This weekend’s Scottish Cup tie against Aberdeen is all that stands between Brendan Rodgers and Celtic continuing their charge towards a domestic double.
Celtic hold the record for most Scottish Cup wins in Scotland with 41 after appearing in the final 61 times which is more than any other club in the SPFL.
However, the 1230pm kick-off against Aberdeen will be a stern test. The Dons will be buoyed by the appointment of a new manager, Jimmy Thelin, and keen to impress, this could make the Hampden showdown a tastier test for Brendan Rodgers‘ Celtic.
So with that in mind, here is Celtic’s past record in the competition with The Dons and what it could mean for Saturday’s game.
Celtic enjoy great success vs Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup
Since 2000, Celtic have met Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup nine times winning six, drawing 2 and losing a replay.
Goals from John Hartson and Stiliyan Petrov in the 2002 quarter-final sent Celtic on the way to Hampden to a final that we lost 3-2 against Rangers.
Remarkably we never met Aberdeen in the competition again until 2008, again, at the quarter-final stage. We drew that game 1-1 at Pittodrie and lost the subsequent replay at Celtic Park 1-0.
A 4-0 semi-final win in 2011 set up a meeting with Motherwell in the final which Celtic won 3-0 after a man-of-the-match performance by Ki Sung-Yeung.
In 2014 Aberdeen knocked us out in the last 16 with a 2-1 win over Neil Lennon‘s Celtic in Paradise until the two teams met again in the 2017 Invincibles season where Brendan Rodgers and late Tom Rogic goal sealed an end to a superb and historical season for the Hoops.
Two further Hampden meetings between the clubs at the semi-final stage in 2019 and 2020 where Celtic ran out victors in both with 3-0 and 2-0 wins, helped the club complete an incredible Quadruple Treble in a period where Celtic were so dominant. [Transfermarkt]
Celtic’s Scottish Cup prediction vs Aberdeen
So what do our historical meetings mean for the upcoming game on Saturday? Truthfully, in terms of a result, it means almost nothing.
Cup football can go either way and on any given day, even out-of-form teams and the smaller provincial clubs have it in them to pull off a shock result every once in a while.
The positives for Celtic are that we have a manager, a captain in Callum McGregor and players like Joe Hart and James Forrest who are all well-versed in knowing what it takes to win at Hampden.
We also have last season’s treble-winners like Cameron Carter-Vickers, Kyogo Furuhashi and Greg Taylor who have been over this course many times.
And whilst nothing in football is guaranteed, that experience should be enough to see Celtic through to the final on the 25th of May.
Score Prediction: Aberdeen 0 v 3 Celtic
Receive a digest of our best Celtic content each week direct to your mailbox
