© EuroFootball.com
On Thursday, the third stage battles of the Scottish Football Cup tournament ended. In the last match to advance to the fourth stage - the quarterfinals, Edinburgh's "Hibernian" footballers crushed "Aberdeen". The first meeting between these teams ended in a 2-2 draw, so the match had to be replayed.
4 - 1
10‘ [0 - 1] Barry Nicholson
13‘ [1 - 1] Steven Fletcher
45+2‘ [2 - 1] Michael Stewart
47‘ [3 - 1] Abdessalam Benjelloun
56‘ [4 - 1] Abdessalam Benjelloun
The beginning of the match did not promise anything bad for the "Aberdeen" team - in the 10th minute Barry Nicholson put the visitors ahead. But just three minutes later, Steven Fletcher equalized the score with a header from a corner.
At the end of the first half, Michael Stewart, formerly of "Man Utd", once again put the hosts ahead with a precise strike from 18 meters.
The second half started with a benefit from "Hibernian" attacker Abdessalam Benjelloun from Morocco. Just after coming on as a substitute and not even having time to warm up, "Benji" scored two goals in succession and sent "Aberdeen" packing.
In the quarterfinals, last season's champions Edinburgh "Hearts" also crushed the third division team "Stranraer". Valdas Ivanauskas' team will face "Dunfermline", who eliminated one of the tournament favorites - "Rangers".
Quarterfinal pairs:
"Deveronvale" - "Partick"
"Dunfermline" - "Hearts"
"Falkirk" - "St. Johnstone"
"Hibernian" - "Gretna"
"Inverness" - "Dundee United"
"Motherwell" - "Morton"
"Queen of South" - "Cowdenbeath"
"Livingston" - "Celtic"
The matches will take place on February 3 and 4.
