Can Aberdeen be Scotland’s Bayer Leverkusen?

With the mood in Aberdeen verging on fever pitch after the Dons’ second-half comeback at Celtic, German football commentator Derek Rae has stirred the excitement further by drawing parallels with Bayer Leverkusen.

Xabi Alonso’s unfancied side claimed their first top-flight crown in sensational fashion last term, going the entire league campaign unbeaten.

Aberdeen were the last non-Old Firm club to win the Scotland’s top division way back in 1985, but a superb start to the current season, coupled with Saturday’s 2-2 draw in Glasgow, has intensified talk of an unlikely title challenge.

After winning their first seven Premiership matches, Jimmy Thelin’s men travelled for a top-of-the-table showdown at Celtic, who had also enjoyed a perfect league start.

Going in at the break 2-0 down, it looked like Brendan Rodgers’ side would serve the Dons a reality check, but the away side came back to earn a draw in a thrilling encounter.

Speaking on the BBC’s Scottish Football Podcast, Aberdeen fan Rae said: “Aberdeen-kusen, it’s just a bit of fun to be honest. It’s an intersection of my two worlds, being from Aberdeen and covering the Bundesliga.

“Having seen Leverkusen’s very first Bundesliga title victory last season, they did it on the back of an unbeaten domestic campaign and the similarities are there when you think about the start of the last campaign.

“There were a few of us who believed in Leverkusen. We knew it was a very good team on the up with Alonso as their coach and some excellent players.

“But they were fighting against the juggernaut that is Bayern Munich, who had won 11 Bundesliga titles in a row.

“And we’ve seen what Aberdeen have done so far this season, so I just sort of see this synergy between the two.

“If you go back to last season, one of the key results in the first half of the campaign was Leverkusen going to face the mighty Bayern in Munich, and they came away with – you guessed it – a 2-2 draw.”