Stephen McManus returned to the Celtic side in the Ernst Happel Stadium last night and he took all of 34 seconds to remind us just why he finds himself out of the manager's plans these days. The captain chose to forego the easy pass out of defence and instead his shocking attempt to play a Hollywood ball saw Rapid's Hoffmann pounce on his error to set up Jelavic for the first of his two goals. His defensive partner Glenn Loovens and keeper Artur Boruc didn't exactly cover themselves in glory when Jelavic scored his second with only eight minutes on the clock and when Hamdi Salihi made it three in the 19th minute it looked as if this second stream side were about to suffer the worst result in Celtic's European history.
Rapid looked capable of inflicting a heavy defeat on the sorry Celts, carving their name alongside Artmedia Bratislava and Neuchatel Xamax, two teams who had scored five goals against us in a European match, but instead the much maligned Marc-Antoine Fortuné stepped up to the plate and inspired the greatest comeback in our European history. In the 24th minute Mark Wilson's cross was directed towards Fortuné by Paul McGowan and the big striker swivelled and fired home to reduce the deficit.
Celtic dominated after the break and went close a couple of times before Fortuné pulled another goal back in the 67th minute when he connected with Niall McGinn's cross to put the ball beyond Raimund Hedl in the Rapid goal. The game had turned on it's head and as the Celts launched attack after attack it seemed inevitable that the equaliser would come and it duly arrived in the 91st minute when Paul McGowan volleyed the ball past the despairing Hedl to secure third place in Group C.
McGowan was delighted just to start the game last night but when the side went three-nil down with less than twenty minutes on the clock he feared that his match was over. The youngster thought that the manager might sacrifice him for the more experienced forwards on the bench as he looked to claw their way back into the game. "Considering our opening, it was a great result. I was making my first start at this level and thinking, 'What the hell is happening?'" he said. "But the boys kept going. We got a goal and I thought every time we went forward we looked like scoring. At the other end we had to tighten up but I think our class showed in the end. If we had started much better we would have gone on to win the game comfortably. But we all showed great character."
"After 20 minutes I was thinking, 'Am I going to get whipped off here?' Everything goes through your head." said McGowan. "We'd talked about not giving away an early goal. We just collapsed but at half-time the gaffer calmed us down and told us to tighten up and the goals would come. Niall McGinn looked dangerous going down the wing all night and we broke them down at the end. Once we went 3-3 we looked the likelier to score again."
"You dream about scoring for your team like this." beamed celtic's number 55. "I've been knocking on the door for two years now and made cameo appearances here and there. But I feel now as if I'm stronger and ready. It was good to get the goal and hopefully more opportunities will come for me. My deal runs out at the end of this year so I will hopefully get something sorted. To play on that stage in front of 50,000 fans does no harm. It was intimidating so to go and score to make it 3-3 says a lot for us."