What's New

Scottish Cup Draw 11 Dec	Dec 11, 2004
Celtic have been drawn at home against the Huns in the Third Round of the Scottish Cup. The game will be played on the weekend of the 8th of January.

UEFA Cup Draw December 12	Dec 12, 2003
CELTIC will face FC Teplice of the Czech Republic in the Third Round of the UEFA Cup. Martin O'Neill's side, who reached the final of the competition last season, will be at home in the first leg, on Thursday, February 26. The second leg will be played a week later, on Wednesday, March 3.

Celtic vs Kaunas

Aug 7, 2003

Celtic 1-0 Kaunas: Easy for Bhoys Celtic win 5-0 on aggregate Celtic will face MTK Hungaria in the final qualifying round of the Champions League after a 1-0 home win over FBK Kaunas completed a comfortable 5-0 aggregate victory. Such was the Parkhead side's confidence that they would progress, that manager Martin O'Neill was missing from the dug-out, believed to have flown to Finland to watch next week's opponents send HJK Helsinki out of the competition. Celtic's up-and-coming young players have been much lauded over recent weeks and flavour of the month, 22-year-old midfielder Liam Miller, was handed a starting role while Craig Beattie and Ross Wallace were given places on the bench. With John Hartson sidelined with a calf strain and Henrik Larsson still battling back from a hamstring injury picked up in Lithuania, chief striking duties went to Chris Sutton, who was partnered by Shaun Maloney up front. Sutton and Alan Thompson had already tested the Lithuanian's defence but it was left to one of the visitors, Darius Gvildys, to send the ball past their own goalkeeper on 21 minutes. Miller started the move when he played the ball out to Jamie Smith on the wing, who curled a shot into the box to meet the onrushing Chris Sutton but, instead, the cross was met by Gvildys who nodded into his own net. Kaunas tried to hit back quickly when Martin Opic burst through the middle and tried his luck with a shot at goal but the effort was comfortably saved by goalkeeper Rob Douglas. Celtic still looked the side most likely to find the back of the net again and Miller was looking impressive for the Hoops. His long, low ball was flicked towards goal by Sutton and the Kaunas goalkeeper did well to turn the effort just past the upright. Like the first half, Celtic enjoyed much of the possession in the opening minutes after the restart but there was no real urgency about their play. The first real chance fell to Sutton who unleashed a shot from just outside the six-yard box but the ball fell harmlessly wide of target. Smith did well to fire a shot into the box from the wing only to be denied by the goalkeeper who punched clear into the path of Thompson - his rebound effort was decent enough but slid just inches wide. Kaunas were trying to make the most of the training ground pace at which the game was being played and managed a couple of attempts at goal. And the visitors should have netted just after the hour when Opic was allowed the space to play the ball into the path of Tadas Papeckys just inside the 18-yard box. He tried to slot the ball past Douglas but the Celtic goalkeeper managed to get a hand to the effort to deny the Lithuanians a goal and the chance to make the aggregate scoreline slightly less embarrassing. Sutton's five-match ban means he misses the beginning of the league campaign and his only involvement for the time being will be in European competition. But, as the game headed into the final 20 minutes, the striker squandered another chance to find the back of the net. He rose to meet Smith's cross only for his header to be pawed away by the goalkeeper. There was concern for Kaunas when Tomas Kancelskis was stretchered off after clashing with Sutton, while trying to block his header, but he was able to return to the action after a few minutes. Kaunas thought they had pulled a goal back in the last minute of the game when Karalius had the ball in the back of the net but they were denied their small moment of happiness by the assistant referee's offside flag.

Photo's From Seville	May 24, 2003
We have uploaded some images from the Lone Star CSC trip to the UEFA Cup Final and the club's festivities in Dallas on the day. Although the result didn't go our way we still know how to party.

