Nicolas Kuhn comes to the rescue as Celtic fightback puts down spirited Falkirk to book Hampden slot - 3 talking points

Celtic booked their place in the last four of the Premier Sports Cup after eventually getting the better of a vibrant Falkirk team.

The Hoops came out the traps quickly as expected and Nicky Hogarth had to be alert to superbly tip a James Forrest effort round the post. But incredibly, it was the visitors who opened the scoring on 11 mins when Ross MacIver fired a fine low drive past Kasper Schmeichel from the edge of the area after making the most of some hesitancy in the Celtic back line to pounce on a loose ball.

That shock lead ended up lasting just 10 minutes when Paulo Bernardo lashed home an unstoppable volley from just inside the box after Alex Valle had raced onto a good pass from Reo Hatate to nod the ball back towards the Portuguese midfielder. But that equaliser did little to deter the spirited Bairns and after riding a little bit of Celtic pressure, McGlynn's charges deservedly regained the lead in the final minute of the half.

The impressive Alfredo Agyeman got the better of Valle down the Falkirk right and clipped a cross to the back post that youngster Finn Yeats expertly guided into the far corner with a header that left Danish veteran Schmeichel stranded. The Championship outfit went into the interval buoyant reaping the rewards from their positive-front foot approach while Rodgers' much-changed Hoops side would have been wondering just on earth had gone wrong in the first 45 minutes.

Somewhat surprisingly, Rodgers opted not to go to his bench for the restart, but his side's pedestrian start to the second half saw the Irishman make a raft of changes on the hour mark. The former Liverpool gaffer would have expected his replacements to make an instant impact but it wasn't until the 68th minute that a