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  • 2 days ago
Mark Atkinson at Pittodrie.
Transcript
00:00What a dramatic end to proceedings here at Petrogly where it's finished Aberdeen 2, Rangers 2.
00:07Yanis Hadji scoring in the fifth minute of stoppage time to earn a point for Rangers and crucially make Celtic wait another fortnight to be officially crowned champions.
00:18It looked like they would be coronated this afternoon after the Dons went into a two goal lead at the interval thanks to goals from Leighton Clarkson and Pap Harry Gay.
00:28Rangers were also used to 10 men in that period. Ross McCausen sent off for two bookings and it seemed at that point that it was a matter of how many goals the Dons would win by especially the Rangers who'd made nine changes for this match had one eye on Thursday's match against Bilbao.
00:42But to give Barry Ferguson's men enormous credit they came back. Hamza Igimani scored the fourth nine minutes. They never gave up and Hadji netted their sumptuous efforts after a several different hit the post just moments earlier.
00:55It means that Celtic now lead the Premiership by 15 points with five games remaining in the post-split Premiership fixture list and in their next match we don't know yet who their opponents will be.
01:07A point will be enough to officially secure it. Of course we all know that Celtic are going to be champions.
01:11Their goal difference is 42 better off so it would take an unfathomable set of events for anything to change.
01:17But what it does do is allow Celtic to win it on their own terms and potentially it's Celtic Park depending on what the fixture list throws up for Aberdeen.
01:25What a horrible ending to a game which they dominated for large spells.
01:29They could have easily won by three goals to one. Kevin Nisbet missed a couple of good chances and also had a goal and disallowed.
01:34And it will give manager Jimmy Tillin something to think about in the race for third place and also their Scottish Cup semi-final against Hearts next weekend.
01:43They were reported off by their fans at the end but this is a missed opportunity for Aberdeen in the race for third place.
01:48It gives Hibs an opportunity to go three points clear should they win against Dundee later this afternoon.
01:54Rangers and Barry Ferguson will surely be buoyed by this when they head to Bilbao next week for their Europa League second leg.
02:00With that tie finally poised at 0-0. It was a very split performance by them.
02:06They've made Celtic wait another couple of weeks officially after a gripping game here.
02:10The North East finished Aberdeen to Ranger Street.