Rangers, but also Livingston, Ross County, St Mirren, Hibernian, Heart of Midlothian and Kilmarnock have all beaten Celtic at least twice since Aberdeen last did so.
It’s a curious thing, this red-clad mental barrier. The aggregate score since their victory in 2018 is Celtic 79 Aberdeen 22.
So, in fairness to Dante and his hopes for a Celtic inferno, most people think they probably do know what’s going to happen on Saturday, including many fatalistic Aberdeen supporters who are travelling in fantastic numbers but not, you suspect, with a whole lot of belief.
Polvara is looking to the heavens, but the God of the footballing underdog doesn’t tend to show up on days like this. Scottish Cup finals have delivered two genuine shocks in more than half a century – Dundee United beating Rangers in 1994 and Aberdeen beating Celtic in 1970.
As Celtic manager, Brendan Rodgers has had 38 cup ties in domestic football and he has won 37 of them. Some have been landslides, others have been hairy.
They have conceded potentially morale-sapping equalisers in minutes 88 and 119 to go to penalties but have won both shoot-outs.
They won last season’s Scottish Cup final with virtually the last kick, Adam Idah scoring. They won the 2017 final in similar fashion, Tom Rogic getting the winner against Aberdeen in the 92nd minute.
The only time the Gods have shined on Celtic’s opponents in these knockout games against a Rodgers team was when Kilmarnock beat them in the League Cup last season. In all those cup-tie hours under Rodgers, they have trailed for a total of 130 minutes, scoring 133 and conceding 29.
The Celtic manager has never lost at Hampden.
How does Aberdeen counterpart Jimmy Thelin beat them? You are reminded of what Walter Smith once said before playing Juventus in the Champions League.
The then Rangers manager was asked how do you stop Alessandro del Piero? “With a gun,” the great man replied, in full gallows humour mode.
Rodgers holds all the aces in terms of players and resources, but other clubs in other countries have similar dominance and yet do not hoover up all that Rodgers hoovers up. Occasionally, even the monied ones get caught.
None of the traditional Italian superpowers won the Coppa Italia this season. Lewis Ferguson’s Bologna did. It was their first trophy in 51 years. The biggest guns in England got beaten to the FA Cup by Crystal Palace, the first major trophy in their 164-year history.
On Saturday, the German Cup final will not feature Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen or Borussia Dortmund. Stuttgart, ninth in the Bundesliga, will face Arminia Bielefeld, the champions of Bundesliga 3. Bielefeld have been around for 120 years and have never won one of the big trophies. Will the year of the underdog extend to the Dons?
