Two games from another treble - Semi Final Preview.

Having reached Hampden for the semi finals of the Scottish Cup for the fourth season running, Celtic are two games away from a back to back treble, with yet another semi final clash against Rangers to get out of the way, our third in as many years against them.

After 2016’s infamous #drawwin in which Rangers trumphed on penalties, Celtic’s revenge a year later was the ever so easy 2-0 win en route to our first undefeated treble.

The perennial underachievers at Ibrox cheered when the draw was made for this particular fixture, and it’s something that Brendan Rodgers remembers well. Goddamn what a passive aggressive legend he is.

Rodgers has also instructed the players to avoid all papers and media patter ahead of Sunday’s game. Genius!

Seriously though, I felt this game would be a harder match for us as it’s more of a ‘one off’ game, and felt we would convincingly boss Rangers in the league match in March, but as we saw they ran us close and could have taken points from us if they had a competent defence, or a striker who wasn’t a fat balloon that missed chances from a yard out.

I’d be very very surprised if our less than solid defence faced the ridiculous Morelos, so the lightweight but slightly more threatening Jason Cummings should be more than enough for us to handle.

Jack Hendry being cup-tied is a blow, but hopefully Lustig screws the nut and doesn’t act like an idiot, and speaking of which, it’s a big game for Boyata who will surely be targeted as our weak link after his shocker against them in that league match the other month.

Regardless of how we are in defence, our midfield of Brown and Ntcham alone should be enough to dominate our mentally weak rivals, with Rogic set to be thrown in after being rested at Hamilton.

It doesn’t matter who we play on the wings either. Musonda, Sinclair, Forrest and Roberts are all fighting for a starting place there, but the game will be won thanks to our superiority in the middle of the park, and the ruthless big dog streak of Moussa Dembele, who should surely add to his already impressive ratio against Rangers.

TJDS Prediction:

Celtic 3-0 Rangers

Before I shoot off for the weekend, have a laugh at Chris ‘Union’ Jack’s prediction! What a gimmick.