No Half Measures

Dedryck Boyata on Celtic’s impressive unbeaten domestic run of 2019, staying focused and winning more trophies this year

- Joe Donnelly

PRIOR to Saturday’s goal-less encounter, Aberdeen last travelled to Glasgow to face Celtic in this season’s League Cup final.

A solitary Ryan Christie strike was all that separated the sides at Hampden in December, and Hoops centre-half, Dedryck Boyata had a huge hand in the goal, when his inch-perfect pass from inside his own half found the feet of his team-mate inside the box.

The towering Belgian was faultless during the seven-goal thriller at Pittodrie that followed on Boxing Day – when goals from Odsonne Edouard and a hat-trick from Scott Sinclair secured maximum points for the Scottish champions on the road – and was named Man of the Match in Saturday’s 0-0 draw in the SPFL against the Dons.

The weekend’s fixture saw Neil Lennon’s side extend both their unbeaten domestic run of 2019 and their unbeaten home record this season, and saw them re-establish an eight-point lead at the top of the Scottish Premiership with nine league games to go.

Aberdeen spent much of the match defending with 10 men behind the ball, and while Boyata praised the well-structured and well-organised opponents, the centre-half expects most teams to play in a similar manner against Celtic between now and the end of the campaign. It is, of course, up to he and his colleagues to combat this, both in defence and attack.

“Overall, that was the kind of game we expected from Aberdeen,” said Boyata in an exclusive interview with the Celtic View. “It was physical, it was tight, there were a lot of rough and hard challenges all over the pitch.

“That’s exactly what happened on Saturday, and whenever you draw without scoring, you always think that you could or might have done more.