Charlie Mulgrew shares how he would feel facing Daizen Maeda after his Celtic hat-trick v Aberdeen

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Celtic booked their ticket in the Scottish League Cup final by thrashing Aberdeen 6-0 on Saturday at Hampden.

There was a lot of noise leading up to this fixture because Aberdeen are inches behind Celtic in the Scottish Premiership table.

Brendan Rodgers’ side are ahead on goal difference only and that showed when the duo recorded a 2-2 draw in the league at Parkhead last month.

But it was a completely different story at the home of Scottish football because Celtic outclassed Aberdeen from start to finish in the League Cup semi-final.

Daizen Maeda helped himself to a hat-trick, Kyogo Furuhashi, Cameron Carter-Vickers and Nicolas Kuhn were the other goalscorers.

What’s even better is that Celtic had so many big hitters on the bench from Adam Idah to Greg Taylor. All of which further emphasises the depth Rodgers now has at his disposal.

But during the 90 minutes, Charlie Mulgrew rightfully gave his flowers to one man and one man only.

Charlie Mulgrew says he ‘wouldn’t fancy’ playing against Celtic’s Daizen Maeda

One of the things that instantly stands out with Maeda is his pace and how he is one of the fastest men in Europe.

Added to that, the workrate is one every manager dreams of and that’s why Charlie Mulgrew feels like he is a ‘pest’ to the opposition.

Mulgrew admitted that he simply wouldn’t like to come up against a player like Maeda because of the way he plays, as he told Premier Sports (02/11/24 at 7:45 pm)

“He’s a pest,” said Mulgrew. “I wouldn’t fancy playing against him – the way he presses. The way he runs. His power. His pace. He is so hard to play against. He doesn’t just stop.”

Callum McGregor’s reaction as Maeda’s hat-trick fires Celtic into Scottish League Cup final

After Celtic’s performance against Atalanta in the Champions League, captain Callum McGregor was sidelined for a few matches.

But it only seemed precautionary from the team because of huge games like this.

McGregor was his usual self in the middle of the park showing the whole of Scotland why he is perhaps the best midfielder in the league.

After the game, following Maeda’s hat-trick, the skipper labelled the level of finishing from Celtic as ‘unbelievable’, as he told Premier Sports.

“Excellent, obviously semi-final, the objective is to get to the final, if you can do it in style, then great,” said McGregor.

“I thought the lads were fantastic. The level of finishing was unbelievable. Then you start to control the game from there.”