Celtic 6 Partick Thistle 0

Photo by Jeff Holmes John Guidetti helped himself to a hat-trick as Celtic cruised into the Scottish League Cup semi-finals with a 6-0 pummelling of Partick Thistle who were made to pay the price for playing the second-half with 10 men. Swedish striker Guidetti fired the Hoops into the lead in the 30th minute and just before the interval Thistle midfielder Stuart Bannigan was shown a straight red card by referee Kevin Glancy for taking the 22-year-old, on loan from Manchester City, out with a hefty challenge from behind which effectively ended the visitors' chances at Parkhead. Left-back Emilio Izaguirre popped up with a rare goal three minutes after the break before Guidetti repeated his first-half feat with a free-kick, grabbing his third from the spot after he had been fouled by Abdul Osman. Substitute Leigh Griffiths, on for Anthony Stokes, headed in number five and was gifted a sixth by hapless Jags keeper Scott Fox, who slammed a clearance off him and into the net to compound a miserable night for the Maryhill men Guidetti, with eight goals in eight games, is proving to be an astute signing and manager Ronny Deila has already declared his interest in a permanent deal. He was key to the thrashing of Thistle which set up a possibility of what would be the first Old Firm meeting in almost three years in the semi-final, rivals Rangers clinching their last-four place with a 1-0 win over St Johnstone at Ibrox on Tuesday night. Gers boss Ally McCoist admitted he would prefer not to draw the Hoops and on this performance - notwithstanding the one-man advantage - it appears to be a sound judgement Thistle started confidently enough but the home side had two great chances to take the lead before they eventually got the breakthrough. The first came in the 13th minute when Mikael Lustig planted an in-swinging cross from the right on to the head of but Stokes with only Fox to beat, headed past from six yards and then the full-back headed a Charlie Mulgrew cross straight at the Maryhill keeper from a similar range. In between those two spurned opportunities, Jags midfielder James Craigen's low drive from the edge of the box just evaded Craig Gordon's right-hand post but the home side got their noses in front on the half-hour mark when Jags' midfielder Osman fouled Guidetti 25 yards from goal. The Swede picked himself up curled the free-kick high past the flailing Fox and into the top corner - he had opened the scoring in similar fashion in the 2-0 home win over Kilmarnock at the weekend - before taking the applause of the fans for the third successive match. It took a few minutes but Thistle came back, Nathan Eccleston stinging the palms of Gordon with a powerful drive but Celtic were largely in control and when Bannigan was sent packing for a reckless and needless tackle on Guidetti almost on the touchline, it promised to be a long second-half for the Firhill men. Mubarak Wakaso replaced Callum McGregor for the start of the second-half and the Hoops proceeded to go on the rampage. Within three minutes of the restart Izaguirre ran on to back-header from Stokes to slam in a right-footed shot from six yards for just his second in 170 games for Celtic. Thistle collapsed thereafter. Guidetti fired another free-kick from 25 yards past Fox to make it 3-0 and when he was fouled by Osman inside the box, he hammered the penalty in for his hat-trick. In the 62nd minute, Griffiths, on four minutes earlier, leapt to head in an Izaguirre cross, and a frightening scoreline for Thistle looked on the cards. The sixth goal came when Griffiths closed down Fox when the keeper was attempting a clearance, with the ball coming off the striker and making its way into the net to the delight of the home fans who were enjoying the demolition. Fox made saves from Wakaso, substitute Stefan Scepovic, on for Guidetti, and Griffiths but Celtic seemed to ease off in the latter stages, happy with the goal tally for the evening.