Daizen Maeda comes to Celtic rescue as Kilmarnock scare can't halt one Scottish Cup dominator – 3 talking points

Daizen Maeda maintained his winter hot streak to fire Celtic into the Scottish Cup fifth round after battling past committed Kilmarnock.

The Japanese wide man was back in the Hoops side after missing a couple of games through injury. And he grabbed the winner with his fifth goal in his last eight games with 20 minutes to go in a hard fought tie at Celtic Park. Callum McGregor struck with another early long range stunner – his seventh goal of the season and all from outside the box. But the Hoops missed a host of chances and Kilmarnock grew into the game before Bobby Wales equalised before the interval following a VAR check for handball from Robbie Deas in the build up.

Celtic had to dig deep against the resilient Rugby Park men but Maeda pounced to keep the holders on the road to Hampden. Brendan Rodgers is still undefeated in 19 Scottish Cup ties with Celtic and will now turn his attention to the Champions League. But he’ll be relieved to have eventually got the job done against Killie despite his team missing plenty of chances to make it more comfortable.

Derek McInnes’ side recovered from a nightmare start to give the Hoops a tough test. But it was a couple of moments of quality that counted in the end. Kilmarnock were up against it from the off – as they lost Robby McCrorie in the opening minute.

The keeper was carted off after taking a hefty blow to the face when he bravely diving at the feet of Nicholas Kuhn when the hitman looked set to nab a quick-fire opener. Stand-in Kieran O’Hara beat out a Maeda attempt with his first touch – from a breakaway seconds after Fraser Murray had thumped the bar with a curling free kick at the other end.

And all of this was before McGregor raced on to a cute Kyogo lay-off to walk