Celtic 3-1 Dunfermline Athletic 
Scottish Gas Men’s Scottish Cup Final
Saturday 23rd May 2026
Barclays Hampden Park, Glasgow

Scorers

Celtic 3: ( Maeda 19’, Engels 36’, Iheanacho 73’)

Dunfermline Athletic 1: ( Cooper 80’)

Team News

James Forrest returned to the Celtic starting line-up in place of Sebastian Tounekti, with the rest of the starting eleven and bench remaining the same from last weekend’s title decider against Hearts

Dunfermline made four changes from their play-off defeat to Partick Thistle, Motherwell loanee Aston Oxborough in goal as well as John Tod, Nurudeen Abdulai and Tashan Oakley-Boothe replacing Billy Terrell, Shea Kearney, Alfons Amade and Chris Kane.

As It Happened

It was a loud start to this encounter as expected, with both ends of Barclays Hampden creating a cacophony of noise, covered in tifos.

The games first real chance fell to Alistair Johnston in the sixth minute after Dunfermline failed to clear their lines fully from an early corner. The ball fell to the Canadian who struck the ball straight into the hands of Aston Oxborough

After a positive start, the Pars nearly took the lead after a near calamitous piece of defensive miscommunication from Liam Scales, Johnston and Viljami Sinisalo left Johnston scrambling back to clear Callum Morrison’s toe poke just off the line.

An already mammoth task for Dunfermline was only made more difficult after the opening goal came for Celtic in the 18th minute, with Daizen Maeda capitalising on a mistake at the back from John Tod. A long ball from Johnston was missed by Tod, leaving Maeda one-on-one with Oxborough and the Japanese international lifted it over his head to make it 1-0. 

As many would have expected, Celtic began to take complete control of the encounter after the opening goal, with the Pars struggling to get a hold of the ball. The opening half hour seemed to subdue the Dunfermline end and Celtic would get their second in the 36th minute after an Arne Engels strike from outside the box left Oxborough stranded. The space opened up in the middle for Engels, leaving him the room to fire into the bottom corner and give Celtic a two goal lead.

Celtic ended the half just as they had started, with clever play down the left wing between Kieran Tierney and Yang Hyun-Jun somehow not culminating in a third.

Three changes at half time brought life back into Dunfermline, with Chris Kane and Zak Rudden having chances to get at Celtic from the off. Rudden and Kane came in at half time with Shea Kearney, replacing Tashan Oakley-Boothe, John Tod and Callum Morrison. Auston Trusty would receive the Celtic’s first yellow card of the game after tangling with Rudden.

Dunfermline’s best chance of the game since Morrison’s toe poke would come just past the hour mark. Substitute Alfons Amade’s strike whistled just past the post of Sinisalo, showing Neil Lennon’s side still had some fight left in them after a drab first half.

Celtic then cut Dunfermline apart in the 65th minute with a ball in behind finding Yang who squared it to substitute Kelechi Iheanacho who passed it into the back of the Dunfermline net but the flag was up for offside. 

Iheanacho did get his goal and Celtic’s third in 73rd minute after some quick footwork and a stroke of luck off the hand of Jeremiah Chilokoa- Mullen let him dance past the Dunfermline defence, before he then slotted it past Oxborough. 

Dunfermline finally got their moment in the Hampden sun on 80 minutes, as substitute Josh Cooper scored with his first touch after replacing Andrew Tod. Cooper got on the end of a shot blocked by Scales, after a well worked piece of play by Kane and Rudden down the right, giving life to his side and their support with ten minutes to go in normal time.

The goal from Cooper would only prove to be a consolation in the end as Celtic regained control of the game, ending any momentum the Pars created, controlling the game into added time, winning their 43rd Scottish Cup Final in a convincing manner.

Match Report by Jack Corcoran

Teams

Celtic – Sinisalo, Johnston, Scales, Trusty, Nygren (Oxlade-Chamberlain 75’), Yang (Tounekti 75’), Engels, Maeda, McGregor, Forrest (Iheanacho 58’), Tierney (Saracchi 85’)

Unused substitutes: Doohan, McCowan, Osmand, Murray, Ralston

Dunfermline Athletic – Oxborough, Chilokoa Mullen, Ngwenya, Gilmour, M Todd, Abdulai (Amade 59’), A Todd (Cooper 79’), J Tod (Rudden 46’), Oakley-Boothe (Kane 46’), Morrison (Kearney 46’), Fraser

Unused substitutes: Terrell, Benedictus, Hamilton, Fyfe