The Dons were in disarray and hugely unfancied heading into this clash, but they fought gamely and frustrated Rangers for long spells at the national stadium. Just as they looked to be heading towards extra-time at worst though, Naderi popped up with an opportunistic finish to ensure Derek McInnes and his men will be back in Mount Florida on December 13th to face either Hearts or Hibs for the first silverware of the season.

Here are the talking points from Hampden…

Strike duo come up trumps for Gers again

The injuries to Lawrence Shankland and Youssef Chermiti were a huge blow to Rangers when they occurred, but the supporting cast have more than stepped up to the plate in their absence. In fact, the partnership of Naderi and Kevin Kelsy may take some shifting.

Naderi’s winner here was his eighth goal of the season, while Kelsy has five in his last five starts, and he too more than played his part in constructing the move that led to the critical moment of the match, carrying the ball up the pitch on the counter after an Aberdeen attack.

The pair combined well for the Rangers opener at Tynecastle on Wednesday, too, and the imminent return of Shankland will give McInnes a welcome headache when it comes to the make-up of his attack.

Electric Badredine Bouanani lights up Hampden

The decision to leave Bouanani out of the starting line-up in favour of Djeidi Gassama for the game at Tynecastle was a puzzling one at the time, and he was never in any danger of being left out here.

If anyone was going to unlock the door for Rangers, it appeared the exciting winger was the best bet. He did everything but score himself, in fact, particularly in the second half as Aberdeen dropped deeper and deeper, flashing a couple of brilliant efforts just past the far post and being denied by a goal line block from Nicky Devlin after twisting and turning two Dons defenders inside out in the area.

In the end, others eventually stepped up to the plate for Rangers, but it was Bouanani who again caught the eye.

Aberdeen stretched to the limit, but fighting for their manager

The Dons limped into this contest both figuratively in terms of their form and literally in terms of their injury list, missing four centre backs – one through suspension - and their starting right back, though at least their manager could call on the experience of Devlin.

Both he and Emmanuel Gyamfi made their first starts of the season, as Robinson somehow constructed a solid base to build from. The last thing that the Dons gaffer needed was any further injury woes in-game, but it seems as though he is slap bang in the never raining but it pours period of his Pittodrie tenure. Gyamfi lasted all of 13 minutes, stumbling and collapsing into Kim Minsu as he pursued the Rangers winger down the line, injuring his knee in the process.

The early reshuffle saw Stuart Armstrong coming into the centre of the park and Brad Lyons shunted out to the right, but the Dons remained impressively organised and stout in their defending.

For all that Robinson has been under severe pressure, and looked a broken man after the midweek defeat at home to Falkirk, he managed to rouse a huge effort from his men here, and reports of his Pittodrie demise may well yet be premature on this evidence.

At the death, they almost hauled themselves off the canvas as Armstrong curled just wide, but while that wasn’t to be, there were signs of life in this performance that have been few and far between of late.

Square pegs in round holes as McInnes tries to fit in best players

It was something of an eyebrow raiser when the team-lines dropped and two left backs in James Penrice and Tuur Rommens were included in McInnes’s starting XI, with Penrice moving from his hybrid full-back/midfield role into the middle of the park on a full-time basis.

A penny for the thoughts of Tochi Chukwuani and Vanja Dragojevic, who were left kicking their heels on the bench despite their manager’s decision to give captain Dan Neil a rest from the start of the game.

How much that decision affected Rangers is open to debate, but what isn’t in question is that the men in blue struggled to find their rhythm or any real attacking impetus despite plenty of the ball in a stuffy opening hour.

A manager will never complain about having too many good players at his disposal, but it will be a conundrum for McInnes going forward as to how he gets his preferred personnel into his team.

You’ve seen them given

Perhaps it is indicative of how little goalmouth action there was in a drab first half that the big talking points centred around potential penalties for handball, with incidents at either end that you may have thought would catch the attention of John Beaton and Chris Graham in the VAR room.

The first looked the stronger claim, with the ball making contact with the outstretched arm of Aberdeen striker Ayoub Mouloua in his own box, but referee Ryan Lee saw nothing amiss, and he wasn’t invited over to the pitchside screen for another look. It may well have been the proximity of the players directly in front of Mouloua as he was caught under the cross that saved his skin.

Aberdeen had a spot-kick shout of their own as Dujon Sterling missed a header and the ball carried on down to make contact with his arm, but in fairness to the Rangers defender, his arm did appear to be in a natural position.

The fact that we have seen penalties awarded for comparable incidents to these in the past maybe says more about the mess that has been made of the handball rule than pointing to obvious errors from the officials here, mind you.