Koreans in Europe: Yang and Oh lead onslaught as Celtic beat Aberdeen

Football

Published: 13 Nov. 2023, 11:17 Updated: 13 Nov. 2023, 17:03

Koreans in Europe: Yang and Oh lead onslaught as Celtic beat Aberdeen

Celtic's Yang Hyun-jun celebrates scoring the first goal of a game against Aberdeen at Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

It was a Korean onslaught as Celtic thrashed Aberdeen in Glasgow on Sunday, with three of the home side’s six goals coming from the feet or head of a Korean player.

Yang Hyun-jun got things started for Celtic, scoring the first goal of his Scottish Premiership career in just the ninth minute as he headed in a Kyogo Furughashi cross.

The Japanese striker made it 2-0 seven minutes later on a play that started with Yang, giving Celtic a 2-0 lead at half time.

Both of the early stars ended up leaving the game early, Kyogo with a head injury and Yang, who was later named man of the match, with a cut under his eye.

The goals kept raining in after the break. Luis Palma made it 3-0 with a penalty in the 77th minute, and David Turnbull and Oh Hyeon-gyu then combined to double the lead in injury time — Oh scoring twice at 90+6 and 90+9 for a huge 6-0 win.

Celtic's Oh Hyeon-gyu scores the sixth goal of a game against Aberdeen at Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland on Sunday. [AP/YONHAP]

"We started well, scored some wonderful goals and could have had more — the goalkeeper had a couple of wonderful saves,” Celtic manager Brendan Rodgers said after the game. “Some of the movement and combination play was excellent.

"Performance level is improving all the time. The cohesion and synchronization of the team is getting better and I thought the players were fantastic dealing with that game in midweek.”

Sunday’s game was the final one for Celtic before the November international break, with both Oh and defender Kwon Hyeok-kyu called up for Korea. Oh will return to Seoul where he will join the senior national team for a World Cup qualifier against Singapore on Thursday and against China in China next week, while Kwon heads to France to join the U-23 team for a friendly next week.

Yang, despite his recent success with Celtic, has not been called back up to the national team following a single nod earlier this year.

Celtic will be back in action in the Scottish Premiership on Nov. 25 as they take on Motherwell at home in Glasgow.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]