Celtic v Rangers at Hampden

There are many fascinating sidelines in the backdrop to this Sunday’s Scottish Cup semi-final for Celtic and Rangers.

A familiar fixture

The country’s oldest cup competition has become a regular meeting place at this time of the year for Glasgow’s big two. This weekend’s match-up will mark the fifth time in six years that the pair have been drawn against each other in the tournament, and their fourth semi-final at Hampden over that period. All of these ties have come in April. Rangers triumphed in their most recent meeting, a 2-0 in a fifth round tie at Ibrox almost exactly a year ago. Prior to that came three last four clashes in 2018, 2017 and 2016. Celtic handed out a 4-0 thumping four years ago, having strolled to a 2-0 win 12 months earlier en route to an unbeaten domestic treble. Six years ago came one of their most epic encounters of recent times. Rangers, then fresh from clinching the Championship, stunned their out-of-sorts rivals with a display of poise. The pair couldn’t be separated over 120 minutes, though, with Ronny Deila’s team twice restoring parity for a 2-2 outcome. The first penalty shoot-out between the duo in a major tournament was then required to settle the issue, with Rangers prevailing 5-4 in it.

Hampden a happy home for Celtic and an unhappy one for Rangers

Celtic, incredibly, have won on their past 17 cup visits to the Mount Florida arena. The longest such run in the history of the Scottish game. Aside from the League Cup semi-final and final victories in this campaign, the sequence covers their quadruple treble seasons between 2016-17 and 2019-20. The one exception was the 2018 League Cup last four tie, that 3-0 success over Hearts then being staged at Murrayfield. Aberdeen are the team to