Aberdeen defender Angus MacDonald’s verdict on Celtic clash in Scottish Cup semi-final

Celtic take on Aberdeen this weekend in the last four of the Scottish Cup as Brendan Rodgers looks to maintain his perfect record at Hampden.

The Bhoys arrive into the clash with four victories in their last five encounters, with the outlier being a credible draw away to Rangers at Ibrox.

In comparison, the Dons are unbeaten in four matches, having won two and drawn two as they continue to struggle for consistency, which has been a theme this term.

At the national stadium, caretaker boss Peter Leven will lead out Aberdeen as Elfsborg manager Jimmy Thelin’s prospective arrival at Pittodrie will likely be in the summer.

Formerly of MK Dons as a player, Leven shared a 1-1 draw with Celtic back in February, where Nicolas Kuhn cancelled out a Bojan Miovski opener to guarantee the Hoops a share of the spoils in the North East.

Rodgers’ men have come out on top in the other two meetings between both clubs in the Scottish Premiership, recording a 3-1 win away at Pittodrie while iNFLicting a 6-0 thumping at Parkhead during Barry Robson’s time at the helm.

Either way, excitement is in the air ahead of the semi-final, with the prize at stake a showpiece final between one of Heart of Midlothian or Rangers on May 25th.

Aberdeen defender Angus MacDonald previews Celtic clash

Due to finishing in the bottom six of the Scottish Premiership, winning the Scottish Cup is Aberdeen’s only viable route to securing any form of continental qualification for the 2024/25 campaign.

From a Celtic perspective, we don’t want that to happen for obvious reasons; however, Dons defender Angus MacDonald has designs on upsetting the apple cart at Hampden on Saturday.

He stated [Press and Journal]: “We know what we are playing for, and the fans will be right behind us. Hopefully, we can go on and win it. If you get to the final and go on to win the cup, then it turns out not to be a bad season. We haven’t finished where we want to be in the top half of the table, as the top three or four was the aim this season.

“But we’ve had a long season and played some massive games and we will do all we can to get to a cup final.”

He later added: “It’s nice to lift the trophy but it’s also nice to know what would come from that as well. We take confidence from the draw against them here the last time (in February) and will go with a Game plan.

“If we win the cup, finish as high as we can, then we can say it’s not been as bad a season given some of the tough Games we’ve played.”

Celtic need to take the game to Aberdeen on Saturday

Laborious Celtic performances seem to be happening less often over the last few weeks, though Rodgers will be intent on a fast start at Hampden to try and gain an advantage early in proceedings.

With the added jeopardy attached to cup football, we must come prepared against an outfit that will go all out to try and keep their European prospects alive.

Bojan Miovski is a shrewd operator in attack for the opposition, and the Bhoys can’t afford to allow the North Macedonia international any space to thrive at the national stadium.

That said, Celtic have more than enough to see off Aberdeen on Saturday, which would extend Rodgers’ winning run in the competition to 16 games on the trot.

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