A clinical Celtic punished the Dons for not taking their chances, but Thelin is confident his team will fight back against the Tangerines in Sunday’s crucial derby match against Dundee United at Pittodrie.
“We have to learn and improve for an important game against Dundee United,” the Dons manager stated.
Regarding the impact on confidence, it won’t occur. Our goals are clear, and we will concentrate on achieving them.
“We will continue to contend for Europe and third place. The matchup with Dundee United is crucial.
However, I have no doubt that we will be resilient. We’ll be prepared by using the lessons we learned from this game.
In the first ten minutes in Glasgow, the Dons blew two excellent opportunities as neither Kevin Nisbet nor Oday Dabbagh could put Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel to the test.
A merciless Hoops team duly punished them after Daizen Maeda, Jota, and Callum McGregor handed the champs a 3-0 lead.
Before Aberdeen’s goal in the last minute was scored by Dons replacement Shayden Morris, substitute Hyunjun Yang added a fourth.
However, the Hoops responded with a fifth goal in injury-time as Maeda grabbed his second of the game to secure a comprehensive victory for the home side.
Thelin said: “An overall result of 5-1 is too much in the end.
“But in terms of how we want to grow as a team, some parts of the first half were good.
“We created chances, but they were beating us in the small percentages in the duels and they scored three goals in not many more chances.
“They were really clinical – it’s difficult to go out in the second half at 3-0 and Celtic are really good at what they do.
“You have to take your chances in these moments.
“You have to open up when you are chasing and the balance of the game changes.
The way the goals arrived was too soft. When you lose the ball in the wrong areas, they can punish you. We have to be stronger and take care of the ball better.
“In our journey as a team, we have to learn about these extra percentages in that quality. Some parts of the game were good – but it was 5-1 in the end.
“It’s difficult to talk about good things with this result. We have to grow and I believe we will do that.”
Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers was delighted to see his side bounce back from their 2-1 defeat at Hibernian at the weekend with a 5-1 win against the Dons.
The Hoops manager said: “The result and scoreline was very impressive. Our goals in the first half were very good, but I wasn’t too happy with our pressing, although our mentality was impressive.
“It’s a really pleasing scoreline against a team which has found some form again and have some really good players.
“One of the traits in this team is the resilience, and any moment this season when we’ve had a bump, the mentality is to come again and I felt we did that.”
