Aberdeen 1-2 Celtic

By Dean Robertson

@DeanRobertson95

Celtic moved up to first place in the SPFL Premiership for the first time this season after a 2-1 away win over Aberdeen. The hoops looked like they were set to suffer another European hangover until Virgil van Dijk provided the perfect medicine in the form of a last gasp winner.

The sun was shining over Pittodrie as Celtic got the game underway. The game started even with both sides looking to find the opening goal, the Don’s appeal for a penalty in the early stages was turned down before Anthony Stokes had the first real chance to score when he had a shot go wide after good build up play from James Forrest, John Guidetti and Stefan Johansen.

Celtic had the clearer chances to open the scoring but it was Aberdeen who took the lead in the 27th minute when Adam Rooney scored after a mixture of poor defending and goalkeeping from the Bhoys.

Stefan Johansen levelled the game just eleven minutes after Celtic fell behind. Anthony Stokes played a ball into the box for Johansen to chase, Johansen managed to hold off the Aberdeen defender before poking the ball over the outrushing Aberdeen keeper Scott Brown.

With the scores level again, both side pressed to take the lead before the break, but none of the sides could manage another goal.

HT: Aberdeen 1 – 1 Celtic

Aberdeen got the second half underway, but it was Celtic who got the first chance to take the lead in the second half when Scott Brown forced his namesake to make a save after a 18 yard long shot.

The game began to get a bit heated with a number of strong tackles and some angry words exchanged between players. Anthony Stokes picked up a yellow carded after making his feelings known to the referee.

Ex Celt, Niall McGinn hit the woodwork before more cards were handed out. Celtic’s Emilio Izaguirre and Aberdeen’s Jonny Hayes were both shown yellow cards after Izaguirre reacted angrily to being fouled by Hayes.

Celtic’s caption Scott Brown was then booked for persistent fouling before he was given a second yellow and sent off. Brown was sent off after giving away a free kick outside the hoops box that was deemed to be worthy of a second yellow, although it was an incredibly soft foul. Brown can consider himself very unlucky to have been shown a red.

Aberdeen looked to make the most of their one man advantage, but a passionate Celtic wouldn’t let them in on goal, instead the hoops found themselves with an excellent opportunity to take the lead from a series of corners. Celtic first corner was deflected out of play and the hoops were awarded a second corner that found its way to van Dijk, who calmly tapped the ball into the net to give Celtic the lead in the 90th minute.

Aberdeen found themselves with one last chance when Niall McGinn had an effort from the edge of the box but Lukasz Zaluska made the save.

FT: Aberdeen 1 – 2 Celtic

The full time whistle was greeted with celebrations from the Celtic players, staff and fans. Ronny Deila broke into a passionate celebration with his players and the fans, while fan favourite John Guidetti and others conducted the fans sing song. As the hoops enjoyed their win the referee was handing out another red card this time to Shay Logan for foul and abusive language directed towards the officials. Shay Logan was allegedly the victim of racial abuse by Aleksandar Tonev in the last meeting between the two sides so to learn that he was sent off for a similar offence is a bit ironic.

What did you think of the game?