BBC Sportsound pundit Michael Stewart has been talking up the importance of Celtic’s late goal against Aberdeen, believing it has stopped any potential Rangers momentum in its tracks.
The Ibrox side won their first game after the appointment of new manager Michael Beale and, with the match poised at 0-0 today, it looked like Celtic may have dropped points at Pittodrie.
However, captain Callum McGregor found a way to win the game with a brilliant striker from distance, shattering not only Aberdeen but any observers from across the city.
Speaking on BBC Sportsound today [14:32], Stewart said: “That was a huge goal. When you think about the first game back after this break, Rangers having got off to a winning start. You could start to see the narrative building of ‘oh they’ve dropped points, Michael Beale’s in the door, all of a sudden the gap’s going to close, there’s a derby coming up.’
“That’s how the momentum starts to build. Then the narrative changes. Callum McGregor’s goal – all of a sudden it deflates the opposition straight away and maintains a belief in the Celtic side that they know what they’re doing.”
With change coming at Ibrox, naturally, there is going to be more intrigue about the initial stages of the Premiership restart and the dynamic at the top of the table. We’ve yet to see what kind of pattern their results will take.
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All Celtic can do is maintain their own imperious form that has never really wavered regardless of what is happening at Rangers. Today was exactly what we’ve seen from the Bhoys for the vast majority of Ange Postecoglou’s reign.
Winning late, at all costs, seems to be built into the fabric of this squad and if it wasn’t McGregor, no doubt someone else would have popped up to keep us on track. While we do that, it’ll be hard to emerge from our shadow.
It’s good to burst a bubble before it really inflates.
In other news, Celtic’s Josip Juranovic shows off World Cup medal in class photo with Tottenham Hotspur hero.