Sunday 31st January Kickoff: 1500hrs
Celtic v Ross County
Football – Scotland – League Cup
Hibernian booked their place in this season’s Scottish League Cup final – to be played on Sunday 20th March at Hampden – with a 2-1 win over St Johnstone on Saturday, and will find out their opponents as Celtic take on Ross County at the national stadium on Sunday. The Glasgow club are looking to retain the trophy they won in 2014/15.
Celtic appear to be emerging from what was a difficult first half of the season, where they were eliminated from two European competitions and struggled for form in the league, and are beginning to look something like the side that finished the previous campaign so strongly. Now in his second season in charge of the club, Ronny Deila has came in for strong criticism, with some supporters calling for him to go after the club’s dismal Europa League performance. The Norwegian – who also won the Scottish Premiership as well as this competition 12 months ago – has survived that, it seems, and looks set to continue in the job at least until the end of the season. How long he gets after that will likely depend on whether or not Celtic win a domestic treble – something they have not done since 2000/01, and only another twice in their history.
Looking to spoil the hopes of Celtic winning a clean sweep of domestic trophies at the first hurdle is Highland club Ross County. Managed by Jim McIntyre, County have been on an upward curve for the best part of a season, beginning with an excellent run to avoid relegation, before positioning themselves in the top six this term. In addition to their very strong league form, their passage to this stage has been relatively comfortable. A routine 2-0 win at home to Falkirk was followed by an emphatic 7-0 thumping of League One Ayr United. Having been drawn away to Highland rivals Inverness in the next round, County had to be at their best to get by that challenge and – to their credit – they were by far the better team on the night and fully deserved the victory. A semi-final against Celtic was the tie that the three other clubs would have wanted to avoided, but looking at it in another way, it’s likely that if they are to lift the trophy in six weeks time, they would have had to have beaten Celtic at some point.
Due to European commitments, Celtic have only had to negotiate two games in this season’s competition, seeing off Raith Rovers and Hearts in previous rounds. The Hoops have not tasted defeat in the League Cup since 2013, but it’s not been a favourable competition, historically. Deila will also be aware of their last visit to Hampden when they lost to Inverness Caley in controversial circumstances in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup. That will be a memory the manager and players will hope to vanquish on Sunday in their quest for a long overdue treble. Should they achieve that, Deila would become just the third manager in the club’s 129 year history – following in the footsteps of Jock Stein and Martin O’Neill.
County have struggled for consistency of late but they did win their most recent league game which should give them some confidence heading into this game. Unlike last season, McIntyre has been able to put more focus on the two cup competitions as their place in the Scottish Premiership has never been threatened in this campaign. The manager has a clear philosophy of wanting to play football in an entertaining and attractive manner which he seems unwilling to compromise on. He will be conscious, though, that his team are coming up against the best team in Scottish football who are beginning to find their best form of the season, and he somehow has to be able to set his team up in a way that keeps out a Celtic team that have scored 18 goals in their last four games.
Celtic v Ross County Betting Tips
As soon as this draw as made, memories of the now famous (or infamous depending on what team you support) Scottish Cup semi-final in 2010 between these two clubs. Ross County, a Division 1 club at the time, ended up springing one of Scottish football’s biggest shocks by beating Celtic 2-0 to reach their first ever major cup final. It was one of many shocking performances from Celtic during that season, and whilst it will have no bearing on what happens in this game, illustrates just what can happen on these occasions.
The two clubs have already met twice this season, and Celtic have proven to be too good both times. The Hoops celebrated flag day back in August with a 2-0 success before bettering County 4-1 at Dingwall in November. McIntyre’s men gave a good account of themselves in both matches, though, and if they had taken a couple of early chances in the home match it could well have been a different story.
There’s no doubting how much this Celtic squad and the coaching staff want to finish this season with all three domestic trophies, but this will be a tricky hurdle to overcome. There have been numerous occasions down the years when Celtic team’s have frozen or shown a poor attitude at Hampden, and the underdog has ran out victors. County will be hoping that’s the case once again, but such is the form the current holders are in at the moment, I can only see one winner. I expect Celtic to come out and assert their authority from the outset as they have done recently. The Hoops have scored in both halves in five of their last seven matches, and that’s the selection I like here.
Celtic to score in both halves 9/10 @ Betway
