Celtic

Celtic have been drawn against Kilmarnock in the semi-final of the Premier Sports Cup. After the game at Ibrox tonight, Kenny Miller pulled the holders out of ...

The games will be played on the weekend of 14th/15th January at Hampden. Meanwhile, Jim Goodwin’s Aberdeen beat Ian McCall’s Partick Thistle 4-1 at Pittodrie to seal their place in the draw with Killie completing the semi finalists. Celtic sealed their place in the draw with an impressive 4-0 win at Fir Park.

Celtic manager Ange Postecoglou was delighted with the performance of Liel Abada this evening, as well as the other players who were rotated into the team.

He wants to learn, and he wants to improve. Still only 21, you can understand why Postecoglou thinks there’s even more to come from Abada. The pleasing thing for me is that the level of performance is staying constant.”

Greg Taylor and Sead Haksabanovic combined for a neat one-two and as it looked like Celtic's Number 3 would pull the trigger, he squared the ball for Abada, who ...

Liel Abada has opened the scoring for Celtic on the stroke of half-time. Celtic will be hoping to extend their lead in the second half, while Motherwell will likely come out and attack as they look to keep the tie alive at their end. The Israeli winger has a great habit of being in the right place at the right time and he capitalised on a tidy interchange between Celtic’s left-flank to send Ange Postecoglou’s side into the lead at the break.

Reo Hatate, Kyogo Furuhashi and Daizen Maeda have all brought a new dimension to Celtic under Ange Postecoglou... now they are hoping to cause a World Cup shock ...

At the outset of the last World Cup, it is doubtful many in the Japan national set up had even heard of Hatate, he now will head to Qatar having held his own for 60 minutes against Real Madrid's midfield containing Toni Kroos and Luka Modric. In the past, they had been known for waiting until the end of the window to move. In terms of stardom and likely players to light up the World Cup, Kyogo seems the likeliest candidate. Addressing calls for him to be dropped, his club manager told the media: 'He does put in an enormous work-rate. Similarly to his two Celtic team-mates, Hatate's path to football has not been a smooth one. 1-0 down to an early second half Hibernian goal, Kyogo scored twice to win the trophy for Celtic and give Postecoglou an early taste of success at the club. Maeda's story to professional football, like Kyogo, is one of toil and hard work with plenty of setbacks. His run to peel off the Hibs defender and slot home calmly when chaos seemingly reigned all around him with Celtic 1-0 down showed a temperament key to any top level striker's game. In my final year at university, I had trials at different teams but I couldn’t find a team,' he revealed in an interview in the summer. How the squad sizes increasing to 26 from 23 changes that remains to seen. Four goals in six matches after the split reminded Celtic of what they had missed. 'It’s a bit lazy for us all to say, I’ve just brought in four Japanese.

A young Celtic team lost out to the academy of EPL side Fulham in their opening game of the Premier League International Cup last night.

Those in attendance stated it was a harsh call made by the referee. From that moment, the English Premer League academy side was able to kick on and take advantage of the extra man, producing two late strikes to take home all three points in a 4-2 victory. The Bhoys travelled to London on Tuesday to take on Fulham in their first of four games after being invited to participate in the prestigious tournament.

Hampden beckons once again for Celtic after this comfortable 4-0 victory over Motherwell at Fir Park in the Premier Sports Cup.

This was another stark illustration of how much better this team is than the rest in Scotland right now. Celtic have assembled a squad to give them the best possible chance of coping with three games in a week. [James Forrest](/topic/james-forrest), the hat-trick hero against Hibs, might have felt slightly aggrieved to lose his place but Liel Abada came in and scored twice, taking his goal tally to eight for the campaign. On 60 minutes, Abada found Hatate in the six-yard box and he showed nimbleness to move the ball from right foot to left, flummoxing Kelly and making it 3-0. [Celtic](/topic/celtic) are in the midst of a manic October – nine games across three competitions – and in such intense periods, mental and physical stamina is given the ultimate test. This was an excellent follow-up to their [6-1 Premiership evisceration of Hibs at the weekend](https://www.scotsman.com/sport/football/celtic/emphatic-celtic-respond-to-critics-by-thrashing-hibs-as-club-legend-james-forrest-hits-100-goal-mark-3881312), maintaining their ambition of successfully defending the trophy they won last December.