2017-12-23: Celtic 3-0 Aberdeen, SP

Trivia

• Last game before Xmas.
• Celtic on top by 8pts from Aberdeen who stay second after Sevco lose to Kilmarnock. Sevco in desperation hire their incompetent interim manager for the role for the remainder of the season.
• Under pressure Johnny Hayes finally scores his debut goal for Celtic, ironically against his old club. He deserved the break.
• Was this the game that established Ajer into the Celtic 1st team?
• Marvin Compper signed for Celtic, to start in January, for est £1m.
• Everton claimed now to be in lead to sign Dembele, and are favourties (esp if alternative is Brighton!).
• Sviatchenko said to be away in January to help his case for his nationals side for upcoming World Cup, he’s been most frozen out of the Celtic side.
• Celtic’s Liam Henderson said to be on the radar for Bari (Italy) for signing in new year.
• Celtic assistant boss Chris Davies has admitted he isn’t expecting too many ins and outs at Parkhead next month.
• Openly gay footballer Liam Davis believes there is a group of around 20 players who are considering coming out together.
• Sevco’s "penniless" chairman Dave King told by Court of Session to offer for £11m buyout of other shareholders. Takeover Panel sued after he rebuffed its order to comply Companies Act 2006, arguing he doesn't control BVI trust that helped him take control of Ibrox.

Review

"The luckiest team won. It was harsh on us." McInnes said (Aberdeen Manager)

Brendan on Jonny Hayes "When you're an Irishman and you get your first goal for Celtic, it runs deep. This is a special day for him and his family."

“You saw the response of the team on Wednesday night. It is all part of the culture we have here. We are very lucky, we have got no d***heads."
Brendan on the Celtic side (Dec 2017)

(Seviliano of KDS)
Aberdeen started just kicking everything that moved and were allowed to do it

We started slowly and there was a period in middle of first half when aberdeen did dominate

But led by brown we we did come back towards end of half and whilst we might not have deserved on balance of play to be up we had also missed a one on one

Second half ntcham and armstrong joined brown in midfield and we totally dominated

they collapsed post our 3rd and it could easily have been 5

enjoyable game and i thought aberdeen did better against us than before but they just dont have the quality

and their manager with his pathetic sideline antics throughout is a complete dick

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Articles

Celtic 3 – 0 Aberdeen: Celtic ease eight points ahead of Dons

Celtic's Jonathan Hayes is tackled by Aberdeen's Aberdeen's Graeme Shinnie. Picture: Ian Rutherford/PA Wire

Andrew Smith

Published: 17:19 Saturday 23 December 2017

Celtic will be getting Aberdeen to keep. Brendan Rodgers’ side might have faltered in recent times – heck, even losing once – but the Pittodrie side only seem to mean points and prizes for the Scottish champions.
It must drive Derek McInnes demented that his side are one of the precious few in the Premiership that haven’t been at least able to take something from Celtic in the 18 months Rodgers has been in Scotland.
An ultimately convincing win for the home side didn’t simply allow them to open up an eight-point lead over Aberdeen, who remain second. It made for a 25th straight league success against them in Glasgow’s east end and a ninth straight win in all competitions – one of these being May’s Scottish Cup final – against the side that has run them closer than any other in the championship. Just not while sharing a pitch with them.
Unlike Ross County, Motherwell, Partick Thistle, Inverness Caledonian Thistle, Kilmarnock, St Johnstone, Hearts, Hibernian and Rangers then, Aberdeen have only known defeat when pitted against Rodgers’ team.
It isn’t that McInnes’ men didn’t have their game face on yesterday. For a spell midway through a full-blooded first period they were successful in imposing themselves physically on Celtic. Patently following the Hearts playbook that allowed the Edinburgh club to flatten Rodgers’ men and their 69-game unbeaten domestic record the previous week, it seemed to supply the visitors’ a foothold.
The fates, though, conspire against Aberdeen in this fixture. After Gary Mackay-Steven weaved into the box and tug a shot just wide of the post and Greg Stewart pressed Craig Gordon into action – which sandwiched Joe Lewis blocking from Scott Sinclair when he was one-on-one with the keeper – the interval looked as if it would roll around with the encounter evenly poised. Only for Mikael Lustig to have a hit-and-hope effort from 25 yards in the 40th minute that changed the entire complexion.
Dom Ball attempted to throw himself in front of the shot with the result that it came off his back and veered off its original course to wrong-foot Lewis.
Emboldened by their lead, Celtic took a vice-like grip on proceedings in the second period with a command display. Yet, deprived of first choices Stevie May and Scott McKenna through injury and Ryan Christie as a consequence of his loan arrangement from Celtic, Aberdeen would still have felt bedevilled at how the game was taken from them.
They weren’t merely left to rue the fact it just had to be a first competitive goal in Celtic colours from Jonny Hayes, so often the man who made the Pittodrie men tick in recent season, that effectively snuffed out any prospect of a comeback. The manner of the 69th minute second was agonising for the visitors, with a Sinclair cross from the left headed against Kari Arnason by Mark Reynolds to pop up for the Irish winger to bundle in.
Celtic’s third six minutes later was another grim spectacle for the Pittodrie men. A woefully slack and short attempted pass back from Kenny McLean was seized on by Olivier Ntcham, who zoomed forward and rounded Lewis, before squeezing the ball into the empty net.
Rodgers’ men could had heaped on further punishment in a one-sided second period. The fact that in Celtic Park meetings between the teams the champions can boast 75 points out of a possible 75 and 70 goals in the process of these 25 wins is quite enough to be going with, mind.
For Celtic, with two wins and two clean sheets following their 4-0 flailing at Tynecastle, any suggestion of a growing vulnerability has been warded off. It may be no more coincidence that they have restored defensive solidity with Kristoffer Ajer now partnering Dedryck Boyata in the heart of defence. The 19-year-old Norwegian was praised for his growing maturity in role still relatively new to him, with the teenager arriving in the summer of 2016 as a holding midfielder. The fact that a fit again Jozo Simunovic was left on the bench as Ajer was given back-to-back starts for the first time this season may prove significant as the week brings a trip to Dundee and the hosting of Rangers in the festive derby fixture.

