Aberdeen midfielder Sivert Heltne Nilsen says this weekend’s encounter with Celtic will be one of the biggest matches of his career to date.
The 33-year-old, who joined the Dons from Norwegian side Brann at the start of the season, has been a key component of an Aberdeen side that has won all 13 of their opening games of the 2024-25 campaign.
The Reds head to Celtic Park on Saturday for an intriguing contest of the two teams in the Scottish Premiership with perfect records from their opening seven games.
Nilsen, who won the Norwegian Cup with Hodd in 2012, is relishing his first experience of playing in front of a 60,000 crowd at Celtic Park.
He said: “It’s going to be a big test for the new players this season who, like me, have never played Celtic.
“I think the cup final in Norway is the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of so far which was around 28,000.
“A lot more will be at Celtic Park but normally the crowd doesn’t affect me.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how I handle it but I feel I’ll be pretty much the same as any game
“It doesn’t matter whether there is 100 people watching or 20,000 like there was at Pittodrie for the Hearts game.
“That’s been one of my strengths as a player, that I can switch on and go into my bubble.
“Of course this is a new experience but it was one part of coming to Scotland to play in these big games against new teams.”
Dons can emulate Elfsborg success
Nilsen was part of Jimmy Thelin’s Elfsborg side that defied the odds with victories against Sweden’s biggest club Malmo.
The midfielder believes staying true to the Dons’ core beliefs will be key to success at Celtic Park.
He said: “He didn’t change that much as he has a clear idea of how we want to defend and attack.
“It’s not about big changes, we just talk about what to expect from the opposition.
“We are still focussing most of the time on what we want to do to get better.”
He continued: “I feel we have built up ourselves to a position where you don’t have that much pressure because we have done well.
“We can just focus on our tasks on the field and make the team work in the best way.
“I don’t think we should put our heads into the mental side of the game.”
Despite the club’s 13-game winning streak, Nilsen felt the Dons performances dipped in the two games prior to the international break and is hoping for an improved display against Brendan Rodgers’ Celtic.
He said: “We always believe in ourselves and results have been good after every game.
“But we didn’t feel good with the performances in the last two matches against Dundee and Hearts.
“So we know we have to step up again as the form was down from the way we were playing before that.
“Hopefully we can do that against Celtic but I know we will be hard to beat and that’s a good feeling to have.
“It’s also good to know that we have found a way to win when we haven’t been at our best.
“But even though I’ve only looked a little bit at Celtic my feeling is we have to be at our best to get the three points.”
Whatever the outcome on Saturday afternoon, the Dons midfielder says the squad must not allow it to derail their impressive start to the campaign.
He said: “I hope we can keep taking the small steps forward that we have been doing as we are a new group with a new manager.
“There’s still a lot to work on as far the relationships between the players is concerned.
“There are small details that can get even better as the season goes forward.”
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