First win for under-fire Celtic coach Wilfried Nancy

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GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — Under-fire Celtic coach Wilfried Nancy has achieved his first win at the storied Scottish club to reduce some of the pressure on the Frenchman.

Midfielder Benjamin Nygren scored near the end of the first half for host Celtic, which still needed late goals from Kieran Tierney and James Forrest for a 3-1 victory over 10-man Aberdeen in the Scottish Premiership on Sunday.

Nancy left Columbus Crew for Celtic but had lost his first four matches in charge — including a shock defeat in the Scottish League Cup final.

“I don’t believe in luck but since I’ve been here I haven’t had luck,” Nancy said. “We have hit the post in almost every game, but the most important thing is the resilience of my players."

Nancy also said he could have delayed his early December arrival but wanted to assess his squad ahead of the January transfer window.

“That’s why I came at this moment,” he said. “I could have come a little bit later but, with the club, we decided that it was the right moment because I needed time to assess the team and to evaluate."

Aberdeen defender Dylan Lobban was shown a straight red card just before the break for fouling Celtic forward Daizen Maeda. Kenan Bilalovic scored for Aberdeen in the 74th.

Celtic is six points behind leader Hearts, which beat Rangers 2-1 earlier Sunday. Celtic has a game in hand on Hearts.

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