BBC

By Chris McLaughlin

BBC Scotland at Celtic Park

From the section Scottish Premiership

Mikael Lustig scores for Celtic against Aberdeen
Mikael Lustig's deflected shot opened the scoring at Celtic Park

Celtic stretched their lead at the Scottish Premiership summit to eight points with victory over second-placed Aberdeen in Glasgow.

Mikael Lustig scored the opener in a competitive first half as his shot found the net via a wicked deflection.

Former Dons winger Jonny Hayes bagged a second – and his first for Celtic – from close range after 69 minutes.

And Olivier Ntcham latched onto a terrible Kenny McLean backpass to wrap up the three points.

This was a chance for Celtic to strengthen their grip on top spot with in-form Aberdeen snapping at their heels just five points behind.

McInnes bemoans Dons' bad luck in Celtic loss

The occasion and atmosphere was always going to dictate the tempo and as Aberdeen pressed, Celtic zipped the ball around with precision and purpose in the early stages.

There was no reward for their possession, though, and the visitors started to grow in confidence.

That confidence was converted into a fabulous chance for former Celtic winger Gary Mackay-Steven midway through the first half.

Dedryck Boyata allowed a high ball to bounce on the edge of his box and Mackay-Steven collected possession, turned the Belgian international inside out, and fired a low shot just past Craig Gordon's left-hand post. It was a warning that prompted a few dissenting groans around Celtic Park.

That was the first of three quick-fire chances in the space of 10 minutes, with the other two calling both goalkeepers into action. Joe Lewis did well to block Scott Sinclair's shot after the Englishman was one-on-one with the Aberdeen stopper, and Greg Stewart watched his fierce drive fisted away by Gordon at the other end.
Jonny Hayes stretches to score for Celtic against Aberdeen
Jonny Hayes scored his first Celtic goal against his former club

With five minutes to the break, Celtic took the lead thanks to some neat build-up play and a huge slice of luck. Hayes and Ntcham played a sharp one-two at the end of the Aberdeen box and when Lustig picked the ball up his shot flew off the back of Dominic Ball and high past a wrong-footed Lewis.

It was a sore one to take for the hard-working visitors but on the balance of play, deserved.

Keen to kill the contest quickly, Celtic immediately applied pressure after the interval and Moussa Dembele saw his close-range effort deflected just wide, before Kieran Tierney and Ntcham also tested Lewis.

Maybe Aberdeen's confidence went when they lost the first goal, knowing that it was going to be very, very tough for them, but they were blown away in the second half.
Pat Bonner
Former Celtic goalkeeper on BBC Radio Scotland

Dembele and Sinclair were beginning to cause the creaking Dons defence problems, with Ntcham, the dominant influence in midfield, spraying balls forward.

Kari Arnason and McLean gave the small band of travelling fans hope with a couple of close encounters, but it was one of their former team-mates who struck at the other end.

Sinclair showed his guile once again down the left flank and when he whipped in a fine cross, Hayes had the easiest of finishes from five yards out. It was mortal blow for Aberdeen, who had already been wounded by a mixture of a slick Celtic and their own lack of self-belief.

As if to underline the point, the third came from a horrible Dons error that was pounced on by Ntcham. McLean was short with the backpass and the Frenchman skipped in, rounded Lewis and slotted home with ease.
Olivier Ntcham rolls home Celtic's third goal against Aberdeen
Olivier Ntcham slotted Celtic's third goal after a glaring error from Kenny McLean

Dembele and substitute Odsonne Edouard had good opportunities to inflict more damage in the closing stages, but their wasted chances did not take the shine off a dominant display.