Match Reports

Celtic 4 St Mirren 1

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Image for Celtic 4 St Mirren 1

Celtic reached the Scottish Cup semi-final after coming from behind to defeat St Mirren 4-1 at Celtic Park.

The hosts trailed at the break to Harry Davis’ shock thirteenth-minute opener. But Mikael Lustig and Scott Sinclair both scored around the hour-mark to turn the contest around.

Leading marksman Moussa Dembele and substitute Leigh Griffiths later went on to make the scoreline more emphatic.

There was a perfectly observed minute’s silence before the game to Lisbon Lion legend Tommy Gemmell, who sadly passed away last Thursday.

Stuart Armstrong called goalkeeper Billy O’Brien into early action, although when John Sutton headed back Cameron Smith’s cross, Davis suddenly had the visitors in front.

Skipper Scott Brown responded by drilling wide while Gary Mackay-Steven might have had a penalty following a high challenge inside the area.

Dembele next missed a great chance when slicing wide, and then sent another effort beyond the target after the break.

At the other end, Sutton’s reply was deflected over before Dembele’s attempted clearance only succeeded in finding the underside of his own crossbar.

But substitute Patrick Roberts’ free-kick was headed into the far corner by Lustig, and Sinclair then curled in an immediate second from Griffiths’ pass.

Celtic went on to improve on that when Sinclair swapped passes with Roberts and allowed the prolific Dembele to find the net.

Lewis Morgan proved wide at the other end and Dembele was only denied his second by an upright, before substitute Griffiths lashed in a trademark fourth goal.

Celtic: Gordon, Lustig, Boyata, Sviatchenko, Tierney, Brown, Bitton (Griffiths 54), Mackay-Steven (Roberts 46), Armstrong (Kouassi 77), Sinclair, Dembele

subs (unused): Simunovic, Gamboa, de Vries, McGregor

Goals: Lustig (58), Sinclair (59), Dembele (68), Griffiths (78)

St Mirren: O’Brien, Demetriou, Davis, Mackenzie (Baird 75), Irvine, Magennis (Storie 83), Mallan, McGinn, Morgan, Smith, Sutton (Loy 70)

subs (unused): Langfield, Webster, Fjelde, O’Keefe

Goals: Davis (13)

Ref: S. McLean

Att: 27,455

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