Preview: Aberdeen vs. Celtic - prediction, team news, lineups

The Hoops came out on top against Ross County in their opening fixture of the 2023-24 campaign last weekend, while the Dons were forced the share the spoils with Livingston.

Match preview

After winning three of their four pre-season matches, scoring 14 goals in the process, Aberdeen were unable to find the net against Livingston and played out a goalless draw at the Tony Macaroni Arena in their first game of the new season last Saturday.

The Dons failed to register a single shot on target, with last season's top scorer Duk missing the two best chances of the game, but Barry Robson was still able to take some positives from the closely-fought contest, most notably a clean sheet.

Aberdeen's clash with Livingston is the first of six fixtures in August across three different competitions, with league games against Celtic and St Mirren taking place either side of a Scottish Cup second-round tie with Stirling Albion, while they also have a two-legged tie against either FK Zalgiris or Hacken in the Europa League playoff round to prepare for later this month.

Robson's men were on the receiving end of a thumping 5-0 defeat to Celtic on the final day of last season, and they enter Sunday's contest seeking to avoid a fifth consecutive defeat against the Hoops without scoring.

The last time Aberdeen came out on top against Celtic was in May 2018 when they secured a slender 1-0 victory in Glasgow courtesy of a first-half goal from Andrew Considine.

Two months on from winning a historic domestic treble under the tutelage of Ange Postecoglou, Celtic began the defence of their Premiership title with a 4-2 victory over Ross County at Parkhead last Saturday in Brendan Rodgers's first competitive game of his second spell in charge.

David Turnbull netted either side of a strike from last season's top scorer Kyogo Furuhashi to put the Hoops in control and three goals ahead at the break. Matt O'Riley then added a fourth after Jordan White had pulled one back for the visitors on the hour mark, before James Brown fired in a consolation goal deep into stoppage time.

Rodgers has acknowledged that there is plenty of room for improvement from his side, particularly in defence after giving away two "soft" goals, but the Northern Irishman was impressed with his team's attacking display.

Celtic will be confident of having more joy in front of goal on Sunday as they have scored in each of their last 17 meetings with Aberdeen in all competitions, netting at least twice on 13 occasions.

The Hoops have had to grind out results in recent trips to Pittodrie, though, as they have won their last three visits to Aberdeen by a one-goal margin, including a narrow 1-0 success in December of last year.

Aberdeen Scottish Premiership form:

Celtic Scottish Premiership form:

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Team News

Aberdeen defenders Angus MacDonald and Rhys Williams - the latter on loan from Liverpool - failed to recover from injury in time for last weekend's Premiership opener, and Robson has since revealed that the duo are set for at least another week on the sidelines.

Summer signings Nicky Devlin and Slobodan Rubezic formed a solid partnership in defence alongside Jack MacKenzie and the trio should retain their places in the first XI in front of goalkeeper Kelles Roos.

Slovenian forward Ester Sokler will be pushing to make his full debut and start ahead of either Duk or Bojan Miovski, although the latter two are expected to be given another chance up front despite drawing a blank against Livingston.

As for Celtic, Oh Hyeon-gyu is facing between four and six weeks on the sidelines with a calf injury, while Alistair Johnston, Marco Tilio and Yuki Kobayashi are also in the treatment room and are not expected to return until the end of this month.

Alexandro Bernabei was allegedly dropped from Celtic's matchday squad last weekend due to disciplinary reasons and it remains to be seen if the left-back will be involved on Sunday.

Turnbull surprisingly started ahead of Reo Hatate last weekend but he repaid the faith with a brace against Ross County and will be hoping to retain his place in centre-midfield alongside O'Riley and captain Callum McGregor.

Carl Starfelt has now completed his permanent move to Celta Vigo, so Cameron Carter-Vickers and new recruit Maik Nawrocki are expected to continue at the heart of the defence.

Aberdeen possible starting lineup:

Roos; Devlin, Rubezic, McKenzie; Morris, Polvera, Clarkson, Shinnie, Hayes; Miovski, Duk

Celtic possible starting lineup:

Hart; Ralston, Carter-Vickers, Nawrocki, Taylor; Turnbull, McGregor, O'Riley; Abada, Furuhashi, Maeda

We say: Aberdeen 1-3 Celtic

Aberdeen will look to put in dogged display and rediscover their scoring form against a somewhat leaky Celtic backline on Saturday as they attempt to claim a positive result in their opening home fixture.

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