Celtic made it two wins from two at the start of their Scottish Premiership title defence to help banish the “hurt” from last season’s Scottish Cup final loss with a comfortable victory at Aberdeen.
Benjamin Nygren turned in a cross from Kieran Tierney to steady the visitors who had been under earlier pressure from the side who defeated them on penalties at Hampden in May.
But the Aberdeen challenge dissipated, with Reo Hatate curling in a magnificent strike midway through the second half to seal victory for Brendan Rodgers’ team.
“This was always going to be a challenging game in the context of how the last season finished and coming here so early in Aberdeen’s first [home] game,” said Rodgers.
“I’m so pleased for the players. The last season would have hurt them. They had a fantastic season last season.
“But we come here today, we play with quality, we play with heart and we get the result.”
Dons manager Jimmy Thelin, whose side lost to Hearts at Tynecastle in the opening week, resisted the temptation to stick with the back five that worked so well in last season’s final win over Celtic, reverting to his trademark 4-2-3-1 formation.
Aberdeen started well, Adil Aouchiche stinging Kasper Schmeichel’s fingers tips with a fizzing long range shot.
But the visitors broke the deadlock as the half-hour mark approached, courtesy of a fine low finish from Swedish winger Nygren after great work down the left by Tierney.
Celtic could have been further ahead at the break with Hatate forcing a smart save from Dimitar Mitov, before Liam Scales headed just wide.
Mitov was called into action early in the second half, producing a wonderful reflex stop to tip Daezen Maeda’s volleyed effort over.
Celtic did double their advantage in the 66th minute, when Hatate smashed an 18-yard strike into the net off the underside of the bar.
Aberdeen huffed and puffed after that, unable to find any sort of route back into the game.