Dundee striker Faissal El Bakhtaoui fires warning to Aberdeen
Dundee striker Faissal El Bakhtaoui has told Aberdeen that he has more quality goals in his locker following his stunning strike against Celtic.
In the last outing before the international break, the 24-year-old fired in a thunderous drive from distance past Hoops goalkeeper Craig Gordon moments after coming off the bench at Dens Park.
His third goal of the season was not enough to prevent Paul Hartley's side losing 2-1 in their Ladbrokes Premiership encounter but it gave the French-Moroccan player a confidence boost ahead of the visit of the second-placed Dons on Friday night.
El Bakhtaoui said: "Yes I think I can do the same against Aberdeen. I have done it against Celtic, I can do the same against Aberdeen.
"I think I can do that against anybody.
"We can give Aberdeen a good game. They are a good team, they are second in the league obviously so they are a good team.
"But we are a good team as well and we know we can do something against them.
"We need to work hard and try to get the three points."
Dundee have lost their last three matches and are in eighth place, four points off the top six, but also just six off the bottom.
Former Dunfermline player El-Bakhtaoui is looking up rather than down and is confident he can provide the level of consistency Hartley is demanding.
He said: "100 per cent, I feel I can do something for the team when I come on or when I start as well, I have got that.
"I just want to work hard and show the manager that I can play in his team.
"It is a big game for us. We are looking for the top six, the manager knows that as well so we need to work hard and do our best to do that.
"We will try to focus on every game we have left."
Celtic will be crowned Ladbrokes Premiership champions for a sixth consecutive season if Aberdeen lose.
But manager Derek McInnes is not interested in when the Hoops' title success is confirmed.
He said: "It won't get mentioned. It's not something I even thought about to be honest. We all agree Celtic are going to win the league, it's just a matter of when.
"We just want to make sure we continue to try and chalk up points and win games for our own benefit.
"We've got plenty to look forward to. We have got nine league games left and each one of them as you tick them along becomes even more important.
"We are 17 points clear of Hearts, who we thought would be a real challenge for us, eight points ahead of Rangers, we would have taken that at the start of the season given the difference in resources.
"So we don't really look too much at this moment of time in what Celtic are doing. It's more about concentrating on ourselves and trying to keep ourselves ahead of others."
Source: PAR
