Benjamin Nygren celebrates. Aberdeen v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. Wednesday 4th March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
A relieved Martin O’Neill spoke to the mainstream media after Celtic picked up the crucial three points at Pittodrie with a hard-fought 2-1 win over Aberdeen with goals from Kieran Tierney and Benjamin Nygren. Here’s everything that was said…
Pittodrie stadium. Aberdeen v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. Wednesday 4th March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: How significant is your squad in getting to this stage?
Martin O’Neill: “Substitutions in recent weeks have made big contributions to us, so that’s important for us. So our third game in six days, I knew it was going to be a tough game, it proved to be, but we saw it through in the end.”
Benjamin Nygren scores. Aberdeen v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. Wednesday 4th March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: There are two players significantly that I’m sure you’d want to credit for getting the win. One’s the keeper and Nygren, 19 goals, he’s very much an unsung hero in this team?
Martin O’Neill: “Well I don’t know about that, whether he is unsung in that sense, he’s doing something that is the most difficult thing in the game, to score goals. He’s popped up again, it proved to be the winning goal. The goalkeeper made a really great save and has absolutely done fine in the matches that he’s played, in all three games.”
🧤 “A fantastic save from Sinisalo!”
The Celtic goalkeeper is called into action early in the second half ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/S1yssaTqGC
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) March 4, 2026
Benjamin Nygren celebrates. Aberdeen v Celtic, Scottish Premiership. Wednesday 4th March 2026. Photograph by Vagelis Georgariou
Q: It looked like a really tight call for offside at Nygren’s goal?
Martin O’Neill: “Yeah, absolutely, because it took a long time. And then when the fourth official was saying to me that they’re looking at perhaps two events in the thing, but then you start to really worry about it. But thankfully we saw it through. I don’t know about you, but I thought it looked a penalty for us in the first half. You haven’t seen it yet? His hand was out there, I thought, in an unnatural position. It was a tough game, we saw it through and it keeps us going.
