Celtic Gun Down Livingstone

[Hammer]

Samaras 'Ou zo' Impressive

Georgios Samaras continued his red hot goal scoring form in the fourth round of the Co-operative Insurance Cup last night helping himself to a brace as an impressive Celtic side despatched with Livingstone 4-0.

As expected Strachan tinkered with his starting 11 again giving; Andreas Hinkel, Paul Caddis, Massimo Donati, Paul Hartley, Aiden McGeady and Scott McDonald returns to the line-up. It was another of the newer recruits however, Glenn Loovens, that started the ball rolling in the 24th minute. The summer recruit from Cardiff has found it hard to break the central defensive partnership of Caldwell and McManus so far but a well timed leap and strong headed finish will have done his future chances no harm.

Going into the break 1 nil up didn't tell half the story of the match as Celtic could have had another 2 or 3 with little reply from the visitors. Any doubts as to whether those missed chances would come back to haunt them were alleviated in the 64th minute however as Samaras added another to his account with a cool header.

Scott Brown then came off the bench to add a third in the 81st with a cheeky lob before Samaras rounded the night off with his second, and his ninth of an already impressive start to the season, with a penalty following some Maloney trickery in the Livingstone box.

Celtic come away from the match into the last 8 of the competition, building some impressive momentum for a critical period with 4 cups still to be played for and a hectic month or two football to be played. The form of the hugely influential Greek Samaras has delighted both the fans and his manager who said;

“I don’t know if Georgios is at the top of his game, but I hope not. It’s down to him if he wants to do a lot better.

“You’re talking about a guy who literally can’t get enough information to make himself better. At the moment he’s playing some top, top football“

Everyone connected with Celtic will be hoping the big Greek can transfer his scoring streak onto the European stage and get Celtic's bid for the last 16 of the Champions League back on track.