Celtic 6 - 0 Aberdeen

Aberdeen were comprehensively beaten 6-0 at the hands of Celtic at Celtic Park on Sunday afternoon, where three goals in injury time completed a miserable afternoon.

Yang and and Kyogo both got on the scoresheet inside the opening 20 minutes leaving Aberdeen with it all to do, before Palma converted a penalty in the second half and Oh scored a late brace at the death, David Turnbull making it 4-0 just minutes prior.

Barry Robson made four changes to his team that admirably battled to a draw against PAOK on Thursday night. Dante Polvara and Leighton Clarkson came into the starting XI, with Conor Barron dropping to the bench and Jamie McGrath exiting the matchday squad entirely through injury. Bojan Miovski returned to lead the line from the start taking the place of Duk. Lastly, there was a rare start for Jonny Hayes in place of Ryan Duncan out wide as he returned to Celtic Park to take on his former club.

Off the back of defeat at Atletico Madrid during the week Celtic swapped Odin Holm for Bernardo in midfield for the visit of the Dons, Yang came in up top to replace the injured Daizen Maeda.

The Celtic pressure was immediate, and the Dons defence was under siege from kick off. Yang’s through ball wound up at the feet of Kyogo, the Japanese forwards effort drew a great save out of Kelle Roos. On the rebound Matt O’ Riley was unable to divert his effort towards goal and a big early chance went abegging for the hosts.

Yang opened the scoring after just eight minutes. Palma’s cross was just out of Roos’s reach inside the six-yard box, with the keeper at full stretch but unable to get any contact on the ball Yang had an empty net to head home into from close range. 1-0.

Up the other end Clarkson’s freekick from deep was met by the head of Stefan Gartenmann, but the Danes aerial effort was high and caused no threat to Joe Hart in the Celtic goal.

Kyogo doubled Celtic’s advantage just after the 15-minute mark. The Don’s defence was sliced apart by Celtics quick passing and O’ Riley was allowed to jink inside the box and cut back for the waiting Kyogo. The Japanese international had started the game brightly and had an effort bravely blocked by Mackenzie just minutes prior.

Hayes had Aberdeen’s best chance of the opening half when he was played through by Polvara, but as he drove down the left-hand side and elected to shoot, he got it wrong and could only watch his effort go wide of his intended target.

Despite wave after wave of pressure Aberdeen just about managed to get in at halftime only two goals down. Roos was called into action twice to make two good stops, acrobatically denying Holm and Palma. With the last action of the half Palma tried his luck again at a difficult angle but could only thrash his shot into the side netting.

Half time: Celtic 2-0 Aberdeen.

The second half saw an early pause after a clash of heads between Rubezic and Kyogo, Rubezic received a booking for his troubles but was able to continue. Kyogo was unable to continue and was replaced by Oh, Holm also made way: David Turnbull introduced.

Aberdeen looked an improved outfit after the break and got close to reducing the deficit after Miovski cleverly flicked Nicky Devlin’s low cross towards goal, unfortunately for the Dons number nine his first chance of the game was straight into the chest of Hart.

Celtic were awarded and then converted a penalty after a lengthy VAR stoppage to make it 3-0. After another lengthy stoppage Jack Mackenzie was adjudged to have fouled Oh inside the box, and Palma made no mistake from 12 yards to extend the host’s advantage.

Following the goal Ryan Duncan was introduced off the bench, replacing Polvara. Just a few minutes later Duk and Connor Barron entered the fray: Shinnie and Hayes coming off.

With ten minutes of added time on the fourth officials board there was time left for Celtic to inflict further misery onto Aberdeen. Turnbull’s low strike from the edge of the area caught out Roos to make it four, before a late double from Oh added a fifth and six goal to cap off a miserable day in Glasgow for the Dons.

0 minutes added at end 1st half.
10 minutes added at end 2nd half.