Aberdeen captain Graeme Shinnie has admitted his Dons side have struggled to cope with the exertions of European football and Premiership action this season, with Celtic now lying in wait on Sunday.
Aberdeen have won just one of their five post-European domestic fixtures this term. They managed a creditable 2-2 draw away to PAOK in Greece on Thursday night, but those efforts will be hard to recover from.
Shinnie isn’t shying away from that and made it clear his group have a tough assignment this weekend.
The 32-year-old said [Daily Record]: “The big thing is the turnaround now – getting home, resting. We’ve got a big game down at Celtic, so we’ll be travelling again on Saturday down to Glasgow. It’s massive for us to rest again and recover and do exactly the same at Celtic Park.
“We’ve definitely struggled after European nights. They take a lot of you mentally and physically as well, so it’s been a massive learning curve.
“We want to put things right on Sunday in terms of getting a performance after a European night. It’s been a great few results for us (over the past week) and we’ll take that momentum into Sunday and take our rest after that in the international break with the amount of travelling and games that we’ve had. One big push on Sunday and then we take a break.”
Aberdeen are likely to set up to counter-attack Celtic with players like Jamie McGrath and Duk eager to push ahead into the opposition half.
Brendan Rodgers’ side must start with intensity and purpose from the first whistle. They’ve had a bit of extra rest compared to the Dons this week and can capitalise on any fatigue.
The away side can be resilient but the onus is on Celtic to show their attacking quality and break them down before the interval. If they get a whiff of hope to carry into the second half it’ll be a big boost for them.
In other news, Cameron Carter-Vickers discusses ‘the most impressive thing’ about Liam Scales at Celtic right now.
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