No Christie No Problem As Impressive Celts Destroy Aberdeen

After a stunning victory over Lazio on Thursday night, Celtic returned to league action away to Aberdeen a, a side who we have bullied now for a number of years. That being said Celtic's notorious European hangovers have shown there ugly face this season so it was important for the Hoops to get the job done here.

Team News

Celtic went into the match without the outstanding Ryan Christie who is still suspended following his red card at Motherwell, this meant that Tom Rogic got a start in midfield and he produced his best performance of the season so far, such strength in depth for the Hoops really is great to see. Young Jeremie Frimpong also got another start at right back for the Hoops, the Dutchman has impressed in all the games he's been involved in so far this season so its great to see him getting the nod.

Aberdeen needed big performances from star players Scott Mckenna, Cosgrove and Niall McGinn if they were to have any chance of getting something from this game, former Manchester United striker James Wilson started on the bench.
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Aberdeen
4-2-3-1

• 1 Joe Lewis (c)
• 2 Shaleum Logan
• 6 Michael Devlin
• 5 Scott McKenna
• 4 Andrew Considine
• 33 Zak Vyner
• 3 Greg Leigh
• 21 Jon Gallagher
• 18 Connor McLenn
• 10 Niall McGinn
• 16 Sam Cosgrove

Celtic
4-2-3-1

• 67 Fraser Forster
• 30 Jeremie Frimpong
• 2 Christopher Jullien
• 35 Kristoffer Ajer
• 23 Boli Bolingoli Mbombo
• 8 Scott Brown (c)
• 42 Callum McGregor
• 49 James Forrest
• 18 Tomas Rogic
• 27 Mohamed Elyounoussi
• 22 Odsonne Edouard
  

Celtic started the game brightly with Frimpong and Tom Rogic really impressing, meanwhile Scott Brown was dominating the centre of the park early on and giving Aberdeen no chances. Aberdeen looked to stand off Celtic and this gave Ajer plenty of chances to step into midfield and cause problems for the hosts. Celtic’s breakthrough came in the 11th minute, Odsonne Edouard jinked his way through a very poor Aberdeen defence and finished off brilliantly to make it 1-0.



Aberdeen were shell-shocked was and Celtic doubled their lead four minutes later. For Frimpong it was a moment of joy as the former Manchester City player scored his first goal for the club in his third appearance start. Once again the defending was very poor and Derek Mcinnis must of been seething.
Frimpong gathered a Christopher Jullien pass down the flack, forcing his way past a falling Niall McGinn. Feeding Edouard at the byeline the opening goalscorer’s cut-back into the danger area caused panic. Both Shay Logan and Scott McKenna slid in to block, but succeeded only in getting in each other’s way, the ball falling kindly for Frimpong to walk the second goal into the net.



Celtic were in complete control and taking shots at the Aberdeen goal at will, its hard to really pin point a top performer as everyone was playing with such energy, Aberdeen didn't help themselves but in truth Celtic were on a different level. The third goal after 37 minutes was a thing of beauty. From Aberdeen’s it was another disastrous affair. Retaining possession for two minutes or so the Parkhead side played 20 or 30 passes before Tom Rogic collected from Boli Bolingoli in the number ten position and picked out a run towards the six yard box from the left by Elyounoussi, the on-loan Southampton winger resisted the temptation to shoot, backheeling he ball into the path of the on-rushing James Forrest for the winger to slide home his ninth goal of the season.



The silence of the home supporters at Aberdeen is a thing of notoriety. It was finally punctured by boos when Celtic slammed home a fourth before the half-time whistle. Mikey Devlin allowing Elyounoussi to get in front of him and spin on the spot to thrash a Tom Rogic cross high into the net summed up Aberdeen’s defending. It was a first half of pure dominance from Celtic.




The second half was much the same from Celtic, they dominated through out but looked to of taken the foot of the gas a little in terms of the ruthlessness. Celtic had plenty of the ball and it was good to see Nir Bitton come on at half time and get a good 45 minutes into his legs. Celtic had more chances to increase the score line, Elyounoussi shooting wide while Bayo another substitute also got himself into a number of good positions but couldn't manage to grab a goal. Frimpong also saw a shot fly over the bar from 15 yards out, the young Dutchman will be upset he didn't manage to grab a brace.

However the full time whistle went and Neil Lennon will be absolutely delighted at how his team played today, we played with a real purpose and intensity which could not be matched by Aberdeen in the slightest, it says a lot when Aberdeen didn't have a shot in the entire match but truth be told no team in the country would of lived with us today.

Next up for the Hoops is a home game against St Mirren this Wednesday, hopefully we carry on our great form and keep up our impressive home record in the league.




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