MY ACCOUNT
– Celtic have won seven of their last eight meetings with Inverness
– The Bhoys have scored 140 domestic goals this season
– Recommended bet: Celtic to score over 3.5 goals
Celtic will take on Inverness CT in the Scottish Cup final at Hampden Park on Saturday looking to secure the domestic treble, but this is a fixture that has memorably caused the Bhoys problems in the past.
Ange Postecoglou’s side have already sewn up the Premiership title and the Scottish League Cup and they are now just a potential 90 minutes away from clinching an eighth domestic treble.
Standing in their way are Championship outfit Inverness CT, who finished sixth in the second tier this season and have already defied the odds to reach the Hampden showpiece.
Caley Thistle do have some history on their side, as they famously beat Celtic 3-1 in the third round of the Scottish Cup in the year 2000, a result that brought about the famous headline ‘Super Caley go ballistic, Celtic are atrocious’.
Team news
Celtic will be boosted by the news that 33-goal top scorer Kyogo Furuhashi is available despite being forced off with a foot issue in last weekend’s victory over Aberdeen.
Fellow forward Daizen Maeda should also be available following suspension, but defender Cameron Carter-Vickers remains sidelined with a knee injury.
This will be Inverness’ first game in nearly a month and head coach Billy Dodds will hope to have a fully-fit squad to choose from, including leading scorer Billy Mckay, who netted twice in their semi-final victory over Falkirk.
The stats
Celtic have won seven of their last eight meetings with Inverness, drawing the other and scoring a staggering 30 goals.
The goals have also been flowing for the Bhoys this season, as they have found the back of the net 140 times in domestic competitions to date — 114 in the Premiership, 12 in the League Cup and 14 and counting in the Scottish Cup.
The Glasgow giants are aiming to win the Scottish Cup for a record-extending 41st time — their last success in the competition came in 2020.
Inverness have won the Scottish Cup once before, beating Falkirk in the 2015 final after knocking Celtic out in the last four.
Caley Thistle have already beaten two Premiership teams en route to this final — Livingston and Kilmarnock.
This will be the first meeting between these two sides since March 2017, which ended in a 4-0 Premiership success for Celtic at the Caledonian Stadium.
Prediction
Given Celtic have only lost three of 46 domestic matches this season and two of those losses came after they had already clinched Premiership glory, it is difficult to see anything other than a routine win for Postecoglou’s team at Hampden.
It may well prove to be a case of how many goals the Bhoys can score, given they have averaged over three-goals-per-game in domestic football this season.
Celtic’s last three meetings with Inverness have also seen them score 13 unanswered goals and they warmed up for this final by putting five past Aberdeen in the Premiership last weekend.
To put that into context, Aberdeen finished third in the Premiership, while Inverness were sixth in the division below.
This could prove to be one of the more one-sided cup finals we have seen in recent times and Celtic are more than capable of scoring at least four goals.
Back Celtic to score over 3.5 goals at 13/10 with LiveScore Bet.
