Keane treble puts Celtic into Cup semi-final

Robbie Keane scored a hat-trick as Celtic progressed to the Scottish Cup semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Kilmarnock at Rugby Park here on Saturday.

The on-loan Spurs striker’s second-half treble takes him to eight since he joined the Hoops and banishes the memories of his losing debut at the same venue in February.

Kilmarnock had threatened to produce a shock as Allan Russell hit the crossbar and post in either half before Keane struck in the 63rd minute when he latched on to a Edson Braafheid long ball.

The goal knocked the fight out of Killie and the Irishman struck twice in two minutes near the end to seal the win.

“The first-half was not good enough and I think the shape of the team had to change,” Celtic manager Tony Mowbray said.

“I thought we started the second-half brightly and in the end the extra bit of quality we possess won the match.”

Jimmy Calderwood was left to rue missed chances.

“I feel we dominated the first-half and had a great chance through Russell but did not take it,” the Killie boss said.

“After Keane’s goal we had to go for it and got caught with a couple of counter attacks.”

Keeper Artur Boruc was a surprise omission from the Celtic squad with fellow Pole Lukasz Zaluska taking his place in goal while Scott Brown returned for Georgios Samaras.

It was the returning Celtic captain who carved out the first chance after five minutes when he unleashed a drive from the edge of the box which fizzled past Cammy Bell’s post.

Killie came close minutes later when Allan Russell smashed his shot off the bar with Zaluska beaten. Braafheid’s free-kick from 20 yards nearly had Bell beaten after it took a wicked deflection but the keeper was alert enough to change direction and produce a save.

There was more than a hint of off-side when Marc Crosas picked out Keane in the box but Bell made a superb point-blank save from the Irishman’s shot.

Bryson was causing Celtic all sorts of problems and had his half-volley blocked before he just failed to connect with Liam Kelly’s high pass as he bore down on Zaluska.

Killie had to be alert to twice deny McGeady at the start of the second-half. Keane picked his international teammate out in the box and he fired a volley past Bell that Frazer Wright headed off the line.

Minutes later Bell produced a superb one-handed save to tip the Irish international’s snap-shot from ten yards out.

Bryson earned Kilmarnock a free-kick 20 yards out but Mehdi Taouil curled it over before Russell missed a golden chance to give the home side the lead when his miss-hit shot from six yards hit the post.

They were to rue that spurned chance when Keane gave Celtic the lead in the 63rd minute.

The Killie defence was caught napping by a long ball over the top from Braafheid and the Irishman took a touch to control it and then roll it past Bell from six yards.

The on-loan Spurs man had his second in the 80th minute.

Substitute Georgios Samaras chased down a lost cause and gave it to fellow sub Marc-Antoine Fortune who rolled the ball across the six-yard box to Keane where he had the simple task of tapping in.

A minute later the same pair combined for his hat-trick in a flowing counter-attack. Fortune picked out Keane and he arrowed a crisp shot beyond Bell for his treble.