Aberdeen welcome Celtic to Pittodrie in a must win for Celtic if they are to catch Hearts at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
The last time the two sides met was just before Christmas when Nancy was in charge at Parkhead where Nancy picked up his first win in Glasgow with a 3-1 win over the Dons. The last meeting at Pittodrie was on matchday two where Celtic ran away 2-0 winners under Brendan Rodgers with Nygren and Hatate was on target to give Celtic the win. This will be the third Celtic manager to face Aberdeen, a first for Martin O’Neill since 2005 in a 3-2 win at Celtic Park.
Aberdeen are coming into this match following defeat in the capital to league leaders Hearts following a first half goal by Claudio Braga to stretch the lead at the top. The last meeting at Pittodrie came two weeks ago where Aberdeen were defeated yet again as Dundee and Steven Pressley ran out 3-2 winners with Ethan Hamilton scoring a stunner late on to win it for the Dens Park outfit. Aberdeen have only won one league game in their last 11 which was a 6-2 win against Livingston.
Last time out for the Hoops’ they draw away to title rivals Rangers at Ibrox on Sunday. A brace by Chermitti in the first half saw Celtic go into the break 2-0 down but Tierney had Celtic back into the game after 56 minutes with Reo Hatate missing a penalty late on but scoring the rebound second time of asking. Celtic have only lost one league game in their last eight which was a 2-1 defeat at home to Hibernian.
Leven speaking on tomorrow’s clash with Celtic:
“Celtic are a good team, but we’re also a good team on our day. We need to bring it tomorrow. It’s a 95-minute performance, we need that, we’ve not had many of them this season.
“But again, we’re at home. We shouldn’t fear anybody. This is a huge club and the boys should know how big this club is and anybody who comes up to Pittodrie should be in for a tough game.”
Leven admitted his squad must “believe in each other” should they get past Celtic
He added: “They’ve got to belief in the system, they’ve got to believe in each other, they’ve got to work hard, yes at times you’ll need a little bit of luck.
“But listen, there’s good players in this team but they’ve got to all bring it on the same day and fight for each other, that’s the most important thing.”
Martin O’Neill on tomorrow’s trip up North:
“Certainly, this is a big game for us tomorrow evening, a big match for us and we have to try and win the game if we can”
The Celtic boss has also commented on the Schmeichel situation: “Kasper is still not feeling great so I will leave him to recover properly,” said the Northern Irishman, who will again be without suspended defender Auston Trusty.
“He (Sinisalo) has done really well in the two games that he’s come in.
“He came in for the European game against Stuttgart, made a couple of really good saves and did very well.
“And so he will start tomorrow night.
“I have been pleased with him. I thought he did fine against Rangers, really fine.
“And the goals that he conceded certainly weren’t his fault.
“So I’ve been very pleased with him. And it’s an opportunity, it’s not the way that you’d want it to do.
“But it’s an opportunity to see him because I think he wants to be the number one goalkeeper here in the foreseeable future.”
