Form goes out of the window in cup matches but both teams certainly had in domestically coming into this quarter final clash. Celtic would look to bounce back after a 3-1 defeat to Copenhagen at Parkhead on Thursday night, Manager Neil Lennon said he wanted to see his team play angry for the rest of the campaign. His compatriot Tommy Wright and the rest of the Saints squad will be confident heading into this match-up after securing a 2-2 draw with Rangers last Sunday.
The visitors made three changes from their midweek defeat with Rogic dropping to the bench, and Jozo Simunovic and Mohammed Elyounoussi missing out all together. Leigh Griffiths, Ryan Christie and Nir Bitton took there place.
Tommy Wright only made two changes from a week ago, with Anthony Ralston being ineligible to face his parent club, Liam Gordon took his spot, and Scott Tanser was prefered to Callum Booth due to the change in shape.
St. Johnstone were buoyed by their result last week against Rangers, and came out of the traps flying. Drey Wright found Callum Hendry who was open in the corner of the box, the youngster went at Kristoffer Ajer and forced Fraser Forster into an awkward save from his deflected effort, Matt Butcher got the follow-up volley all wrong, sending the left-footed effort well wide.
Some intricate and elaborate buildup play from Celtic allowed Odsonne Edouard to slip a ball in behind for Callum McGregor, but the Scot's effort had the sting taken out of it by Scott Tanser allowing the ball to roll easily into the gloves of Zander Clark.
James Forrest was back to terrorising Tanser again, when he drove at him in the box and got to the byline, his cutback tried to find Leigh Griffiths but Jason Kerr slid in and prevented what seemed to be a certain goal.
Nir Bitton used his physicality to push David Wotherspoon off the ball in the corner, but when Celtic tried to play out from the back Ryan Christie's pass found only the boot of Wright, who drove straight at the visitors back line, the former Colchester winger pulled the trigger from 20 yards and forced Forster to concede a corner, however if Wright had his head up he would have noticed Ali McCann had found himself in acres of space and was clean through in the middle. From the resulting corner, Butcher put a high floating ball to the back post, Jamie McCart leapt well, above Ajer and forced Forster to push over his crossbar.
Celtic began to turn the screw at the start of the second half, Scott Brown switched the play out to Christie on the right wing, who worked a one-two with Forrest, he then cut it right back to him, only for the Scot to drag his shot wide.
Edouard fired just over after going on a mazy run before Forrest forced Clark into a full stretch save, Griffiths took an early shot that was always rising after a driving run from Ajer, the visitors were now dominating and a goal seemed inevitable.
Saints finally found a foothold in the game when Butcher shook Tom Rogic and fired wide from the edge of the box after some poor defending. However, Celtic showed that they were still the dominate team, when some lovely footwork from Rogic gave him some space to find Edouard, the Frenchman worked a one-two with the Australian, the ball found Christie who magnificently avoided the challenge of McCart only to be superbly denied by Clark. From the resulting corner Edouard hit the post with a backheel, the ball rebounded to Jullien who couldn't capitalise on the open goal due to a super tackle from Liam Gordon.
St. Johnstone took the game to Celtic and were dominating the game but were struggling to create clear cut opportunities, Scott Tanser had a good chance from a free-kick from just outside the box, but he only hit the wall. Another great chance came when Ali McCann played a tantalising through ball for Stevie May, but Forester was alert and rushed out his goal to clear the ball before the striker could get there.
Like Celtic always do they scored after their opponents best spell in this game, Forrest was away down the right hand side before McCart took him out and got a justified yellow card. Christie stood over the free-kick, he whipped it into a good area, Jullien got himself into a great position, but didn't get a touch however it still went in, sending three sides of McDiarmid Park into raptures. Wotherspoon probably should have cleared it at the near post, but Bobby Madden had a clear line of sight and should have noticed the obvious pull of Tanser's jersey by Ajer which stopped him getting to the ball.
The result has very harsh on a Saints side who posed the biggest threat to Celtic in their 34 game cup win streak. This game had a very similar feel to it as last years Betfred Cup Quarter Final, between these two sides, Saints playing well and having a couple of good chances to nick it, but Celtic prevail by scoring a late scrappy goal. This is a HUGE win for Celtic and leaves them only two games away from an unprecedented quadruple treble.
St. Johnstone: Zander Clark; Jason Kerr, Liam Gordon, Jamie McCart; Drey Wright, Ali McCann, Matt Butcher, Scott Tanser; David Wotherspoon (Michael O'Halloran 83'); Callum Hendry (Chris Kane 76'), Stevie May.
Substitutes: Elliot Parish (GK), Chris Kane, Danny Swanson, Michael O'Halloran, Jason Holt, Callum Booth, Liam Craig.
Scorer(s):
Yellow Card(s): Matt Butcher 17', Callum Hendry 53', Jamie McCart 79', Liam Gordon 89'.
Celtic: Fraser Forster; Nir Bitton, Christopher Jullien, Kristoffer Ajer; James Forrest, Scott Brown, Ryan Christie, Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor (Johnny Hayes 76'); Leigh Griffiths (Tom Rogic 65'), Odsonne Edouard (Vakoun Bayo 87').
Substitutes: Scott Bain (GK), Vakoun Bayo, Patrick Klimala, Johnny Hayes, Tom Rogic, Jeremie Frimpong, Hatem Elhamed.
Scorer(s): Ryan Christie 80'
Yellow Card(s): Nir Bitton 45', Fraser Forster 89'.
MOTM: Drey Wright - The Englishman was deployed as a wingback in this game but showed both sides of his game matching every movement that Greg Taylor had, before getting past him almost every time at the other end. It really starts to boggle the mind that he hasn't been signed by St. Johnstone for next season and is available to be signed by anyone for free on a pre-contract.
Scottish Cup Round Up
Friday
Hibernian 5-2 Inverness CT
Saturday
Hearts 1-0 Rangers
St. Mirren 0-2 Aberdeen
Sunday
St. Johnstone 0-1 Celtic
Semi-Final Draw
Celtic vs Aberdeen
Hearts vs Hibernian
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