Celtic sweep St Johnstone aside to reach Scottish Cup final

Celtic will play Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final after thumping St Johnstone 5-0 in their last-four clash at Hampden.

The length of the Premiership table separated the sides before kick-off and Celtic showed their class to make simple work of reaching the final and continuing their treble dream.

Brendan Rodgers’ side only need one more point to complete their defence of the Premiership title, and know that would leave them only a win away form a clean sweep of domestic trophies.

St Johnstone had hoped for a repeat of their shock league win against the same opposition two weeks ago but were outplayed and will now turn their attention to their fight against relegation.

Celtic got their noses in front just after the half-hour mark and had their captain to thank.

Reo Hatate found Callum Mcgregor with a deft backheel on the edge of the box and the Celtic skipper touch a touch to set himself before picking out a composed finish beyond Andy Fisher.

The holders never looked back from that point. Mcgregor turned provider for the second, sliding a pass into the box that Daizen Maeda pounced on to score his 32^nd goal of an impressive season.

A burst just before the half-time whistle put the result beyond any reasonable doubt. Hatate’s cross was tapped in by Adam Idah to make it 3-0 in the 45^th minute and then in stoppage time Maeda got his second, tucking away a neat finish in a packed penalty box.

St Johnstone thought they had a goal back when Makenzie Kirk thumped in a powerful finish from 25 yards but his joy was short-lived when VAR ruled it out because of a foul in the build-up.

Celtic had a major decision overturned as well, when James Forrest went to ground in the penalty area but after an initial spot kick award,Calum Scott changed his mind after reviewing the incident on the monitor.

The scoring wasn’t over though, as Celtic substitute Jota made an immediate impact. Alistair Johnston swung a cross to the back post and the Portuguese winner tucked away a finish from a narrow angle.

St Johnstone had no prospect of clawing the game back and a raft of substitutions took the edge out of the game. Celtic progressed to the final and will meet Aberdeen at Hampden on May 24.