Celtic face Aberdeen yet again in their final match of the season. They will play St Mirren next weekend in the last league match of the campaign, when they will receive the Premiership trophy. After that, it’s the Dons at Hampden Park in the Scottish Cup final on Saturday, May 24. If the dress rehearsal is anything to go by, it could be a long night for Jimmy Thelin's side.
The cup final gives Celtic the chance to land that trophy and hopefully secure another remarkable treble. It comes after the emphatic 5-1 away win over Aberdeen this week.
Given that Brendan Rodgers made eight changes to his starting lineup, with several fringe players given chances, Aberdeen will have had their confidence dented badly. Maik Nawrocki, Yang Hyun-jun, Luke McCowan, Johnny Kenny and Adam Idah were the five scorers on the night. None of them are regular starters.
The Scottish Cup final was already worrying an Aberdeen legend, even before this latest defeat. Willie Miller was a tremendous player for his club and country. He had also watched them struggle at Ibrox on Sunday. A 4-0 defeat there gave Barry Ferguson his first home win as manager. It seems to have added to the Dons hero's nightmares.
Aberdeen legend admits Celtic fear before Scottish Cup final
Miller saw the Aberdeen side fall apart in the second half at Ibrox and is now worried about them facing Celtic at Hampden Park. The Dons looked slightly better in midweek than against the Rangers, when they were disorganised, defensively poor, and lacked leadership.
Perhaps the players have one eye on the trip to Hampden Park and are more worried about missing out due to an injury than being dropped for poor form. With Celtic in fine form of late, a weak and badly organised Aberdeen defence would have a rough time, especially against a first-choice Hoops starting XI.
Miller obviously recalls the League Cup semi-final in November when Aberdeen were handed a 6-0 defeat by Celtic with Daizen Maeda scoring a hat-trick. That game broke a run of great form for the Dons and hurt their season.
As reported by the Daily Record, Miller set out his views and worries on BBC SportSound after that Ibrox defeat:
"They didn’t have any direction or leadership on the field of play to actually say, ‘look, guys, we need to get a little bit tighter here. We need to get a little bit more solid here.
"Here is a problem. Your two sitting midfield players, give us a little bit of help in front of the two centre backs. You two full backs, don’t bomb forward. If we don’t have the ball wait until we’ve got the ball in there.
“Listen, it was such a disorganised, disjointed second half performance. And on the back of the performance against St. Mirren as well, it’s worrying. It’s worrying going into a cup final.
“I know we’ve still got two games to go before that and Aberdeen have got the opportunity to get a little bit of momentum going.
“But they don’t have it just now. And it’s very concerning the way they just fell apart in the second half. So it’s still a great opportunity for them to finish the season with the cup final.
“But if they play like anything like that, anything close like that with Celtic on form, they will be taken apart."
Aberdeen have got back on track to some extent in the league. It has not been a bad return as Thelin will have delivered two Hampden Park cup matches, including the upcoming final. The fans and the board would have likely accepted that if offered at the start of the season.
But as Miller will know, it’s a big step up to face an in-form and full-strength Celtic in that final. After the midweek result, those nightmares and fears won’t have eased any. The Hoops were well on top of his former side and will be looking to repeat that at Hampden Park.