Celtic v Aberdeen – Callum McGregor relishes Hampden task

Celtic skipper Callum McGregor is relishing the prospect of facing in form Aberdeen in today’s teatime Premier Sports League Cup semi-final clash…

The captain has been absent from Celtic’s last two matches against Motherwell at Fir Park last Sunday and then Dundee on Wednesday evening but will return to the squad for tonight’s highly-anticipated encounter with the Dons.

Dons on a decent run

Jimmy Thelin’s side have been on fire since the Swede’s arrival to Scottish football from Elfsborg in the summer. Under Thelin, Aberdeen have won 15 from 16 domestic matches and have yet to be beaten under his stewardship.

Their win against theRangers three days ago at Pittodrie put Thelin’s men nine points ahead of Philippe Clement’s woeful under-performers and kept pace with Celtic at the foot of the table.

Meanwhile, the Dons clawing back a two-goal defect at Celtic Park two weeks ago raised more than a few eyebrows. They were the first Scottish Premiership team since Inverness 14 years ago to come back from 2-0 down at Paradise and escape with a point.

Calmac impressed 

Meanwhile, skipper Callum McGregor insists he has been impressed with Thelin’s remarkable start to life in the Granite City. The Celtic captain was speaking to the media yesterday afternoon ahead of today’s Premier Sports Cup semi-final at the National Stadium.

“Just the whole game to be honest, it’s really impressive, they’re together when they defend, there’s not many spaces there and then they carry a threat on transition as well. They’ve got speed in the team, they’ve got good physicality in the team, so I’ve been really impressed by them in tomorrow, but it’ll be another tough game for sure.”

They’ve obviously done a lot of good work over the summer

“I think as many teams as we can get doing well in Scotland, then ultimately gives us a better product. It gives people a better product to watch and it’s more competition for the team. We want everybody to be strong and fighting against each other and hopefully we can come out on top. Aberdeen will have the same intention as well. They want to win the game tomorrow, and we want to win so it will be a good game.”

“They’ve obviously done a lot of good work over the summer, and they’ve carried that onto the games and you speak about that snowball effect, they are where they are and they deserve to be there. So, we have to treat everyone with the utmost respect and bring our level to the game to try and make us successful as well.”

In order for Brendan Rodgers to maintain his impressive undefeated record at Hampden, the Celts will need to be in top form this evening. A challenging test awaits, but if Celtic are on it there will only be one winner.

Conor Spence