Celtic 4, Livingston 2: Maeda is Celtic's hero as he breaks Livi hearts
dailyrecord.co.ukCeltic marched on into the Scottish Cup semi-finals, but were pushed all the way by Premiership basement side Livingston at Celtic Park.Daizen Maeda's late strike to complete his hat-trick was enough to send Celtic through to the draw, with sub Kyogo adding a fourth in stoppage time to put polish on the win.Maeda had seemingly put Celtic on their way with a first-half double, either side of a fabulous equaliser from Dan Mackay.It looked like Celtic would add to their lead, but instead Tete Yengi levelled again for Livi with some terrific finishing early in the second half.But Maeda slid in his third with four minutes left to seal a tight win.Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers made two changes from the side that lost 2-0 to Hearts last weekend.
Stephen Welsh and Nicolas Kuhn came in for Cameron Carter-Vickers and Yang.His Livingston counterpart David Martindale made five changes to the side that drew with St Johnstone.
Goalkeeper Michael McGovern replaced benched Shamal George, while Jamie Brandon, Stephen Kelly, Steven Bradley and Joel Nouble came in for Michael Devlin, David Carson, Jason Holt and Andrew Shinnie.
Injury problems meant the West Lothian side only had a bench of seven.Celtic made most of the early running, but found their way to goal blocked by some stout defending.Livingston went close in five minutes when a free kick caused havoc in the box and Ayo Obileye smacked a shot off the left post, only for a free kick to be given for a foul at the back post.Celtic took the lead in seven minutes when Kuhn's ball over the top released Daizen Maeda and he slotted the ball low past McGovern from close range.After a VAR check for offside, the goal was allowed to stand.But Livingston drew level in 12 minutes when Cristian
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