It’s second versus first in the Scottish Premiership tonight at Pittodrie in one of the most eagerly awaited matches of the season…
Aberdeen versus Celtic at Pittodrie is always a special fixture but this one gained extra significance the longer Jimmy Thelin’s remarkable start as Aberdeen manager continued. One heavy defeat 6-0 in the semi-final of the Premier Sports Cup at Hampden to Celtic and a draw at Celtic Park after bing two goals down at the interval were the only two game Thelin’s side had failed to win – until the weekend before last.
Defeat at St Mirren followed by two draws away to Hibs then Hearts saw seven points dropped in eight days and the end result is that Aberdeen are now four points behind Celtic having played a game more and they will also have to look in their rear view mirror because theRangers have reduced the deficit on Aberdeen to seven points and they too have a game in hand on the Dons.
If Celtic can get the three points this evening then the Champions will go seven points clear with a game in hand. Incidentally theRangers take on Derek McInnes’ Kilmarnock this evening at Ibrox. It interesting to consider what result they’d prefer from Pittodrie should Philippe Clement’s side win their own game.
Some Match Stats*
Aberdeen have gone 27 matches against Celtic without a win (21 defeats and six draws) going back to a 1-0 dead rubber win at Celtic Park on Trophy day 2018.
Celtic are unbeaten in our last 15 visits to Pittodrie (12 wins and three draws) and the last defeat was a 2-1 defeat in February 2016 when Ronny Delia was in charge.
Celtic has won each of our last nine away Scottish Premiership matches and a win tonight will make it ten from ten away days, which was last achieved in between April and November 2017 in Brendan’s first spell as Celtic manager.
*via One Football, the world’s biggest football app where The Celtic Star and the official Celtic FC website provide the Celtic content. Worth adding the One Football app to your phone. They reckon Celtic has an 80% chance of winning the match tonight.
Kyogo has scored five goals in his last five appearances against Aberdeen.
Celtic Team News
Scott Bain misses out through illness, other than that Brendan Rodgers has a full squad to choose from. It’ noticeable that now the squad is accustomed to his patterns of play we are seeing far fewer injuries, other than ongoing Cameron Carter-Vickers concerns.
The Celtic manager made six changes at the weekend and all those coming in did a fine job. That eleven plus the half dozen who will benefit from having a rest are all more than capable of delivering for a Celtic team that will be looking at collecting the three points to pull clear at the top the table and also to maintain that domestic unbeaten record.
🗣️ “I’ve joined a team that is thriving. The identity is to win at all costs.”
Auston Trusty on life at Celtic, ahead of facing Aberdeen tonight – live on Sky Sports from 7.15pm 📺 pic.twitter.com/V4YR4msoVR
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) December 4, 2024
In yesterday’s media conference Brendan Rodgers hinted that the impact players from the weekend will mostly be back on the bench this evening as he had the team for the Aberdeen game in his mind before the weekend. The one exception to that might be Paulo Bernardo getting the nod ahead of Arne Engels.
Therefore the Celtic team to line-up at Pittodrie this evening his likely to be along these lines:
Schmeichel; Johnston, Trusty, Carter-Vickers, Taylor; McGregor (c), Bernardo, Hatate; Kuhn, Kyogo and Maeda (4-3-3) Subs: Sinisalo, Valle, Scales, Idah, Forrest, Yang, Engels, McCowan and Ralston
Celtic Manager’s Thoughts
“It’s always a challenge going to Pittodrie. Obviously, they’ve done very well this season. The last week or so are maybe not the results they would have wanted, but still they’ve made a very, very good start. Jimmy’s done a fantastic job there. They are very structured in how they play, very clear in the process and how they want to work. So, we expect a really tough game,” Brendan Rodgers said at his media conference at Lennxtown.
“I can only control what we want to do in the game and that’s bring a really positive attitude and attacking attitude. I think the first game at home when we drew 2-2, we were a bit slack and we got punished for that.
Over the course of the two games, we created a lot of opportunities to score and were defensively strong apart from in those couple of moments. But it’s away from home and every game away from home, especially the top teams, it’s always a challenge. So, we’ll expect that there but I also expect us to, from the first whistle, really go to create the game and look to give Aberdeen problems.”
📰 Brendan Rodgers ready for Aberdeen challenge
💬 “They’re very structured in how they play, very clear in their process in how they want to work, so we expect a really tough game.”#ABECEL | #CelticFC 🍀
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) December 4, 2024
Match Officials
Experienced referee Don Robertson takes charge of tonight’s Scottish Premiership match at Pittodrie and he will be assisted by Frank Connor and David Roome who will be running the lines. Andrew Dallas is on VAR duties at Clydesdale House, and he will be assisted by Graeme Stewart.
Kick-0ff Time
Aberdeen v Celtic kicks off at 8pm
Where to Watch
Sky Sports are showing tonight’s Aberdeen v Celtic match with coverage starting at 7.15pm that’s 45 minutes ahead of the 8pm kick-off. The game is live on both Sky Sports Football and Sky Sports Main Event. For Celtic TV subscribers based outside of Britain and Ireland the match is live on the club’s own channel.
Highlights will be shown on Sportscene on BBC One Scotland at 10.40pm and hopefully Celtic TV will have a Unique Angle to savour tomorrow morning.
💻 It’s a top of the table clash at Pittodrie as Celtic look to stretch their legs in the race for the Scottish Premiership title.
Overseas subscrivers can watch the full match LIVE on @CelticTV.
Full info & how to subscribe ⤵️#ABECEL | #CelticFC🍀
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) December 3, 2024
Score Prediction
A tough match with just the one goal for the visitors with Kyogo making it six goals from six matches against the Dons. So it’s Aberdeen 0-1 Celtic for me, although another 6-0 win would be nicer!
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