| Match Pictures | Matches: 1999 – 2000 | 1999-2000 Pictures |
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Trivia
- At his own request Stewart Kerr came off the transfer list. He had seen his prospective move to Chelsea fall through and the arrival of Kharine, but felt that the arrival of Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes had given the whole place a lift.
- Rosenborg’s attempt to take Harald Brattbakk back to Norway fell through. They had been in the process of selling Siggi Rushveldt to Benfica for £2.4mill but the deal floundered and the player returned to Norway.
- Stiliyan Petrov was granted a work permit on 30/7/99 making him eligible for the UEFA Cup. He arrived in Glasgow on the day of this game and was taken for a medical.
- Stephane Bonnes 4 year contract was confirmed. He had been taken as a trialist on pre-season to Norway and signed under freedom of contract after FC Mulhouse went bankrupt and were unable to pay their players. He was viewed as one for the future. Eric Black was working as his interpreter but he also had Mahe and Moravcik as fluent French speakers to pal up with.
- Tommy Johnson was told that he was surplus to requirements and could leave if he found a new club.
- For this game Gould got the nod ahead of Stewart Kerr, Stephane Mahe was suspended, Kharine, Stubbs and McNamara were on their various roads to recovery. Burley and Colin Healy, who had been with the U-18 Ireland team at the European Youth Championships, came back into the squad. Brattbakk, Johnson, McKinlay and Blinker were dropped from the squad.
Review
First game of a new season and everybody on an away day in the sun for a 6pm kick off for SKY TV. Newly arrived Aberdeen manager Ebbe Skovdahl had said before the game that his team had “no chance” which was about right as Aberdeen were pretty woeful.
Teams
Aberdeen: Preece, Smith, Anderson, Whyte, Dow, Young (Hamilton 46), Bernard (McAllister 70), Pepper, Wyness (Kiriakov 61), Winters, Jess.
Subs Not Used: Leighton, Mackie.
Celtic: Gould, Tebily, Boyd, Mjallby, Riseth, Lambert, Wieghorst, Berkovic, Moravcik, Larsson, Viduka (Burchill 61).
Subs Not Used: Kerr, Burley, Petta, Healy.
Goals: Larsson 4, Viduka 35, 41, Larsson 52 pen, Burchill 90.
Booked: Whyte, Bernard, Winters (Aberdeen) Tebily (Celtic).
Referee: Stuart Dougal (Scotland).
Attendance: 16,080
Articles
- Match Report
Celtic top the bill after their five-star show dumps Dons
The Herald 02/08/1999
Ken Gallacher
ABERDEEN…0, CELTIC…5
The new Celtic management team of Kenny Dalglish and John Barnes exploded on to the Scottish football scene last night in the first Premier League game to be televised this season. A goal ahead after only four minutes and three in front by the time the interval arrived had the Celtic support hailing the new Parkhead revolution.
Any doubts they may have harboured over the coaching inexperience of Barnes vanished in that dazzling first 45 minutes.
For poor Aberdeen, who had had a similar backroom shake-up in the summer, there was only a repeat of the disappointment suffered by the fans last season.
The new Danish coach, Ebbe Skovdahl, took a bow along with his fellow countryman and assistant Tommy Moller Nilsson and then saw his team jeered from the field as the first half ended.
He had insisted all along that his team would have no chance of matching Celtic. He was proved totally right in that assessment as his new charges simply fell apart as Celtic marauded forward with the Barnes tactical formation of 4-2-2-2 allowing Paul Lambert and Morten Wieghorst to take deep midfield positions while Eyal Berkovic and Lubomir Moravcik had the freedom to move forward in support of the main strike force.
It was compact and it was effective and Aberdeen could not get to grips with the tactical line up ranged against them.
Henrik Larsson may have ended last season on a quiet note but he gave notice last night that his sharpness has returned after the summer break. It took him only four minutes to score the opening goal and he added a second with a penalty early in the second half.
Any chance Aberdeen had of restoring some self respect had vanished just before that penalty goal. In 48 minutes they were awarded a penalty of their own when, in a rare foray into the Celtic penalty box, Robbie Winters was bundled to the ground by Olivier Tebily and Johan Mjallby.
Eoin Jess took the kick and held his head in his hands as he watched Jonathan Gould throw himself to his left to claw down the effort.
