Aberdeen held Celtic to a draw after a thrilling second half at Pittodrie in Peter Leven’s first game as interim manager, with the visiting fans showing their anger at their club’s lack of activity in the transfer market, and their weaknesses laid bare on the pitch.
After a dull first half, Bojan Miovski cracked home the opening goal just after the interval to light the blue touch paper, before Nick Kuhn climbed off the bench to immediately mark his Celtic debut with the equaliser.
Both sides had chances to win it in a thrilling second period, but ultimately had to settle for a point apiece.
Here are the talking points from Pittodrie…
HERE’S WHAT YOU COULD HAVE WON, CELTIC
It is hardly a secret that Miovski is one of the best strikers in the Premiership, and it continues to perplex a little why neither Celtic nor Rangers have felt him worth the investment of around £5m it would take to land him.
Celtic got the full Jim Bowen treatment here as they got an acute reminder of what they could have won, as Miovski tucked home a brilliantly executed opener for the hosts.
Alexandro Bernabei gave the ball away high up the pitch – plus ca change - and in a flash of Dante Polvara’s boot Miovski was bearing down on Maik Nawrocki, who had the look of a rabbit caught in fog lights.
The striker created a yard with ease, shifting the ball onto his left foot and curling a beauty beyond Joe Hart and into the far corner.
The travelling support’s mood, already black, was darkened further as Pittodrie exploded.
TRANSFER WINDOW WOES AND LATER, SMALL WINS
As the first game after a transfer window that had their fans up in arms, it could hardly have played out worse for the Celtic board.
There was always likely to be a public rebuke here from the fans towards their board for their perceived lack of activity during January, and their lack of support for Brendan Rodgers.
The Celtic manager had made it plain in his pre-match press call that he had been trying to convince the club’s money men to loosen the purse strings at least a little outwith their normal range, and their failure to do so amounts to taking an unnecessary gamble with the league title in the eyes of the supporters. And so it proved here as points were spilled and the door opened for Rangers.
A banner was unfurled prior to kick off that read ‘Celtic board – on your heads be it’, while a chant of sack the board rang out alongside a refrain that would have left chairman Peter Lawwell (or perhaps his son Mark, the club’s head of recruitment) in no doubt about where the Celtic fans thought he should get to.
The cost of their inaction was evident here, though they might have felt at least partly vindicated mind you as Celtic hit back…
IMMEDIATE IMPACT FROM KUHN AND ADAM IDAH
Celtic were wobbling alright after Aberdeen hit the front, and Rodgers had seen enough on the hour as he hooked Bernabei to put Anthony Ralston in at left back, and threw new Bhoys Kuhn and Idah on together for their debuts, the latter up top with Kyogo Furuhashi playing off him.
It took them four minutes to haul the champions level, as Kuhn drifted in off the right and exchanged passes with Idah, who showed those cliched 'nice feet for a big man' to work the ball back to Kuhn in a shooting position.
He took a touch and fired home across Roos via a deflection and it was game on again. Idah, for his part, showed enough to suggest he could be a handy option, holding the ball up well and bringing others into play.
SECOND-HALF SLUGFEST A JOY TO WATCH
If the first half here was a chess match with Celtic trying in a familiar vain to unlock a deep-lying opposition backline, then the second half was a slugfest as Aberdeen finally threw the gloves off and went toe to toe with the visitors.
The goal helped of course, but when Celtic drew level there was no hint of either side settling for what they had. Indeed, Celtic were wide open at the back, and they had Hart to thank as he pulled off a huge save from Graeme Shinnie to keep them on level terms. Though, the Dons skipper will feel he really should have scored.
Still, both teams continued to go all out for the win, but that it was not forthcoming was probably the right outcome.
LUIS PALMA FRUSTRATES
It was a footnote to the game perhaps, but the Honduran winger is quite the conundrum. His numbers are very good since arriving at Celtic in terms of goals and assists, with eight of the former and nine of the latter in all competitions this season.
He would have had his ninth goal too early on had it not been for the intervention of VAR, which took an age to spot that he was a good couple of yards offside as he tapped in after Kelle Roos had saved from a Liel Abada shot.
Quite how the assistant referee on the field didn’t raise his flag only he knows, and quite why it took the VAR officials the guts of three minutes to rule the goal out we will never know. But in fairness, at least the technology got to the right decision in the end.
But the flip side to Palma is that he is so one-footed that he continually cuts inside, slows everything down, and very rarely does he get a cross in that Kyogo could attack, in part explaining the striker's own troubles.
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