Aberdeen and Motherwell play out stalemate at Pittodrie

Aberdeen and Motherwell battled to a share of the spoils with a 1-1 draw at Pittodrie as the Dons continued to climb the William Hill Premiership table.

Motherwell enjoyed the better of the possession but fell behind to Jesper Karlsson’s superb 25-yard strike, before levelling almost immediately through Elijah Just.

Both sides made two changes from their previous matches, Aberdeen bringing in Emmanuel Gyamfi and Graeme Shinnie after the 0-0 Europa Conference League draw with AEK Larnaca in midweek.

The visitors had been soundly beaten by St Mirren in the Premier Sports Cup, and brought Stephen Welsh and Elliot Watt back into their starting side.

The Steelmen started the better of the sides, and Apostolos Stamatelopoulos was inches away from converting a cross from the right, before home goalkeeper Dimitar Mitov pulled off a stunning save to deny Callum Slattery from point-blank range, though there was a hint of a push from the Motherwell man.

Aberdeen warmed into the game and a Nicky Devlin cross was just out of reach of Marko Lazetic.

A Slattery corner from the left was cleared only as far as the dangerous Tawanda Maswanhise, who saw his effort deflected wide.

However, it would be the home side who had the best opportunity to open the scoring, Karlsson’s clever free-kick finding Lazetic all alone in front of goal, but the Serbian striker somehow contrived to turn wide of the upright.

Gyamfi, who was booked early on and seemed destined for a second yellow card, and Stuart Armstrong were withdrawn at the break, and Aberdeen were continuing to build into the game.

Gavin Molloy replaced Gyamfi, and from a left wing corner he somehow failed to connect with Karlsson’s deep delivery just before the hour.

It would be Karlsson who broke the deadlock, and in some style just after the hour mark. Picking the ball up just inside the Motherwell half, the Swede drove at Paul McGinn, working inside from the left flank, before firing past Callum Ward from 25 yards.

Motherwell were swiftly back on terms. Slattery’s quick corner from the left caught Aberdeen cold, and Just was first to the ball to fire home at the near post.

Former Aberdeen forward Callum Hendry was introduced from the bench and his first involvement was to fire over the crossbar from close range, before testing Mitov from 20 yards.

Neither side could fashion the opening to score a winner, with the draw a fair result in the end as Aberdeen rose to eighth in the table.