Every Cloud has a Silver

Mar 26, 2003

MARTIN O'Neill claims Celtic's embarrassing Scottish Cup defeat to Inverness Caledonian Thistle will have a silver lining. The Hoops gaffer believes it will prevent a potential fixture log-jam and boost their chances of landing both the Uefa Cup and SPL title. The Parkhead club face a semi-final against Boavista in Europe next month and are hot on the heels of Rangers in the race for the league championship. And O'Neill said today: "If I draw one crumb of comfort from the cup defeat it's that the scheduling would have left us unable to cope with the rest of the season. "I would have taken a replay, of course, but I don't care what anyone says - it was just asking too much. "The squad is simply not strong enough. I have to throw a bit of realism in and, at the moment, we're left to compete for two major trophies." Speaking in the Celtic View, O'Neill added: "Put it this way, if you'd have said to me I'd have to forfeit the Scottish Cup for the Uefa Cup I would definitely have taken it." Fresh from a quarter-final victory over Liverpool at Anfield, O'Neill fielded a string of fringe players in the 1-0 defeat on Sunday night. David Fernandez, Stanislav Varga, Shaun Maloney, Steve Guppy, Jackie McNamara, Jamie Smith and Javier Sanchez Broto all flopped in the loss to the First Division side. Paul Lambert, who missed out on the cup defeat, today vowed to play in the European Championships next year if Scotland qualify. Lambert, 33, came out of international retirement when German coach Berti Vogts took charge to help them make it to Portugal. And the Celtic midfielder tells the Footballers' Lives programme on BBC1 tonight he will stay on for a final hurrah if the national side progresses. He revealed: "Berti and I agreed that if we reach the Finals, then I will see it through. "If we don't have a chance come June, then the manager knows it will be time to go. "With the players he has coached and what he has done in the game you have to give him great respect." "I felt I had to give him his place and I wouldn't shut the door in the guy's face. Meanwhile, the BBC is on the verge of securing broadcasting rights to the rest of Celtic's run in the Uefa Cup. They are poised to show both games of the semi-final clash against Boavista - the first leg in Glasgow on April 10 and the return leg in Portugal on April 24. And if the Bhoys reach the Seville final - against either Lazio or Porto - then the BBC already have the rights to show it on terrestrial television.

Celtic 2 Liverpool 0

Mar 21, 2003

Let no-one underestimate this feat by Celtic. Liverpool, having lost only five of their last 41 matches in European competition, were emphatically put to the sword on their own hallowed turf last night by a performance as determined and sophisticated as any from this club in three decades. For Martin O'Neill and the legions who have accompanied Celtic in this UEFA Cup, it was a night to remember on Merseyside. Having controlled Liverpool for large parts, a place in the UEFA Cup last four was secured by a rocket of a right-foot shot from John Hartson after 81 minutes which left vapour trails as it blazed a path past Jerzy Dudek. It was the second time it had happened to the poor Pole in a momentous evening, Alan Thompson having furnished Celtic with the lead just before the interval. Celtic began uncomfortably, but emerged to create plenty chances with a gutsy, passionate display. Those of us who thought that this would be one-way traffic from Liverpool were gradually disabused as the match unfolded. Celtic showed tactical finesse which belied their supposed inferiority. There were many moments when Celtic must have thanked God for the existence of Djimi Traoré. On numerous occasions, the French defender was stricken and conceded fouls against either Henrik Larsson or Hartson, and it was from one such tug, on Larsson just before half-time, that Traoré granted a further free-kick, from which Alan Thompson shot low past a stunned Dudek. The game was played against a raucous Anfield backdrop, the tight, rectangular walls of the ground locking in the noise to produce a vibrant atmosphere. The 2700 Celtic fans took up residence at the visitors' end and were dotted elsewhere around Anfield, but this was no Ewood Park in October, with its tribal invasion. Liverpool knew too much to give Celtic a 12th man. The match captured the cosmopolitan spirit of modern football. The first time these two sides met in Europe, in the 1966 Cup-Winners' Cup semi-final, there were 16 Scots and eight Englishmen involved in the two matches. No such internecine Britishness last night. Never mind Celtic's bohemian assembly, what with Gérard Houllier's mad grabbing of players from all across the world, it was a wonder even a couple of Scots, Rab Douglas and Paul Lambert, were involved here at all. Lambert's involvement in place of the injured Chris Sutton was meant to remove a complication from O'Neill's thinking, a fact that didn't seem evident at first, but very quickly did. Celtic, after a shaky start, seemed to have numbers aplenty in midfield, where Lambert, Neil Lennon and Stilian Petrov enjoyed significant periods of control. Not for the first time in Europe this season, Lennon defied his lack of pace with a clinical reading and defying of those more gifted, such as Steven Gerrard. Houllier was true to his word in omitting El-Hadji Diouf, a man caught in disgrace in the past week, who took his place in the Anfield stand. In place of Diouf, Houllier summoned Vladimir Smicer, a misfit who flits in and out of Liverpool's red. Smicer lasted 55 minutes before being hauled off by a desperate Houllier, already a goal adrift, who brought on Milan Baros and went with three outright attackers. After an excruciating start for Celtic, in which Liverpool penned them back and threatened to swarm all over them, the match enjoyed width and balance and was flecked with chances at both ends. Once Larsson forced Dudek to fist clear a free-kick and Hartson's header flew just wide of the upright, O'Neill must have known the night was not going to be quite so daunting. The sight of the flying Owen, twisting, turning and strafing past Bobo Baldé as if the big defender was fixed in concrete, was worrying, however. In the first half, whenever Owen got the ball Celtic were gripped with anxiety. On the half hour, he left Baldé for dead, and Celtic's defenders were panicking again when Emile Heskey's shot blazed wide of Douglas' left-hand post. Celtic had clear weaknesses which Liverpool were quick to expose. O'Neill chose Momo Sylla ahead of Jamie Smith, both to attack down the right and contain John Arne Riise on Liverpool's counters, but Sylla had an edgy match and was booked in the first half for a clumsy barge on Riise. Celtic, due to Liverpool's sheer persistence, were also forced to play much deeper than they would have liked. It was only as the game unfolded that they asserted themselves, and put some pressure on Liverpool. When their glorious breakthrough came in the 45th minute it arrived on top of other chances. Slowly but surely, Sylla grew wiser and became more of a threat, and it was his quick, clever, low pass into Larsson on the edge of Liverpool's box which invited the hapless Traoré to push and shove once more. The referee, Marcus Merk, awarded the free-kick and the rest was over in a flash. Thompson's shot had scarcely left his boot before Dudek was watching it roll past him. Liverpool were denied a cast-iron chance to equalise in 52 minutes. Celtic's defence were sliced open by Owen's pass which left Gerrard bearing down one-on-one with Douglas. With a strong arm the big goalkeeper blocked the shot and Celtic, momentarily, were saved. That one incident was as significant as any in Liverpool's quest to haul Celtic level.

