2000-12-16: Celtic 6-0 Aberdeen, Premier League

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Attendance: 60,013

Articles

• Match Report (see end of page below)

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Articles

The Herald (Glasgow)
December18, 2000
Vega will not get it any easier

BYLINE:Ken Gallacher

No-one could have predicted that Ramon Vega,Celtic’snew signing, would have had such a convincing beginning to his Parkhead career.
A leisurely stroll in his own defensive position for much of the afternoon, two goals when he took it upon himself to move upfield, and then a man of the match award made it a notable debut.
The on-loan Swiss inter-national, who had been out of favour at Spurs this season, demonstrated just how much he could offer Martin O’Neill’s team as they move remorselessly towards the league champion-ship.
Mind you, as O’Neill joked, the players were warning Vega in the dressing room afterwards that every game in Scotland was not going to be as easy as this one. Vega is professional enough, and experienced enough, to realise that himself, of course.

Aberdeenhad little to offer. The strain of back-to-back matches in Glasgow against the Old Firm was far too much for a Pittodrie team which bears no resemblance to the sides which Sir Alex Ferguson used to bring south to wreak havoc atCelticPark and Ibrox.Vega replaced club captain Tom Boyd for this game and slotted in comfortably alongside Johan Mjallby and Joos Valgaeren in a defensive set-up which was rarely tested byAberdeen’sinept attackers.
He found the marking of the visiting defence just as inept when he helped himself to his first goal in 19 minutes and his second nine minutes from the end of the game. These goals probably brought him his award, but it remains a mystery to me why Henrik Larsson’s hat trick was not enough to give the Swede the accolade.
I hope Larsson’s invaluable contribution is not being taken for granted. The three goals hoisted his total for the season to 27 and had his manager
marvelling afterwards: “People keep asking if Henrik is back to his best after last season’s injury – well, the way he is playing right now is good enough for me. His third goal was superb.”
His general play, too, was something special for the huge 60,000 crowd to savour as they saw their team lose their way a little in the second half, then finish with a four-goal flurry which destroyedAberdeenin a late 11-minutes’ spell.
As well as Larsson and Vega, young Jamie Smith found his way onto the scoring list after he replaced Didier Agathe in 80 minutes.
Boyd won’t be happy that he was left out, but O’Neill may be deciding on a rotational
system for the first team squad as he continues to strengthen it quietly and efficiently.
Mjallby, the Swedish inter-national, Mjallby, who was out of the team at the start of the season, was captain for the day and he reflected: “Ramon seemed very comfortable. We also still have Paul Lambert out injured and I think the manager is making the squad stronger.
“I have had an injury which has been troubling me, but it is not enough to keep me out of the team. I want to keep on playing because I had that spell out at the start of the season. I didn’t like that and I don’t want to go through it again.
“I had a cortisone injection after the Rangers’ game, but that is the only one I have had and while I till feel the injury a little it is not enough to stop me playing in every game.
“When the winter break comes along I shall be able to have some rest and that should see the injury clear up
completely.
“I think Ramon will be a tremendous asset for us. He is tall and strong and very good in the air, and that is going to help us at set-pieces – it worked today in his first match!”
Ebbe Skovdahl, theAberdeenmanager found himself once again trying to explain away a defeat in Glasgow – this time, one which turned into abject surrender before the end of the match.
He admitted: “We were not good enough today. The marking at some of the goals was poor and the concentration was not there in defence.
“I do not criticise my players in public. I do that in the dressing room and it will be done next week after we have looked at the video of the game and can examine the mistakes which were made. We lost three goals to set-pieces and we have to look at these.”
While Skovdahl attempts to patch up a squad which looks increasingly ill -equipped to become any kind of force in the Premier League, O’Neill was able to introduce two new
players in successive games – Neil Lennon and Vega – and can celebrate six points at the same time.
Skovdahl can only look at that and envy the Irishman his good fortune – and also his good judgment in the transfer market.
Vega had not even trained with his new team-mates and yet was able to signal his intentions for his first goal from an Alan Thompson free kick – a raised arm from the Swiss defender alerted Thompson to his run into the penalty area which the Dons’ players failed to notice.
Later Vega insisted: “I knew this was the right move for me to make – and the crowd and the performance today proved that to me again. The fans gave me the confidence to play well and I was just happy to be able to score twice and to help get them three points in the first game. It could not have been better for me.”

