in regards to spectator events.
....Always A Tim! 