Within four minutes, Aberdeen's new boy David Preece, who must have been wondering why he left Darlington to face this searing debut, was allowed no opportunity to emulate his opposite number when Larsson struck the kick – awarded when Gary Smith sent Viduka crashing to the ground – perfectly just inside the Englishman's right hand post.
Before these two incidents, of course, there had been the three first-half goals and the exciting, creative, and lethal play which allowed Celtic to control the match with ease.
In that fourth minute, Lubomir Moravcik curled in a cross from the left and there was Larsson, moving clear of his marker, Russell Anderson, and into the six-yard box, where he directed a header downwards and over the line.
In the twenty-first minute, the Swede was desperately close again when a corner from Berkovic swung into the penalty box and was headed forward by Wieghorst.
Larsson was just yards from the line when he tried an instinctive header, which slapped against the bar and was cleared.
Derek Young tried a shot from 25 yards, which went wide and barely troubled Gould, who spent most of the half as a spectator.
Ten minutes before half-time, another cross from Moravcik reached Mark Viduka, who rapped a header beyond Preece and things were looking seriously embarrassing for the Pittodrie team.
In the forty second minute, after Vidar Riseth knocked a ball into the box, Viduka again got there before his marker and stabbed the ball into goal and, essentially, it was all over.
Gould's penalty stop was almost the only occasion when he was tested in the game, with one late effort from Kiriakov forcing the keeper into a save with his legs inside the closing minutes.
While Aberdeen made changes, there was never the slightest hope of them worrying the Parkhead team. Jim Hamilton came on for Derek Young at the start of the second half and Ilian Kiriakov replaced Denis Wyness and then Jamie McAllister appeared for the anonymous Paul Bernard.
Celtic made just one alteration and that came only because Viduka was injured and limped off to allow Mark Burchill a run.
The young man repaid the new coach's belief in him by scoring Celtic's fifth goal a minute from the end of the game.
Of course, Aberdeen look no better than they were last season, but this Celtic team was impressive, especially when they swept forward, inspired by the probing passes and darting runs from Berkovic and Moravcik.
It was only towards the end of the game, when the work had been done, that Celtic dropped the temp which had seen the Aberdeen players scurrying around helplessly and hopelessly for much of the night.
It was an exhilarating performance and one that, as John Barnes had promised from his first day in charge, fitted seamlessly into the great Celtic tradition of attacking play.
There were four bookings in the game, Derek Whyte, Paul Bernard, and Robbie Winters of Aberdeen along with Olivier Tebily of Celtic.
Dalglish and Barnes could not have looked for a better debut, while poor Skovdahl heard the jeers which have now become so much a part of match days at Pittodrie.
- Manager Interview
John Barnes post match:
"We did everything right.
"This is the way I have always wanted to play and fortunately I have the players to do it.
"I would even accept the odd defeat during the course of the season as long as we played like that every week.
"I was especially pleased with the way that the players continued to keep up a level of performance, even in the second half, when they were three goals in front.
"To be 3-0 up at half-time was fantastic but I was even happier with our display after the interval.
"Their finishing was superb but they passed the ball well and they moved well.
"We are not going to win by five goals every week – I know that. However, I do hope we can give the same level of performance.
"We do not want to get carried away. This is just one result, in the first game of the season."
Henrik Larsson:
"There are a lot of games to go and this was our first competitive match. We all enjoyed it and I have to say that the crosses from Lubo Moravcik are perfect for strikers to receive. He just picks you out every time."
Ebbe Skovdahl, Aberdeen manager:
"I could write a book about this game and I have to say that if I was not the Aberdeen manager, then I would have enjoyed watching Celtic.
"Their passing and their movement was magnificent. Of course, I cannot be happy that we lost three goals in the first half, all of them from cross balls. They were quality deliveries but I must try to do something about this.
"If we had scored from the penalty spot in the second half, then maybe we could have given the supporters some excitement.
"This was a big defeat but it would be wrong to panic because of just one result.
"You have to remember that we will not be playing Celtic every week, and it would be wrong to panic because of this result. To go out and buy players now because we have lost five goals could be a mistake."
Pictures
Stats
| Aberdeen | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 3 | 1 |
| Fouls | 13 | 4 |
| Shots on Target | 3 | 7 |
| Corners | 2 | 5 |
| Offside | 4 | 0 |