Celtic’s dominance in Aberdeen was arguably the best performance of their season as they blew an Aberdeen side to specks of dust by the time the half-time whistle came.
Odsonne Edouard opened the scoring in the tenth minute with the pick of the bunch; the Frenchman dropped deep and gave the ball to James Forrest, who duly returned the favour with a quick one-two.
Edouard has a knack of not looking like he’s running, as though a defender could tackle him any minute – yet they can’t, and he lumbers on. We all remember that goal against theRangers in the 2-1 win over them to practically clinch the title, and this was undoubtedly the same.
Running at the heart of the Dons defence, he shifted the ball onto his right 18 yards out, before guiding a shot past Joe Lewis to send the away fans into raptures.
It was soon two with wee Jeremie Frimpong grabbing his first professional goal. Having only joined two months prior, the Dutchman’s impetus and attacking threat were there for all to see at Pittodrie – and he was rewarded with a goal.
The pacy full-back went buccaneering down the right, and was found with a beautiful lobbed pass by Christopher Jullien. He opted for the one-two with Edouard, who swivelled and fired the ball into the six-yard box for the then-18-year-old to lap up and run gleefully over to the away end.
The third goal was something beautiful on the eye, although much of that could perhaps be down to poor defending. Tom Rogic found Moi Elyounoussi with a sublime slide-rule pass, with the Norwegian turning his back to goal. Any other defence would have dealth with it, but ball watching must have been on the agenda in Aberdeen training as James Forrest ran completely unmarked to pass the ball past Lewis.
And it was to get even better on the stroke of half-time, again with some outrageously poor defending. The ball found its way out to Frimpong on the edge of the box, and he laid off Tom Rogic. The Aussie simply crossed for Moi Elyounoussi to go unmarked and for Neil Lennon’s men to go wild.
Just a shame there weren’t any second half!
The team was: Forster, Frimpong, Jullien, Ajer, Bolingoli, Brown, McGregor, Forrest, Rogic, Elyounoussi, Edouard.
Subs: Bitton (45), Hayes (82), Edouard (70)
