Celtic will play in the first of two Betfred Cup semi-finals at Hampden Park in early November, the SPFL have confirmed.
The Hoops’ clash against Hibernian will take place on Saturday 2nd November with an interesting kick-off time of 5:30pm. The other semi-final – between Rangers and Hearts – will then take place the following day at 3pm.
Celtic should take a good following to Hampden
The news is likely to go down well with Celtic supporters for a few reasons. Firstly, the Saturday evening kick-off is much more exciting than the Sunday afternoon start time. Hampden should be pretty lively on the Saturday night as two of the country’s best supported teams battle it out under the lights.
Secondly, playing earlier in the weekend will give Neil Lennon more time to prepare for our fixture the following Thursday night. We’re in Italy to take on Lazio in matchday four of Europa League Group E. On paper that looks like our hardest of the six fixtures so having an extra day to prepare may be a big boost.
Finally, playing on a fresh Hampden pitch should help our game. We’ve been to Hampden Park for semi-finals nine times in the past five seasons. On eight of those occasions we have played on a chewed-up pitch on the Sunday, as the second-semi final.
Ironically, it was our last Betfred Cup meeting with Hibernian in 2017 when we last played before the other semi-final at Hampden. We won that 4-2 and a similar result this time would be just grand.
Hopefully we can win and chew up the Mount Florida turf a little – making it harder for our final opponents the following day.
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