PAULO BERNARDO is aiming for the magnificent seven when Celtic take on Aberdeen at Pittodrie on Wednesday.
The champions can emphasise their dominance of the domestic game with a win over the only team to have interrupted their bid for a fourth successive title.
Brendan Rodgers’ men dropped their guard – and two points – when they allowed the Dons back into October’s encounter at Parkhead when the hosts blew a 2-0 interval lead to allow Jimmy Thelin’s side to claw it back to 2-2 and earn a point.
Amazingly, the north-east outfit have claimed half of the total Kasper Schmiechel has conceded this season. Only Hearts and Ross County, with a penalty-kick, have beaten the Great Dane in the league since he succeeded Joe Hart in the summer.
The Hoops went some way to extracting revenge with a resounding 6-0 victory in the Premier Sports League Cup last-four confrontation to set up the showpiece showdown against Phillipe Clement’s Ibrox side a week at Hampden on Sunday.
Rodgers’ rampant side, fresh after an exhilarating 5-0 triumph over Don Cowie’s Dingwall club at the weekend, can ease seven points clear of their nearest challengers at the summit meeting.
ON THE BALL…Paulo Bernardo in action in Celtic’s 6-0 Hampden win over Aberdeen last month.
Bernardo, who fired in No.3 in the rout of the Highlanders, is focused on making sure there is no slip-up on this occasion and said: “I think every game is very important to us.
“I don’t have one game that I think of as the biggest in the season because we have 38 games.
“We need to win every game and to show that we can always compete. If we hadn’t won on Saturday, Aberdeen would be closer to us before Wednesday.
“It will be a good game. It’s first against second and those are always good games, but I don’t see it as the biggest game of the season.
“We will try our best and try to win the game, as always.”
Bernardo, who made second-half substitute appearances in both of the previous games against the Dons, insisted he and his colleagues will have to be at their best to return from Pittodrie with three points.
The Portuguese playmaker, speaking o the Daily Record, added: “Yes, it will be tough, for sure.
“Aberdeen are doing very well this season and they won’t want to make things easy for us.
“Is there an added motivation after what happened here in the last game against Aberdeen? Yes, we drew here, we won in the Cup and we want to win again.
“This is Celtic so we need to win.”
