CELTIC leave the North East with all three points after managing to eventually break down the Aberdeen side that barely left their own box.
Aberdeen’s gameplan was clear, defend their box, limit Celtic’s chances, wasting time and playing for set pieces with Duk falling to the ground any time a Celtic player was near.
It made the game hard to watch, they weren’t there to play football. Their plan nearly worked in fairness, with Callum McGregor’s strike in the 87th minute separating the sides.
Celtic struggled all afternoon to break Aberdeen down, with bodies everywhere. Celtic moved the ball side to side and racked up over 400 passes in the final third, accounting for more than 50% of Celtic’s passes on the day.
BBC pundit Michael Stewart labelled Goodwin’s tactic ’embarrassing’ after the match, slamming the Aberdeen set-up. He said: [Football Scotland]
“Aberdeen at home against anybody, to end up with 19 per cent possession is embarrassing. They’ve got to be doing more than that.
“They’ve got enough quality. Granted they are up against the strongest team in the country, they’re at home though against Celtic. 19 per cent possession, no shots on target. That’s just simply not good enough.
“From a players’ perspective, you do not want to play like that. They know they’re up against a strong side but they’ll want to go and challenge themselves. I’d be coming away from that game thinking ‘that was brutal, I didn’t enjoy that.’
“You want to give the fans hope that something is going to happen today. Park the bus and they’re instantly going to deflate.”
At the end of the day, Celtic’s quality shone through, and the three points maintain their nine-point lead.
