THE HOME STRAIGHT
Ajer gallops forward to slot vital winner as finishing post comes into sight for Celtic
ABERDEEN have been in this movie before. For 81 minutes, they pressed and harried Celtic to distraction, recovering from the loss of Callum McGregor’s 11th goal of the season after ten minutes to drag themselves into the game through a thundering Ash Taylor strike.
They were the stronger team for long spells, but even Storm Dennis couldn’t blow them over the line in the end.
If the mark of champions is the ability to be second best and still find a way, then the SPFL should call a halt to the Premiership title race this morning. They can tie the green-and-white ribbons to the trophy and hand it over now.
Celtic secured their ninth away win in a row in all competitions with a sweet Kristoffer Ajer finish past Joe Lewis nine minutes from time.
Aberdeen boss Derek McInnes compared the defender’s run to that of a racehorse. His quality finish edged Celtic one step closer to finishing first past the post.
‘It was a fantastic moment,’ said Ajer. ‘We knew Aberdeen were going to be tough. They made a fantastic game of it, they pressed us high, they made it difficult for us to play out from the back and they created some very good chances. They performed at a really high level.
‘I knew that the goalkeeper is really good and he was making himself big, so I had to lift the ball. I’m just happy that I managed to do that.’
Celtic’s eighth straight league win at Pittodrie left Aberdeen asking, yet again, what they have to do to beat them.
‘I thought we dominated large spells,’ said home goalscorer Taylor. ‘I thought it was a very positive performance and deserved one point, if not three.
‘It was a solid performance from ourselves but, as Celtic do, they find a way to win.’
In truth, it was never a classic. Both teams had to cope with a swirling, gusty wind and, for long periods, Aberdeen did it better despite the calamitous loss of an early goal.
The first meaningful attack for the visitors provoked a defensive error from the otherwise strong Scott McKenna. Ajer’s long bouncing ball up the park was misjudged by the Scotland international defender, Leigh Griffiths picking up the scraps to make ground down the left before squaring a low ball for Odsonne Edouard.
He slipped the ball to the right for James Forrest, whose scooped shot was well saved by Lewis, only to fall perfectly for McGregor (right) to tuck the ball into the net from eight yards.
On their last visit to the north east, an early Celtic goal was the cue for a rout, the visitors rattling in four without reply before half-time. Aberdeen fears of a repeat were natural, but misplaced.
The conditions helped. The wind blew plastic cups on to the pitch and made the flight of the ball unpredictable. Aberdeen’s approach of launching it forward quickly unnerved Celtic’s three-man defence.
Already forced to bring in Nir Bitton for the fragile Jozo Simunovic, Neil Lennon had to make a further change after 24 minutes when left-back Greg Taylor fell to the ground with a twinge in his hamstring.
With a Europa League last-32 game in Copenhagen on Thursday night, it was no time for needless risk-taking.
‘He felt he could maybe play on,’ said Lennon, ‘but was worried he might rip it if he did. We will assess him over the next couple of days but, hopefully, it’s not too bad.’ Former Aberdeen winger Jonny Hayes was the replacement and Celtic were still getting to grips with the change of personnel when the home team equalised. The goal was a deserved reward for a terrific response to going behind. Players in red jerseys harangued Celtic at every opportunity. The champions did themselves no favours, either, by conceding a raft of free-kicks in their own half. After 27 minutes, Aberdeen made one pay. Niall McGinn thumped the ball towards a greenand-white wall, Andrew Considine turning the ball back towards Connor McLennan to cross into a congested area. New signing Matty Kennedy flicked on to Taylor.
Granted an unusual amount of space and time, the big centre-half displayed the composure of a seasoned striker to control the ball on his chest and thump a thundering finish into the net past Fraser Forster.
The Dons dared to believe now. They might even have gone in ahead at half-time, a thumping Funso Ojo right-foot strike from 25 yards on 38 minutes pushed out by Forster.
McGinn swooped to head the second ball into the side-netting and the home support — a little more sparse than it used to be for these games — roared their approval. We had a game on our hands.
For well over an hour, Celtic lacked their usual fluency. Their build-up play was pedestrian until Lennon introduced Ryan Christie for Griffiths after 58 minutes and changed to a 4-3-3.
The change saw Ajer move to right-back in a move which proved critical to the outcome of the game.
It needed a strong save from Lewis to deny Hayes a goal on his old stomping ground after the Irishman had played a deft one-two and burst behind the defence. With 16 minutes to play, it was the first effort on goal of the second half from the visitors. They were just warming up.
Celtic snatched the points with an outstanding team goal. There were just nine minutes to play when an exquisite Edouard backheel gave McGregor space to burst into. After he fed Forrest on the touchline, the winger darted infield, lifting his head to spot defender Ajer in acres of space inside the area. The finish was exemplary.
When even Edouard is missing sitters, it shows how far short of their best Celtic were here. Forrest burst into the area and clipped the ball towards the back post, where the Frenchman steadied himself and looked certain to score Celtic’s third from three yards — kicking the ball against the feet of a grounded Lewis instead.
‘Today was all about the three points,’ added match-winner Ajer. ‘We go away to a really tough fixture with the conditions and the dry pitch, we knew we had to play a little bit different.
‘Aberdeen played their best performance against us, the way they pressed us and they way they played was really good.’