Aberdeen captain Joe Lewis believes their Scottish Cup semi-final with Celtic comes at a good time.
The Dons have been in great form this season, losing just two of their opening 11 league matches and winning seven of them. It’s confidence ahead of a Hampden date with Celtic.
Derek McInnes’ men head into this match in Glasgow directly off the back of a game with Celtic last Sunday. It was a pulsating fixture too, a 3-3 draw played out in the Pittodrie dress rehearsal.
Captain Lewis can sense that form Aberdeen have built ahead of the Hampden meeting today. He says it’s the right time for them to take on this clash.
“It is a good time for us to play anyone at the minute because of the way that we are playing,” said Lewis. “That’s how we look at it. We focus on ourselves and if we focus on the attacking style of play that has been working well for us then we can be confident on getting a result.
“30 years is a long time since the club last won the Scottish Cup. I have been here for four and a half years and that also feels like a long time not to have won it either. We have been really close a few times now but have fallen short to a Celtic team that have been very, very good over the last few years.
“I feel this season we are a better team and have a stronger depth to our team. If we have an injury, we have players who can step in and keep us moving forward. We are pleased that our forward players are playing with that freedom and we want to keep that momentum going.”
Celtic have come under criticism leading into this match, having not won in a game in four attempts. Their last encounter was away to Lille in France just 72 hours ago but Lewis doesn’t expect that to play a factor.
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“It is a dangerous thought process to get into in terms of thinking that they have a midweek game, and we don’t,” Lewis explained. “They play a lot of European football. We expect them to be very a strong team.
“They have a big enough squad to rotate things if they need to. We are not going to assume that they won’t be at the races just because they have a game during the week.
“I have played Celtic a lot of times in my time here. We have played them in some big games and in some cup finals where we have just fallen short. We are a different team this season, we are a better team and hopefully we show that on Sunday.
“We can take the confidence that we have drawn from this season to Hampden and put in a good performance and get to the final.”