By Sean Saranczuk
February 6 2003

Celtic made sure next month's CIS Insurance Cup final will be an all Old Firm affair after a comfortable 3-0 victory over 10-man Dundee United at Hampden Park. Celtic made sure next month's CIS Insurance Cup final will be an all Old Firm affair after a comfortable 3-0 victory over 10-man Dundee United at Hampden Park.

United battled throughout but in the end found the gulf in class too much to bridge and a second-half brace from Bobo Balde and a Henrik Larsson strike saw the Hoops home.

Larsson nodded just wide midway through the first half and then headed an Ulrik Laursen free-kick straight at Terrors keeper Alan Combe as Celtic struggled to create many clear-cut openings in the first half.

The Hoops opened the scoring on 52 minutes when John Hartson put Larsson through and, after the Swede had taken the ball round Combe, Balde came galloping up to find the empty net first.

In the 55th minute Jim Lauchlan was shown a straight red card for a late challenge on Larsson and from that moment on a well-balanced game had been tipped irretrievably in Celtic's favour.

Jamie Smith, who had been handed his first call-up to the senior Scotland squad earlier in the week, should have doubled the scoreline when he cut inside David McCracken and curled a shot across Combe but it ended up bouncing back off the far post.

Larsson fired the ball into the net in the 66th minute after a Sutton header had rebounded off the crossbar but as the Englishman was on the goalline and right in front of Combe the flag went straight up for offside.

But Larsson was not to be denied in the 80th minute when he fired home on the turn through David McCracken's legs after a great swivel and pass from Sutton on the edge of the box.

In stoppage time Balde headed the third from a corner from substitute Alan Thompson.