Celtic 6-0 Aberdeen: Hosts eight points clear after dominant victory over dismal Dons

Brendan Rodgers praised his table-topping Celtic side for putting behind them the “pain” of their midweek thrashing by Atletico Madrid with a symmetrical 6-0 dismantling of a dismal Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership.

Celtic all but settled the game within the opening 16 minutes following a Yang Hyun-jun header and tap-in from Kyogo Furuhashi, who later departed with a head injury following an aerial challenge from Slobodan Rubezic.

Aberdeen were rarely seen as an attacking force, never mind one that was likely to stretch their unbeaten run to four games.

The biggest surprise was that it took Celtic until the 77th minute to extend their lead through Luis Palma’s penalty, with David Turnbull and Oh Hyeon-gyu – twice – adding the gloss in stoppage time.

“I said beforehand there was pain in the week,” Rodgers told BBC Scotland. “But good teams always take the opportunity to bounce back quick and I thought we did that.

“We started well, scored some wonderful goals and could have had more – the goalkeeper had a couple of wonderful saves. Some of the movement and combination play was excellent.”

Aberdeen manager Barry Robson had made four changes, only one of them forced, as he looked to introduce fresh legs into a side who battled to a brave 2-2 draw away to POAK in the Europa Conference League on Thursday.

However, it was one of the two new faces introduced by Rodgers following his side’s 6-0 Champions League thumping by Atletico Madrid that lit up the early stages.

Yang was the beneficiary of Daizen Maeda’s absence through injury and the South Korea forward immediately started weaving patterns round the mesmerised Dons defence.

When he threaded through to Kyogo, the normally deadly Japan striker had his shot parried by goalkeeper Kelle Roos into the path of Matt O’Riley, who also somehow missed the target.

Celtic would not be denied for long as Roos failed to cut out Palma’s driven cross and Yang had the simple task of nodding into the unguarded net after only nine minutes for his first Celtic goal.

Yang turned provider seven minutes later as he flicked through to O’Riley, whose low ball to the front post was directed home by the toes of Kyogo.

Jonny Hayes, the former Celtic wing-back given a start by Robson, did slice wastefully wide as he failed to capitalise on a rare break up the other end, but the traffic continued towards Roos, who saved well from both Odin Holm and Palma.

Visiting centre-half Rubezic was lucky to only be shown yellow for the headed challenge on Kyogo that forced the groggy Celtic striker to be replaced shortly after the break.

Aberdeen’s first attempt on target arrived after 59 minutes as Robson finally tweaked his formation, but Bojan Miovski’s front-post flick was straight at goalkeeper Joe Hart.

However, the roof fell in for Aberdeen after Jack MacKenzie was adjudged to have fouled Oh as the striker shot 12 yards out and winger Palma slotted powerfully from the spot.

There was still time for Turnbull to fire in off the post and Oh to head home a superb Palma cross.

Player of the match – Yang Hyun-jun (Celtic)

Rodgers proved right, Robson wrong – analysis

Rodgers said before kick-off he was confident there would be no hangover from the midweek hammering and that it was a good opportunity to hand Holm his first league start.

He was right on both counts, with the 20-year-old Norwegian strolling it in midfield – and on his prediction that Yang would prove a lively replacement for Maeda.

It is now 50 home league matches without defeat – and this was one of Celtic’s easiest victories during that spell.

For Aberdeen, the stats are damning. Less than 25% possession, seven visits to Celtic Park without a goal, 23 games without a win over the Glasgow side.

Robson can point to his squad having two fewer days of recovery from their European exertions than their hosts.

However, that is the burden that group-stage qualification brings, and the Dons manager has still to find a way to cope. Parking the bus is not working.

What they said

Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers: “Performance level is improving all the time The cohesion and synchronisation of the team is getting better and I thought the players were fantastic dealing with that game in midweek.

“The intensity was impressive, the guys who started gave us a good base and the guys coming into the game finished it off very well for us. We’ve made a very good start, but I will always demand more. We have to be hungry to improve.”

Aberdeen manager Barry Robson: “Not good enough – every aspect. That’s from me, the staff, everyone.

“We never started the game well. First 15 minutes, poor, not getting close to anyone. Second half, we got them in, told them to get a bit closer to them. We got a bit closer to them for 15 minutes, but after that, we weren’t good enough.”

What’s next?

Celtic entertain Motherwell on Saturday, 25 November (15:00 GMT), while Aberdeen host Rangers the following day (12:00).