Holders Celtic were given an almighty fright by Livingston before reaching their ninth Scottish Cup semi-final in 10 years, with manager Brendan Rodgers conceding he “wasn’t comfortable” until two late goals.

Daizen Maeda completed his hat-trick before Kyogo Furuhashi made the scoreline more convincing.

Celtic were looking to recover from last weekend’s league defeat by Hearts and Rodgers admitted “today, we didn’t play well, but we won and that makes me very happy”.

Indeed, the Premiership’s bottom side threatened another shock as they twice came from behind to level in search of their first-ever win at Celtic Park.

Daniel MacKay’s fine finish was sandwiched between two Maeda goals within an action-packed opening 22 minutes.

Tete Yengi superbly fired Livingston level again 10 minutes after the break, but Celtic’s Japanese forward was on hand to ease home nerves as extra-time loomed before his international colleague added the final flourish.

The talk just before kick-off was more about who was not in the respective starting line-ups rather than who was playing.

Livingston boss David Martindale admitted he was depressing himself explaining why he had made five, mainly forced, changes but saw a chink of light in the absence of Callum McGregor and Cameron Carter-Vickers.

It looked like any optimism would be misplaced when Celtic forged ahead after only seven minutes.

Nicolas Kuhn, handed a start in place of the suspended Yang Hyun-jun, turned in from the touchline and delivered a superb ball behind the visiting defence and fellow winger Maeda provided the clinical finish.

Seven minutes gone and a long day for Livi looked in prospect, but they were soon level when MacKay was found by a long ball and the on-loan Hibernian midfielder thumped it high past goalkeeper Joe Hart.

However, hesitancy as they tried to clear their penalty box meant the visitors were only level for another 10 minutes.

Matt O’Riley pounced to fire a shot off the legs of McGovern and, although the veteran goalkeeper did well to deny the midfielder, he was unable to get enough on Maeda’s diving header on the rebound to deny the Japanese international.

Yengi had already headed just wide before the former Ipswich Town forward pounced on lost Celtic possession, turned O’Riley inside out, and fired superbly into the far corner.

Celtic looked shaken and were thankful for Hart’s legs as Michael Nottingham’s header was cleared off the line.

At the other end, McGovern was performing heroics of his own to thwart Celtic until two substitutes made the difference – James Forrest setting up Maeda for his fourth and Kyogo slotting in the killer fourth.

Match Report: BBC Scotland

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