Celtic captain Scott Brown, playing
wide on the right, had the first effort on goal in the
fifth minute when he drove at the Killie defence before
firing wide from the edge of the box.
Kilmarnock
slowly grew in confidence and in the 14th minute Allan
Russell got the break of the ball and his curled shot
from 16 yards beat goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska but clipped
the top of the bar.
At the other end a Braafheid
free-kick from 25 yards was held by Kilmarnock
goalkeeper Cameron Bell, who made an even better save
when he blocked Keane's close-range shot after he had
been threaded in by Marc Crosas.
The home though continued to press
with purpose, with only the final pass missing. In the
38th minute Kilmarnock defender Frazer Wright did well
to head away Aiden McGeady's cross from under the bar.
At the other end, Bryson then
brilliantly burrowed his way past Braafheid and into the
Celtic box, but Russell failed to get on the end of his
cut-back.
Rejuvenated Celtic almost broke the
deadlock just two minutes after the restart.
Killie failed to clear their lines
allowing the Keane to chip the ball up for a McGeady
volley which was speeding past Bell and towards the top
corner until Wright bravely headed clear.
In the 55th minute Russell again hit
the woodwork when Tim Clancy's cross from the left was
flicked on by ex-Celt Mark Burchill.
As the Hoops' defence hesitated
Russell stole in at the near post but Zaluska did enough
to prevent the Killie striker getting a clean shot away
and the ball hit the post before bouncing wide.
Mowbray took his cue to replace
Rasmussen and Crosas, and Celtic soon took the lead.
Braafheid's long ball caught the
Kilmarnock defence sleeping and Keane's first touch took
the ball past Bell and he calmly stroked the ball into
the empty net.
The tie was all over in the 81st
minute when Samaras robbed the hesitant Wright on the
touchline and played in Fortune who rolled the ball past
Bell for Keane to tap into an empty net.
A minute later Fortune set up Keane
again and this time the Hoops' striker almost casually
rattled a drive past Bell to take collection of the
match ball.
