I was confident that we would be able to win both games, if not, a decent result against Liverpool would have made up for the Rangers loss.
The week started with the news that Didier Agathe has been ruled out for around 6 weeks due to an unjury he sustained against Rangers last Saturday at Parkhead. Jamie Smith filled in for Didier on Thursday and again on Sunday, and tried his best in a tough couple of games.
Martin O'Neill's team selection against Liverpool surprised alot of people. This was due to the news that Henrik Larsson was selected in the starting eleven, after making an amazingly quick return from injury.
However, Henrik's doubters were soon shut up, as after 2 minutes to King of Kings bagged the opener against Liverpool.
Overall, I believe Celtic gave Liverpool too much room on the park, as well as too much respect. There is never going to be an easy game in the Quarter Finals of the UEFA Cup, but Celtic seemed to let Liverpool command the game. Liverpool equalised before the end of the first half, the away goal could prove the killer in the overall outcome of the tie. Players like Petrov and Lennon need to get their act together if we are to go through. A 1-1 draw is not a bad result to take down to Anfield, as we are just as capable of scoring down there as were are up here.
The Liverpool game was overshadowed, however, by scumbag Liverpool striker El Hadji Diouf spitting towards the Family Section of the Celtic stands. Whatever the provocation was, if any, there is absoloutley no excuse for spitting. It is a cowardly, cheap way to abuse someone and should not be tolerated in football. Diouf has been fined 2 weeks wages by Liverpool FC, he will donate the money to a charity of Celtic's choice, and he is expected to recieve a charge from the Police. He has apologised towards the Celtic fan who he spat on, and offered him a VIP ticket for the return leg at Anfield, as well as Corporate Hospitality, a tour of the stadium etc etc. If it was me, I would be telling Diouf to shove his apology and his 'presents'.
Moving on to Sunday. Celtic fielded a strong enough team - making only 1 change from the starting 11 who played Liverpool, Stan Petrov was replaced by Paul Lambert. This brought to an end all the talk of Celtic fielding a shadow side, Rangers also fielded their strongest 11.
Celtic started the game the more up for it, looking to attack Rangers at every opportunity. However, we were caught out with 2 daft decisions in defence and were 2-0 down at half-time. Larsson scored in the second half, showing our dominant start to the half, but the real moment of controversy was a perfectly legitimate John Hartson goal being ruled offside, when Big John was clearly a yard onside. It is Hartson's second goal against Rangers to be incorrectly chopped off - when is this fiasco going to stop? Martin O'Neill was quite right to have a go at the referee and his 'assistants', he was also enraged at Neil Lennon's late sending off.
Big Hartson missed a penalty in the 89th minute, which would have sent the game into extra time. For me, there is no excuse for a player of Hartson's class to be missing a penalty, and he should leave the honours to Henrik next time. The Hartson penalty miss and the chopped off goal cost us the game. i think that if the game had went into extra time, we would have beaten Ragners, even with ten men. We looked more fit than them, and overall Celtic were unlucky not to win the cup.
Unbelievably, the SFA have gave their backing the the linesman's decision to chop the goal off. This is basically allowing any other biased official in Scotland to do the same next time, and giving them a license to get away with it. However, this is Scotland, this is the SFA, and when a team plays against Rangers, they also have to compete against the match officials. Their bias and help towards Rangers is absoloutley disgusting.
It's off to Anfield we (who have been lucky enough to get tickets) go on Thursday, for probably our hardest challenge of the season. Liverpool have a poor record at Anfield, and we have a mighy away record, so if The Bhoys give it their all, we can do the business. A big blow though is that Chris Sutton will be out for a month with a broken wrist sustainsed in an accident with Bobo Balde yesterday.
To round of our most tiring period of the season, we have to treck all the way to Inverness to play Caley Thistle on Sunday night. The game is live on Sky, and will be the first time a decent broadcasting channel will screen a Celtic game this season.
Here's to a successful St Patrick's week!
Hail Hail!