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The Times (London)
December18, 2000, Monday
Vega muscles in on Mjallby’s power play

BYLINE:Phil Gordon

THERE are few people for Johan Mjallby to look up to. Metaphorically, perhaps, his great friend, Henrik Larsson, is on a pedestal but, literally, few measure up to the 6ft 6inCelticdefender.Ramon Vega, though, could be one man who exceeds expectations. The Switzerland player was derided at Tottenham Hotspur but Mjallby is willing to argue the merits of that case and arguments are something this strapping Scandinavian rarely loses.

Celtic’scaptain on the day they routedAberdeen6-0 – in which Vega scored twice – to maintain their seven-point lead at the top of the Bank of Scotland Scottish Premier League, lost few contests on the pitch. Sitting in the pressroom afterwards, bulging muscles sneaking out from underneath his polo shirt sleeves, he was equally strident.”He’s a big lad,” Mjallby said admiringly of his new defensive colleague’s physique. “Ramon is very tall, very strong and good in the air. I don’t think he lost a ball in the air today and he’s going to be a big threat for us at set pieces.”
Mjallby admitted theCelticdressing-room had cautioned its new recruit afterwards that it would “not be this easy every week”. How true.Aberdeenwere puny, allowing Vega to flex his muscles and collect a two-goal bonus on his debut, which will restore the confidence that was stripped at White Hart Lane.
“At Tottenham I had injuries and when I was not playing so much my confidence drop-ped,” Vega said. “But when I had the chance to come to a massive club like this and play first-team football, I accepted straight away.”
Vega’s time in the FA Carling Premiership saw him cast as the fall guy, yet Martin O’Neill believes he can preventCelticfrom stumbling as they pursue their championship ambitions. The manager has demonstrated his shrewdness in coaxing the best out of limited players at Leicester City and atCelticPark, and Vega might be his greatest success story if the Ambling Alp accepts the no-frills defensive philosophy that O’Neill demands.
Certainly, Mjallby has. The Sweden player was ready to leave the club four months ago after returning from the European championships to find himself marginalised under a third manager in as many seasons atCelticPark.
Now, the Dolph Lundgren-lookalike is the defensive rock on whichCelticare built, as they proved by crumbling in his absence against Rangers recently. Mjallby succumbed to an intensely painful stomach-muscle injury after 45 minutes at Ibrox, and has been playing since with the help of cortisone injections. “The rest during the winter break will do me good, but I did not want to miss any games,” he said.
“I was out of the side for the first six league games. I played a couple of Uefa Cup games, but I want to play serious football, not teams from Luxembourg. But Martin gave me my chance and I took it. He has boosted my confidence.
“I was also left out when John Barnes was here and that was serious because I wanted to play for Sweden at Euro 2000, but now I have played my big tournament for my country and it is more important to play forCelticnow.”
It is a sense of duty that his compatriot Larsson shares. The forward overcame all the odds to appear, and score (as did Mjallby), at Euro 2000. NowCelticare reaping the benefits of a player whose season was only really starting last June as everyone else’s was finishing.
His hat-trick againstAberdeenextended his total to 26 for the season, with a near-post run and deft flick in the fourth minute and his 78th-minute volley being the pick.
However,Aberdeenwere truly insipid, as Vega proved in the first half by using his bulk to shrug aside David Lilley’s challenge before steering a shot past Ryan Esson, the goalkeeper. Nor was the marking any better in the final 14 minutes in which they conceded four goals, Vega’s header from Thompson’s corner among them.

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