UK Edition
Aberdeen 0 Celtic 2: Hosts' lamentable run against Scottish champions elect ends in 10th successive loss
Aberdeen’s lamentable history against Celtic – who they last defeated in February 2016, when Ronny Deila was in charge at Parkhead – continued with a 10th successive loss to the champions, for whom Moussa Dembele and Kieran Tierney scored late in each half.
To add to the hosts’ dismay, they could not take advantage of Mikael Lustig’s dismissal with quarter of an hour left to play and, indeed, had Sam Cosgrove sent off shortly after his arrival as a substitute. Aberdeen now trail Rangers by three points and are 12 points adrift of Celtic.
Celtic arrived in the Granite City with the benefit of a perfect record under Brendan Rodgers of eight wins from as many meetings with the team who finished runners-up in all three domestic competitions last season. By contrast, Aberdeen’s response to the challenge of crucial contests was in question, not only because of their run of defeats against the champions but also because of three losses to Rangers in this campaign plus a trip to Easter Road which saw them well beaten by Hibernian a week previously, a setback which ended a run of six successive league victories.
Derek McInnes was not aided by the absence of his captain, Graeme Shinnie, serving the second game of a two-match suspension, or that of loanee Ryan Christie, prohibited from playing against his parent club.
The Aberdeen manager made two changes from the side defeated in Edinburgh and replaced Adam Rooney and Christie with Stevie May and Kari Arnason respectively.
Rodgers also switched personnel after the 3-0 defeat by Zenit St Petersburg in the Europa League on Thursday, with Eboue Kouassi and Callum McGregor benched and Tom Rogic and Scott Sinclair given starts. Celtic deployed three at the back – Lustig, Jozo Simunovic and Kris Ajer – but Aberdeen could only exploit the flank space intermittently, principally on their left, where Gary Mackay-Steven was able to get to the corner flag on a couple of occasions. But his most promising delivery was wasted because none of his colleagues had made it into the box when the ball arrived.
Kenny McLean was even more frustrated on the other wing, first when he saw a wicked free-kick delivery fall perfectly towards the back post for Arnason. The most fractional touch would have brought a goal, but the Icelandic defender somehow failed to make the crucial contact. An equally clever overhead lofted ball from McLean skipped just beyond May’s straining boot, with only Dorus de Vries to beat.
These alarms woke Celtic from their post-Zenit torpor and Sinclair almost forced an improbable breakthrough with a corner-kick which skipped off the top of the crossbar. Dembele and Rogic came to life, too, each seeing efforts blocked in the box before Olivier Ntcham beat Freddie Woodman, but not the woodwork, with a shot which clipped the goalkeeper’s left-hand post.
Aberdeen’s vulnerability was exploited nine minutes before the break when James Forrest got beyond Andrew Considine for a cross which eluded Woodman to be met towards the back post by Dembele, who had slipped away from Arnason to end a sequence of five games without a goal when he headed home almost on the line.
The hour mark, normally the time for Rogic to make way, found Celtic with other concerns when Simunovic and Ajer clashed heads to leave the latter prone on the turf, in need of prolonged treatment before being allowed to continue with a bandage wrapped around his head.
Rogic’s departure time arrived in the 72nd minute, when he was replaced by McGregor, whose presence helped stabilise the Celtic midfield after scares which saw McLean, Niall McGinn and Anthony O’Connor have attempts blocked in front of goal. The leaders, however, swiftly had another problem to address when Lustig, who had been cautioned in the first half, clattered Mackay-Steven and was shown the inevitable red card.
Aberdeen, sensing a change in fortune, began to pour forward, but the parity they achieved was not the one they sought. Instead, they were also reduced to 10 men when Cosgrove, who had been on the field for only eight minutes, scythed Scott Brown and was dismissed.
Between times, they had suffered an even more damaging blow when Celtic broke upfield and Dembele fed Tierney for a shot on the run which swept beyond Woodman to guarantee yet further Aberdeen dismay in this fixture.
Match details
Aberdeen (4-1-4-1): Woodman; Logan, Arnason (Maynard 90) McKenna, Considine; O’Connor; McGinn, McLean, Nwakali (Rooney 82), Mackay-Steven; May (Cosgrove 76).
Subs (unused): Rogers (g), Reynolds, Ball, Wright.
Booked: McKenna.
Sent off: Cosgrove.
Celtic (3-4-2-1): De Vries; Lustig, Simunovic, Ajer; Forrest (Hendry 77), Ntcham, Brown, Tierney; Rogic (McGregor 72), Sinclair (Edouard 80); Tierney.
Subs (unused): Bain (g), Miller, Kouassi, Musonda.
Booked: Lustig.
Sent off: Lustig.
Referee: John Beaton.