Celtic dump Liverpool

Mar 21, 2003

GERARD HOULLIER admitted he and his players were "hurt" after being dumped out of the UEFA Cup by Celtic. A free kick from Alan Thompson in first-half stoppage time and then a John Hartson firecracker nine minutes from time ended the Reds' participation in Europe for another year. Both strikes, together with the Hoops' disciplined performance, rendered Liverpool's hard-earned Parkhead draw immaterial. After last week's controversy involving El Hadji Diouf, the night saw a return to the traditional alliance associated with the clubs, but Houllier's players could not produce another "special" night at Anfield, as he had hoped, with Champions League qualification the sole target now left this season. The Reds' chief (pictured) said: "Like the players, I'm hurt, but that's football. I thought it could have gone our way in the first half, we had two or three good chances and didn't take them. "The goal came at the worst time for us and the best time for them, just before half-time and that was probably the turning point of the game. The tempo and the pace of the game was outstanding. "After missing a couple of chances in the first half I thought we were a bit nervous and I was just looking forward to getting them in the changing rooms to say the right words and get back on track, but unfortunately we conceded a goal. "After that they were very clever and very functional, but credit to them. I don't think we deserved to be led at half-time but I was pleased with the reaction of the players in the second half." The Frenchman vehemently denied his players had been in any way over-confident after seemingly having done the hard work last week in Glasgow. He added: "We were very focused and there was a lot of commitment but we never showed any sign of over-confidence. We played with pride and application and we knew that Celtic had a good scoring record in Europe. "We knew that they would score and that was why scoring first was extremely important. In terms of effort I couldn't ask for more from my players, (Rab) Douglas had a couple of saves in the first half and a vital one from Steven Gerrard in the second. "We battled and we competed but the first goal changed a lot of things and had we scored first it would have been a different game." Houllier insisted his men had proved before that they could hit back from disappointment, and said a strong finish to the season - starting with Sunday's home game against Leeds - would make up for last night's result. "We've got eight games to focus on and we know what we want for the end of the season and the players know that," he said. "Tonight they are a bit down and dejected but they're men, they've got a good character. Last season on the back of a bad performance against Leverkusen in the quarter-final we won at Sunderland." Houllier said he did not regret leaving Diouf out of the game, even though UEFA's two match-ban would have taken the decision out of his hands after the Senegalese striker's spitting incident involving Celtic fans last week. He said: "When you play a game you need maximum concentration, focus and serenity and we didn't want the focus to be distracted and had El Hadji played there maybe would have been booing all the time and that would have distracted the players. "As a manager sometimes you have to take decisions that may not sound popular even to your own players, but it's a matter of ethics really."

Celtic win spells new name on cup

Mar 21, 2003

There will be a new name on the UEFA Cup this season after Celtic FC eliminated Liverpool FC, the only previous winners left in the competition, with a 2-0 victory at Anfield. Goals from Alan Thompson and John Hartson secured the Scottish champions a 3-1 aggregate success against the three-times winners from Merseyside. Celtic's name will be joined by those of FC Porto, FC Boavista and S.S. Lazio in the semi-final draw today. The draw will take place at 13.00CET at UEFA's headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.