Aberdeen need to score the first goal or Celtic will make it an historic Treble
SPORTSMAIL JURY GIVE THEIR HAMPDEN VERDICT
ROY AITKEN Five-time winner
CELTIC won’t take it for granted. Brendan Rodgers wouldn’t allow it.
They know they have to go out and play well to beat a strong Aberdeen team. It is not a case of turn up and the cup is ours.
The manager will know and the players will know that is the case. But I don’t see any reason for them not to win. They are in a good vein of form and are so much better than the rest.
Celtic are favourites for the game because of the quality they have shown throughout the season.
Derek McInnes has done a great job with Aberdeen and he has got them into that second position (in the league) but there is too much of a gulf in quality.
It is a cup final, though, and on the day it may come down to who wants to win it more.
Aberdeen would need to play out of their skin and Celtic have a bad day — and that is no disrespect to Aberdeen.
Top players go into these kind of games looking to show their skill and their ability. It is Hampden, it is a nice pitch, a big crowd and, hopefully, a good day.
It is a massive showpiece game and the best players always rise to the occasion.
Scott Brown has led Celtic to numerous victories and he is a player that others look up to.
He gets the best out of himself and he gets the best out of others. That is the job of the captain and I think he has done a terrific job.
I was fortunate enough to see Scott come into the Scotland team when I was there with Alex McLeish. He played a little bit more on the right side when I saw him as a youngster and he was always going to become a top player.
He has gone from strength to strength on the park and he is not finished yet. I think there are more years in him and there are a lot more trophies in him.
NEIL LENNON Four times winner as a player — twice a winner as a manager
AN unbeaten Treble would be up there. To go unbeaten throughout the season (domestically) is phenomenal. Martin O’Neill’s team came close when we won the league title in 2002 — the only game we lost was away to Aberdeen.
People thought Rangers being back in the Premiership would make a difference but Celtic have simply dismantled all of their opposition this season.
There is a ruthlessness about them. They don’t panic during games. Plus Brendan has a taste for it now and I think that’s why he signed that new four-year contract — he sees the potential for making inroads in Europe, as well as being dominant domestically.
But if they were to complete the Treble and have a whole campaign without losing to a Scottish club. That’s unprecedented, really.
It would be right up there with the achievements of any of the great teams in the club’s history — apart from the Lisbon Lions. It would not be on a par with that but it would be up there with the rest.
Anything could happen on any given day but I think Aberdeen would need to score first to have a chance because Celtic are really good once they get their noses in front.
Brendan’s side play at a tempo and with a quality that none of the others can match and they have handled their semi-finals and finals comfortably up until now. In the Old Firm games, they have been unbelievably ruthless.
They will be determined to make their mark on the history of this club.
Aberdeen have had a stellar season and it’s fitting that the two best teams in the country will fight it out in the showpiece game — although I’d have much rather been in the final with Hibs.
I’m not going to tell Derek how to do his job but I’d play my best team. It will all depend on Ryan Jack’s state of mind. He’s been out for a while with an injury. Maybe he’ll want to go out on a high. Jack’s a big player for them.
THEO SNELDERS A one-time winner
I HAVE happy memories of winning the Scottish Cup with Aberdeen in 1990 at Hampden. It was my best moment in football, although my family watching back home on television in Holland couldn’t see the end of the shootout because the TV signal got blocked after two hours.
I had to tell them the result. But I remember our victory well. To win a game with that kind of excitement is something you never forget.
It’s hard to believe it has been 27 years since it happened — but it’s too long for a club the size of Aberdeen to be waiting to win the Scottish Cup again.
I don’t think it will go to penalties between Aberdeen and Celtic this time but it will be close.
Celtic are unbeaten and to do that through a whole league season is amazing. When you have won the league and have such a lead over the other teams it’s incredible that they were able to stay motivated and keep winning.
But Celtic did that and they are big favourites to win the cup. However, this is a one-off game, so Aberdeen have a chance.
After 27 years waiting, Aberdeen are hungry for success and that hunger could bring them through on the day.
Also, they have a very good manager in Derek McInnes. I was a team-mate of Derek’s (at Rangers). Sometimes you see players who are not quick and they have to use their brain a lot to compensate.
If you are quick and strong, you can always win the ball back. But these players who are not as quick tend to be more tactically aware.
Derek was a tactician in his playing days, so I’m not surprised he is like that as a manager.
He has done a great job at Pittodrie. Before he arrived, the club went through a bad spell when they were not getting results and the crowds were down.
But Derek has made great progress and the board has done well to back him and let him build the club back up.
It’s also important to remember that underdogs can win in football. Back home in Holland, when I coached at FC Twente we caused an upset by winning the Dutch League title in 2010 for the first time in the club’s history.
Ajax were chasing us all the way and all of Holland hoped Twente would win.
In our last game, supporters in all the other stadiums were celebrating when we scored. All of Holland hated Ajax because they were winning so much and they wanted someone else to win for a change.
Will it be the case that all of Scotland will be supporting Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup final? Well, everyone roots for the underdog.
PAT BONNER A three-time winner
WITH this season being the 50th anniversary of the Lisbon Lions’ European Cup triumph, it reminds me a lot of Celtic’s Centenary season in 1987-88 when we did the Double.
Back then, it was like a storybook and we players were the actors
who had to deliver the happy ending.
But there is always a danger in a cup final, a one-off game, that you don’t perform and maybe nerves take over.
Of course, I want Celtic to win today because of my history with the club but I also want to see a good cup final.
And I think Aberdeen are the only other team in the league who can make that happen.
How do they beat Celtic? Derek McInnes has tried various things against Celtic this season and it hasn’t worked.
So this time, I would like to see him playing an Aberdeen way (to their strengths) — maybe a 4-4-1-1 — and not try something else different.
Some people would say a plan would be to try to target Celtic’s defence because they are such an attacking team. But I think Jozo Simunovic and Dedryck Boyata are both playing as well as any centre-halves right now.
They are both tall and they can head the ball — Boyata better than Simunovic.
They are also quick and they can recover if their full-backs are out of position.
The bottom line, honestly, is I don’t see a lot of weaknesses in this Celtic team.
It’s going to be really difficult for Aberdeen.
Derek will need all of his players to play at the top of their game and for Celtic to have two or three who are not quite at it on the day.
I also think the first goal in the final will be absolutely critical.
I played the last time Aberdeen won the Scottish Cup but I don’t remember too much about that 1990 final.
The good times all seem like yesterday, the bad ones you tend to park the memory away.
Poor Anton Rogan, Celtic’s left-back, got all the stick for missing his penalty but Dariusz Wdowczyk missed the first one — and that certainly put us under pressure.
Back then, we did not have goalkeeper coaches or detailed analysis of the players taking penalties.
In that game, I only went the right way for one of the penalties — Jim Bett because he was Aberdeen’s main penalty taker.
I knew where he would put it; low, to my right and I got a finger-tip to the ball — but it still went in.
For the rest of the Aberdeen penalties, I admit that I hadn’t a clue.
When did you ever see Brian Irvine or Alex McLeish taking penalties?’