Celtic will look to take another step closer to clinching another treble as they take on St Johnstone at Hampden on Sunday afternoon in the Scottish Cup semi-final.
Celtic will have to wait until next week to officially be crowned champions of the Scottish Premiership following Ianis Hagi’s stoppage-time leveller for Rangers at Pittodrie last weekend.
In all honesty, though, the title race has been over for months, and with The Hoops already clinching the League Cup in November on penalties against Rangers, they will have full focus on retaining the Scottish Cup.
With their Old Firm rivals already out of this competition and the Premiership’s in-form side in 2025, Hibernian, also out – thanks to a 2-0 success for Brendan Rodgers’s side in the last round – it would be a shock if Celtic didn’t lift the famous old trophy next month.
They take on a St Johnstone side whose hopes of survival took another damaging hit last weekend, as they fell to a 1-0 defeat away at Dundee United on an afternoon where our man Mark landed a couple of winners.
Whilst The Saints remain five points adrift of 11th-placed Dundee in the Premiership table, they will take confidence from the fact they claimed a shock 1-0 victory over their upcoming opponents just two weeks ago.
How the bookies view it: Hoops backed to get their revenge
Celtic are unsurprising favourites, with BoyleSports pricing them at 2/13 to get the job done in 90 minutes.
The same firm have St Johnstone at a massive 16/1, whilst it’s 13/2 for the game to go to extra time and potentially penalties.
Head to head: Saints to Spring another surprise?
As already alluded to, St Johnstone sprung a surprise on Celtic a couple of weeks ago by beating them 1-0 at home in the Premiership.
However, Brendan Rodgers’s side were unbeaten in their previous 32 meetings between the Perthshire club before that shock defeat, winning 28 of them.
Players to watch: More Maeda magic?
Daizen Maeda has fired in 26 goals for Celtic in all competitions this season, with the in-form Japanese forward scoring in seven of his past eight last matches.
Jason Holt loves a tackle, with the Ex-Rangers midfielder being booked seven times and been shown one red card for St Johnstone this season, with one of those bookings arriving a fortnight ago against The Hoops.
Probable line-ups
Zach Mitchell was forced off after just 30 minutes in St Johnstone’s defeat at Tannadice last weekend and may miss out, whilst Drey Wright, Sam McClelland, Bozo Mikulic and Uche Ikpeazu are also in the treatment room.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel and midfielder Hyun-Jun Yang will be missing for Brendan Rodgers’s side.
St Johnstone: Fisher, Balodis, Sprangler, Douglas, Curtis, Holt, Griffith, Duke-McKenna, Carey, Sidibe, Kirk
Celtic: Sinisalo, Johnston, Cater-Vickers, Scales, Schlupp, Hatate, McGregor, Engels, Kuhn, Maeda, Jota
Anything else catch the eye?
With the Premiership and League Cup already sewn up, Celtic’s full focus for the rest of the season will be wrapping up the treble, and they will be looking to avenge their shock defeat in Perthshire a fortnight ago.
Prior to that, The Hoops had thrashed The Saints 4-0 and 0-6 in the Premiership this season, and I’m fully expecting them to blow away their opponents at the national stadium on Sunday.
Unibet have Celtic at 10/11 on the -2 Asian Handicap, which means we would at least get our money back if Celtic win by only two goals, and that’s the way I’m keen to attack this semi-final.
This Scottish Cup match between St Johnstone and Celtic will be played on and kick off at 15:00. Check below for our tipsters best St Johnstone vs Celtic prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
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