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Celtic won out fairly comfortably in a bruising encounter which saw Moravcik, Mjallby and Sutton all taking knocks and Hartson getting a red card for lashing out at McAllister after he was pulled down. The match roared into life with Petrov bursting forward in the first minute and heading for the Aberdeen box. His touch let him down and he moved wide. In his attempt to bring a team mate into play he gave it away. Aberdeen burst forward in turn and a great ball from right to left found Winters inside the box. He controlled the ball well but shot wide. Bisconte had another weak attempt which Douglas dealt with comfortably and in 4 minutes a long ball through to Hartson saw him stretch to put it wide. The first goal quickly followed as Balde played a nice ball down the right for Petrov. Stan crossed at the bye-line and the ball went through Whyte's legs. Hartson moved in front of the defender to knock the ball home. Aberdeen had a half chance when the ball fell to Dadi as a corner was not cleared but he shot wide. Sutton was yellow carded for a late tackle on Derek Young and from the resulting free kick Robbie Winters put it round the wall but Douglas coped easily. Dadi had another difficult header at the near post from a corner which went wide and 2 minutes later Petrov had a headed chance from a Mjallby cross but put it well wide. Another great chance fell to John Hartson on 42 minutes as a long ball beat the offside trap but he failed to hit the target. The second half was 2 minutes old when Hartson broke into the box on the right. His snap shot from a narrow angle was held by the keeper. Mjallby got on the end of a Moravcik centre on 50 minutes but couldn't direct it on target. In 52 minutes Moravcik picked up the ball on the left. He turned, made space and put through a beautiful ball into the box for the onrushing Petrov. Stan's accomplished finish, chipping it over the keeper put Celtic 2-0 up. From this point on Celtic never looked like losing but the players on both sides were fully committed and there were a lot of tough tackles Didier Agathe was booked for diving when his jersey was clearly being pulled.
In 85 minutes Hartson's stupid lunge got him sent off. In the third minute of injury time Balde needlessly brought down Zerouali. Winters spot kick was saved by Douglas as the Celtic keeper dived correctly to his left. Man of the Match: Stilian Petrov ABERDEEN (4-3-3): Kjaer, McGuire, Whyte, McAllister, McNaughton; Darren Young, Bisconti, Mackie; Winters, Dadi, Derek Young (Zerouali 36) CELTIC (3-5-2): Douglas; Balde, Sutton (Crainey 86), Mjallby; Agathe, Lambert, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson; Hartson, Moravcik (Maloney 57) |