Kris Commons is at the heart of everything for Celtic as he lets fly with a shot that whizzes high over the crossbar. Not one of his best but he did have a few similar early 'sighters' before opening the scoring at Hampden on Sunday.

Celtic are ramping up the early pressure, with a series of dangerous crosses and corners, United are rattled but hanging on.

"It's got be a red card," BBC Sportsound pundit Murdo MacLeod.

Kris Commons slips a pass through to Leigh Griffiths and the Celtic striker is wiped out by Radoslaw Cierzniak a few yards from the penalty box after knocking the ball past the keeper. Much to everyone's surprise at Celtic Park United man is shown a yellow rather than red card.

We are off at Celtic Park...

Paul Black on Twitter: #bbcscotfootball looking forward to seeing Commons play the number 10 role, where he belongs."

tom and 20 others: "Celtic will have the tactical advantage. Their tactic of buyin up the opposition's best players usually gives them the edge #bbcscotfootball"

Not long to go now. Just a reminder that Inverness Caley Thistle will face the winners of this replay in the Scottish Cup semi-finals. Falkirk and Hibernian meet in the other game at Hampden. The order of those ties will be revealed tomorrow.

BBC Radio Scotland's Tom English

"I give Dundee United more of chance tonight because Nadir Citfci is back and he can cause problems but I still think Celtic will be too strong."

United were toothless in attack at Hampden but that should change since striker Nadir Ciftci is back from his League Cup suspension and avoided sanction in this contest after a review of his involvement in the melee that saw Virgil van Dijk and Paul Paton sent for early baths. Earlier this week, manager Jackie McNamara said he thought the Turkish-born forward was "the best player in Scotland", with the "on his game" proviso.

And Ciftci will need to be on it tonight since it has been 23 years since United won at Celtic Park.

Celtic midfielder Stefan Johansen was the man-of-the-match at Hampden on Sunday but he is banned for tonight's game following two bookings in the contest. That's a big blow since the Norwegian midfielder must the front-runner for Scotland's player of the year.

The hosts are also without Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong who are cup-tied but those two will finally get the chance to face their former club on league duty this Saturday.

A quick aside, with some breaking news. You may have seen our earlier story on MSPs backing plans to allow fans the right to buy their football clubs.

Well, the Scottish Football Association and Scottish Professional Football League say such proposals are "impractical" and could undermine their own efforts to increase supporter involvement.

Image source, SNS Group

Celtic lifted the League Cup on Sunday. Will they go on to make it a clean sweep or can Dundee United revenge their defeat at Hampden and progress to the last four in Scottish Cup?

Dundee United manager Jackie McNamara on BBC Radio Scotland

"It's a tough match. We have not won here for a long time. We need everyone to have a strong performance and hopefully we can cause an upset. It's great to have Nadir Ciftci back but left-back is a problem for us and John Rankin will fill in there for us."

BBC Sportsound pundit Willie Miller

"Tonight is a great night for Kris Commons to make a statement. If he wants to say anything about playing in his preferred central position this is his chance."

Sean Dillon let his side down with a reckless lunge near the halfway line and he misses out tonight, along with full-back Paul Dixon, who was sent off in the first Scottish Cup meeting at Tannadice for stopping a shot with his arm in front of goal. Radoslaw Cierzniak saved the resulting penalty in the 1-1 draw.

Two others were sent off early in the first tie, with Virgil van Dijk winning an appeal against his red card and poor Paul Paton also having his overturned since he wasn't even involved in the argy-bargy.

Celtic landed the first trophy in what they hope will be a domestic clean sweep when they won 2-0 at Hampden on Sunday in the League Cup final. United were doughty in defence but seldom caused their opponents any trouble and their cause was lost when skipper Sean Dillon was sent off 10 minutes into the second half when they were already trailing.

Celtic manager Ronny Deila on BBC Radio Scotland

"Stefan Johansen is an important player for us but we have Kris Commons switching to the number 10 role and he scored 35 goals last season, so I'm not worried.

"We have a dream and the players know what we are fighting for [the domestic treble].

"We want to do this in 90 minutes but we have to be prepared for everything."

Celtic: Gordon, Ambrose, Denayer, van Dijk, Izaguirre, Biton, Brown, Forrest, Commons, Stokes, Griffiths. Subs: Guidetti, Scepovic, Zaluska, Wakaso, Fisher, McGregor, Henderson.

Dundee Utd: Cierzniak, McGowan, Fojut, Morris, Rankin, Spittal, Paton, Butcher, Erskine, Dow, Ciftci. Subs: Souttar, Telfer, Connolly, Scott Smith, Szromnik, Anier, Spark.

Referee: Calum Murray

Quiet on set! It's Celtic v Dundee United take three. And, action... Yes, this is the third instalment of four consecutive matches between the sides and by the end of the night Inverness CT will know who they are playing in the Scottish Cup semi-finals.