Kinda glad Rangers beat Hearts to be honest. Aberdeen v Rangers in the League Cup is always a bit special.

I think the first ever League Cup final was Aberdeen v Rangers 1946/47. Fergie's first cup final with us was Aberdeen/Rangers 1978/79, the first final to go to penalties was Aberdeen/Rangers 87, the first cup final I remember was the 88 Aberdeen/Rangers final, first one I remember us winning was the 89 Aberdeen/Rangers final, and the first final I went to was the 92 Aberdeen/Rangers final.

Nothing to fear. We'll be underdogs, aye, but we've won two of the last three meetings with Rangers, and we've shown up well enough in big matches this season.

And we've shown yesterday that even when we're second best we have match winners in our team.

I fully expect Rangers to get the majority of the tickets but hopefully we'll at least push strongly for a 50/50 split. The whole average crowd/how many you sold for the semi, is irrelevant. Cup final, both teams are meant to have the same chance - same number of players, same numbers backing them.
 

22 hours ago, RicoS321 said:

I think the PAOK one was actually probably a penalty though. We're really arguing here for Gartenmann to engineer us a penalty to give us parity with the Hun, which I don't think any of us actually want.

Probably was but we should gave had one too. We have to play the same game as our opponents, if we arent going to try and influence the ref but our opponents are we will keep getting screwed over. Honestly I would have been fine with Gartenmann engineering a penalty. Fair is fair and if its a penalty to the huns a few weeks ago it should be a penalty for us today. 

1 hour ago, DantheDon said:

Probably was but we should gave had one too. We have to play the same game as our opponents, if we arent going to try and influence the ref but our opponents are we will keep getting screwed over. Honestly I would have been fine with Gartenmann engineering a penalty. Fair is fair and if its a penalty to the huns a few weeks ago it should be a penalty for us today. 

Then fair isn't fair though. It wasn't fair that they got a penalty and it wouldn't have been if we got one. VAR is ruining the game, but so is the number of bullshit penalties and fouls that we see given on a weekly basis (for and against us). We don't need more of the anti-sport pish, we need less of it. I'd like to have seen the club be a bit more vociferous in their complaints about the Hun penalty and the bias rather than some sort of weird evening up exercise. 

21 minutes ago, RicoS321 said:

Then fair isn't fair though. It wasn't fair that they got a penalty and it wouldn't have been if we got one. VAR is ruining the game, but so is the number of bullshit penalties and fouls that we see given on a weekly basis (for and against us). We don't need more of the anti-sport pish, we need less of it. I'd like to have seen the club be a bit more vociferous in their complaints about the Hun penalty and the bias rather than some sort of weird evening up exercise. 

I get what your saying Rico but I think we've got to stop being naive about this. It doesn't matter how much we complain about it fuck all is ever done. Teams have won cups leagues, qualified for major tournaments off the back of what they are calling gamesmanship and you and I might call cheating. But none of these decisions are reversed after the fact. VAR is a mess at the moment but it's here and you've got to adapt to it. If getting your shirt tugged in the box is enough to get you a penalty than players need to get there ass on the deck when it happens. Do you think Rangers players/fans give a fuck if we think they cheated for that pen. In fact I would say these issues aren't going to get sorted until its Rangers and Celtic start being on the end of them. The SFA don't give a toss about a strongly worded statement from Aberdeen. 

26 minutes ago, DantheDon said:

I get what your saying Rico but I think we've got to stop being naive about this. It doesn't matter how much we complain about it fuck all is ever done. Teams have won cups leagues, qualified for major tournaments off the back of what they are calling gamesmanship and you and I might call cheating. But none of these decisions are reversed after the fact. VAR is a mess at the moment but it's here and you've got to adapt to it. If getting your shirt tugged in the box is enough to get you a penalty than players need to get there ass on the deck when it happens. Do you think Rangers players/fans give a fuck if we think they cheated for that pen. In fact I would say these issues aren't going to get sorted until its Rangers and Celtic start being on the end of them. The SFA don't give a toss about a strongly worded statement from Aberdeen. 

I disagree. It was pathetic to listen to our chief executive give in to VAR, and even more so to hear that same preachy bullshit be repeated on off the ball too at the weekend (they asked listeners to phone in with suggestions to improve VAR, after Burrows stated that despite an unbelievably massive majority of fans saying that they wanted rid of it, it was already here and nothing we can do about it). It's pandering bollocks. Why can't the third biggest team in Scotland begin a campaign to have VAR removed? Why can't the third biggest team in Scotland make a big issue about inconsistency and bias in a non partisan way (calling out our own players when they dive, for example)? Why can't we do anything about the state of our game? There's no reason, basically, just an unwillingness to stand up against authority. An unwillingness to think about and challenge the status quo. Weakness, alongside self interest. The same the world over I guess. 

Interesting analysis on Sunday (click on it and read the whole thread)

 

4 hours ago, Panda said:

Interesting analysis on Sunday (click on it and read the whole thread)

 

Yep, although if you viewed those images against similar ones from the recent game at pittodrie, you'd have been highlighting a goal and one or two excellent chances playing exactly the same way. Robson eluded (in his after match interview) to the 3-4 great opportunities in the first half to create chances, and these were those. It was clear what the tactic was, but the Huns were very alert to it and we were poor at implementing those tactics. 

To add, Robson's comments about the Huns after the game have zero influence on his thoughts prior to the game, and it's very unfair to read that into them (and not indicative of how Robson has approached the big games so far as manager). Those comments were purely after-the-fact arse covering, which he took way beyond acceptable limits.