Do miracles come this big for Aberdeen against Celtic?

Aberdeen vs. Celtic in the Scottish Cup final

Location: Hampden Park, Glasgow Date: Saturday, May 24 Kick-off: 5:00 BST

Dante Polvara made his best effort in a case for Aberdeen to beat the odds and win the Scottish Cup final on Saturday, the Dons are friendless at 6-1, a dribbler that veered off in the direction of the corner flag.

The Aberdeen man praised his team’s chances against treble-chasing Celtic, a valiant attempt to improve their last four victories over the champions. “No pressure, no expectation,” he said.

The Dons have lost those games 5-1, 5-1, 1-0 and 6-0.

The 24-year-old American said there was a chance for a free hit, “some luck from the football gods,” and “you never know what might happen.”

Since Aberdeen last did it, Rangers have defeated Celtic at least twice, along with Livingston, Ross County, St Mirren, Hibernian, Heart of Midlothian, and Kilmarnock.

This red-clad mental barrier is a strange thing. Celtic have won 79 of their final 22 games overall, as of 2018.

Most people believe they are probably aware of what will happen on Saturday, including many fatalistic Aberdeen supporters who are traveling in fantastic numbers, but not, in your opinion, with a lot of belief, in fairness to Dante and his hopes for a Celtic inferno.

Although Polvara is aiming for the heavens, days like this don’t typically feature the God of footballers underdogs. In the last 50 years, the Scottish Cup final saw two real shocks: Aberdeen beating Celtic in 1970 and Dundee United beating Rangers in 1994.

Brendan Rodgers has won 37 of the 38 domestic cup ties he has managed as Celtic manager. Some have experienced landslides, while others have had hair.

In the final two minutes, they have won both shoot-outs and conceded potentially morale-sapping equalisers in minutes 88 and 119.

With Adam Idah scoring the final kick of the Scottish Cup final last year, they almost won. In the 92nd minute, Tom Rogic scored the winner against Aberdeen in a similar way to their 2017 final victory.

The Gods have only ever impressed Celtic’s opponents in these championship games against Rodgers teams in victories over Kilmarnock in the League Cup last year. They have led for a total of 130 minutes under Rodgers, scoring 133 and giving up 29 in those cup-tied hours.

At Hampden, the Celtic manager has never lost.

How are they defeated by Jimmy Thelin’s counterpart in Aberdeen? Walter Smith once remarked before playing Juventus in the Champions League that you are reminded of this.

How do you get rid of Alessandro del Piero, the then Rangers manager? The great man responded, in complete gallows humor, “with a gun.”

Rodgers has the most players and resources, but other clubs in other countries have comparable dominance and do not match Rodgers’ standards. Even the monied ones occasionally get caught.

This season, none of the traditional Italian superpowers were successful. Bologna by Lewis Ferguson succeeded. It was their first trophy in 51 years. The first significant trophy in their 164-year history was won by Crystal Palace, which defeated the biggest guns in England.

One of Rodgers’ greatest strengths, and one of Aberdeen’s many difficulties, is his ability to identify distantness as a source of complacency. He constantly gives his players new targets to keep them on their toes.

He mentioned to them “etching their names into the concrete” of the club the day before.

Of course, many of them have already done it, but it still works as a motivating tool. It has a strong message and a long-range goal. People will be looking for a different take on the story of what they believe to be boring Parkhead dominance, outside of Celtic.

Rodgers certainly uses that, too. Everyone anticipates the resignation of the Celtic manager and his team, but they hardly ever do.

You could fill the entire Union Street area of the city with Celtic’s requirements and those that Aberdeen must fulfill in order to annoy people.

It seems like a long time since they were able to draw 2-2 in Glasgow in October.

Carnage followed that time. A dozen different Celtic goalies contributed to a 17-2 overall result. In their three games against the Dons, Daizen Maeda has five goals.

Aberdeen have the ruinous habit of giving up in clusters in recent poor form, two in seven minutes against Dundee United, three in nine minutes against Celtic, and two in six minutes against Rangers.

They are in terrible danger because of Celtic’s clustering. Rodgers’ team has scored deadly numbers in domestic games when they hit the boxers.

They score, and when an opponent is still agitated, they score once more, completing the task. They have scored twice or three times in two to ten minute bursts on 20 different occasions. One of their main victims in that regard was Aberdeen.

Fans of the Dons will be concerned about this potential early exit. Thelin’s Herculean task is to prepare his team for a difficult situation and to rebel. Resilience, focus, discipline, and ruthlessness are all qualities.

He is hoping to pull off one of the greatest cup final shocks of our time because they lack confidence, a threat to goals, defensive vulnerability, and a questionable mentality.