Celtic maintained their perfect away record as a late Reo Hatate strike earned the champions a hard-fought win on a wild night at Pittodrie, moving them seven points clear at the top of the table.
A disciplined Dons outfit and the swirling wind and rain made things difficult for Brendan Rodgers and his men, but they finally found a moment of magic to earn another three points and give themselves breathing space at the top of the Premiership.
Here are the talking points from Pittodrie...
Reo makes grand impact after underwhelming night
Hatate is a funny old player at times. Everyone knows the quality he possesses. When he is on it, he is perhaps the most gifted player in the country. When he’s off it, though, as he was for long spells here, he can leave his manager tearing out his hair with his wasteful distribution.
In fact, when Rodgers told Luke McCowan to get stripped for action, you wouldn’t have been surprised to have seen Hatate’s number being held aloft. But perhaps knowing that it was the sort of evening in which a piece of magic would be required to settle it, Rodgers retained faith in the Japanese midfielder.
It was repaid, and then some.
The part that Greg Taylor played in the goal shouldn’t be underestimated. The full back started on the bench for this one, replacing Alex Valle at the interval after the Spaniard had picked up a booking, but he came up with a moment of brilliance as his dink in behind found Hatate in on Ross Doohan.
As the angle was tightening, Hatate then produced a sumptuous finish across the keeper on the half volley into the far corner, an exhibition of his ability not at all in-keeping with the rest of his night’s work.
His performance likely won’t be remembered, but his goal will.
Cameron Carter-Vickers bounces back with massive block
It may well be something of a cliché, but sometimes a defender comes up with a block that is ‘as good as a goal’, and Carter-Vickers certainly did that here.
A slip by Auston Trusty with a couple of minutes remaining seemed to have teed the ball up perfectly for Ester Sokler to grab an equaliser, but his central defensive partner strained every sinew to get across and throw himself in the way, just managing to get enough on the Dons striker’s effort to divert it over the bar from close range.
It was just as important a contribution to the win as Hatate’s goal, and after his recent nightmare against Club Brugge, this was much more like the Carter-Vickers the Celtic fans know and love.
Stuffy Dons put up a fight this time
Jimmy Thelin’s early season juggernaut pulled into Celtic Park earlier in the campaign with belief coursing through the veins of their players, and they backed up the hype around them by battling back from two down to emerge with a brilliant point.
They were rather slapped back down to earth by Celtic though in the subsequent meeting between the sides in the League Cup semi-final, as Rodgers’ side ran riot to hit six and derail the momentum of the Dons.
They appeared determined here to prove that the drubbing at Hampden was an aberration, and Thelin tailored his tactical approach this time around to allow for the greater quality in the opposition ranks.
The hosts effectively closed down the spaces that Celtic tried to play through, and the champions couldn’t settle into their usual rhythm at all or find the spaces they are so used to exploiting, and that they did so gleefully at the national stadium.
When the horrendous conditions were factored in, it made for an awkward night for Celtic, but the lion’s share of credit for that must go to Thelin and his men.
It may have been cold comfort in the end, but there were plenty of positives for the Pittodrie faithful.
Did Ross Doohan get away with one?
It was a big blow for Aberdeen to be without their regular number one, Dimitar Mitov, and his replacement suffered quite the blow too in the opening minutes as Kyogo Furuhashi chased down a ball over the top from Callum McGregor.
It was a big night for former Celtic youth keeper Doohan, who had come in to start against his old club, but it looked as though it would be brought to a premature end just a few minutes in as Kyogo caught the keeper on the side of the head as he charged out of his goal.
Referee Don Robertson adjudged it to be an accidental collision, and thankfully Doohan was ok to continue.
He would have been relieved not to have been too troubled by Celtic in the first half, with their first effort on target not arriving until a couple of minutes before the interval – and even then, Alistair Johnston’s header was scrambled wide by Slobodan Rubezic.
Perhaps Celtic goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods had pointed out a weakness in Doohan’s make-up though, with Bernardo starting to swing corners in on top of the Dons keeper, which led to a moment of controversy.
One such swirling delivery was completely misjudged by Doohan under pressure from Maeda, and the ball fizzed beyond his attempted punch and into the far corner of the net, but Robertson thought Maeda’s jostling had also crossed the line, and blew for a foul.
It looked charitable, to say the least, and Doohan was off the hook.
All over bar the shouting?
As far as the title goes, despite it only being early December, it would appear so. This battling victory puts Celtic seven points clear of Aberdeen at the top.
For the Dons though, their real battle is for second, and a thumping Rangers win over Kilmarnock on the night brings the Ibrox side to within four points of the Dons with a game in hand.
So, the focus for Aberdeen now should be on looking over their shoulder, but they showed enough here to suggest they are equipped for that battle, even if they cannot keep pace with Celtic.
