Celtic 3-0 Aberdeen: Warm Up Complete

By: JT | November 25th, 2007

This is exactly how Celtic’s home games in the SPL should look. An early Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink header allowed the Bhoys to take control of the match, and they never looked back. Aiden McGeady continued his ridiculous form, effectively killing the game off as a contest in the 29th minute, and Scott McDonald finished Aberdeen off as Celtic strolled to a 3-0 victory.

The Celts’ confidence is sky high after this comprehensive win, and they’ll be up for the challenge when Shakhtar Donetsk come to town on Wednesday in the penultimate match of the Champions League group stages.

There is some concern though, as world-class keeper Artur Boruc was a last minute scratch, and midfield link-up man Paul Hartley missed the match completely with a viral infection. An IV and some rest will have Hartley ready to roll, and Celtic’s depth at the position is exceptional, as summer signing Massimo Donati proved on Saturday.

Boruc, on the other hand, could miss the crucial midweek match with the Ukrainians. He’s returned from international duty with some sort of foot fungus which he thought he could play through until he warmed up for the match. He decided not to take any risks, and Mark Brown got the call. Brown is an able deputy, and should be just fine with the pressure having minded the net for Celtic’s away qualifying match at Spartak Moskva in August, which the Bhoys drew 1-1.

As for this particular match, Celtic dominated from start to finish. Big Jan’s goal was helped along by some horrific defending, and a superb flick on from Jiri Jarosik. Check out the hangtime! I wouldn’t have expected Jiri to be able to get up that high, but the man is proving many doubters wrong, becoming an essential element to an outstanding midfield.

McGeady’s goal was classy, but really, how can a defense give a player with all aspects of his game on fire that much space? He made them pay just like you would have expected him to. He’s feeling unstoppable at the moment, and he’s my early candidate for Man of the Match against Shakhtar.

The final goal was set up by a brutally powerful run from midfield by Scott Brown, who delivered a pinpoint, no-look diagonal ball to McDonald’s feet. Dons keeper Jamie Langfield stopped the Aussie’s initial attempt on goal, but ol’ Skippy persevered, prying the ball loose from the helpless keeper’s grasp and firing home a third.

Here’s a potentially sacrilegious question to mull over: How does Nakamura fit into the midfield picture when he returns to full health? Celtic’s depth in central midfield is so great that Scott Brown has been employed on the right lately (although in truth there is a lot of switching that goes on). But seeing the pace on the counter that Brown, McGeady, and McDonald can provide, you just kind of wonder if a slow footed winger like Nakamura is a good fit for the way Celtic are playing at the moment. Just a thought.

Here are the visuals from the romp. Look for a preview of the Shakhtar clash sometime Tuesday.