Holders Celtic trounced Motherwell to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup with an impressive Liel Abada’s double.

Abada tapped home Greg Taylor’s cross moments before the break, and then stuck a side-foot volley past goalkeeper Liam Kelly after it.

The Israeli winger then turned provider for Reo Hatate, before his shot off a post fell to Kyogo Furuhashi to tap home Celtic’s fourth, as they eased into the last four.

Ange Postecoglou’s side will face Kilmarnock at Hampden on the weekend of 14-15 January as they seek a seventh League Cup success in nine seasons, while Rangers will meet Aberdeen in the other semi-final.

There was rarely a moment at Fir Park in which it felt like a shock was on the cards, as Celtic created a glut of first-half chances before eventually finding the breakthrough.

Kyogo could have had a hat-trick before the break as he cracked a shot off the bar, missed a gilt-edged chance from six yards, and then had another close-range shot saved by Kelly.

But when Abada tore into the Motherwell box to get on the end of Taylor’s cross after a neat exchange with Sead Haksabanovic, there was an inevitability about what followed after the interval.

The 21-year-old added his eighth goal of the season when Josip Juranovic’s shot was saved and he reacted instinctively to plant the ball into the corner.

And then his cross was collected by Hatate, who showed fantastic skill to roll his right foot over the ball to move it beyond Kelly’s reach before sticking it into the empty net.

Abada was then slipped through and given the chance to score a hat-trick by Daizen Maeda but his low shot came off a post, with Kyogo waiting to turn the ball home.

Motherwell were ultimately powerless to resist Celtic’s movement in the final third, but Steven Hammell’s side still had a go in spells only to fail to take the chances that did come their way.

Stuart McKinstry had the best of them when the game was goalless, but the forward sliced his shot from 10 yards horribly wide when he had plenty of time to take a touch following some slack defending by Moritz Jenz.

Those are the opportunities that simply have to be converted against this Celtic side, given the sheer volume of chances they create at the other end.

After a period of relative profligacy, that’s now 10 goals in two games and a first clean sheet in nine.