Callum McGregor: Celtic’s win at Aberdeen built resilience and confidence
Stats Perform
August 14, 2023 17:24 MYT
August 14, 2023 17:24 MYT
Celtic captain Callum McGregor was delighted to see the resilience of his new team-mates after they came through a difficult early test at Pittodrie.
Aberdeen put Celtic under pressure in the first half especially but the cinch Premiership champions came out 3-1 victors to make it two wins from two.
McGregor said: “It’s always a tough game, they’ll get the crowd involved while the pitch was sticky as well. It’s obviously something they’ve looked at, trying to slow the game down. And slow our quality.
“When you have a new season and a new start, five or six players have joined you, it starts to have a new group feeling. And at the start of every season you start with zero points.
“So to come here, it’s a massive win and it’s one you tick off.
Unique Angle from Pittodrie
Abada Kyogo O’Riley#CelticFC made it two wins from two in their start to the #cinchPrem season with a 3-1 victory over Aberdeen.#ABECEL | @CelticTV | #COYBIG pic.twitter.com/icYncWVZzo
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 14, 2023
An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.
“It builds resilience, it builds confidence and the football does get slicker. There were still some really good moments in that game and, make no mistake, we battled well.”
Polish centre-back Maik Nawrocki came through his first away game in Scottish football while fellow summer signing Odin Thiago Holm and Yang Hyun-jun made positive contributions off the bench, the latter setting up Matt O’Riley’s late goal.
Kyogo Furuhashi had earlier given Celtic a half-time lead after Dons striker Bojan Miovski had cancelled out Liel Abada’s early opener.
McGregor said: “I thought Rocki was outstanding in the game and then the other boys coming on, they were excellent as well.
A first #CelticFC assist for Yang!
— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) August 13, 2023
An error occurred while retrieving the Tweet. It might have been deleted.
“It’s always tough here, 20-25 minutes to go and you’ve got to come on and be part of the team, be part of the group and show your personality, show your mentality. And I thought it was excellent from the three of them.
“When you cross the line, you have to be together, especially in a Celtic team. Everyone is trying to beat you and you have to have that sort of siege mentality. To see that two games into the season is outstanding.
“But that is something that will progress and we will get better at as the season goes on.
“There is a lot of football to be played, there is a lot of tough away games to be played, that type of character and resilience and togetherness should hopefully stand us in good stead.”