Celtic were tonight defeated in the Champions League Final, going down 2-1 to Rangers at Ibrox, after extra-time. John Hartson opened the scoring in the second half of the game, before Prso equalised with only six minutes to go. Arveladze scored the winner in the first half of extra-time.
Rangers are now officially the greatest team in world footballing history.
Celtic did not deserve to win the game tonight, but Rangers weren’t much better. They had the majority of possession whilst, arguably, we had the better chances. Seven Old Firm wins out of eight ain’t bad, and anyone who is angry tonight should remember that. We have our chance to seek revenge a week on Saturday when we return to the lovely place that is Ibrox on SPL duty.
Martin O’Neill opted to start Juninho in the game, at the expense of Aiden McGeady. Henri Camara also dropped to the bench and despite earlier worries, Bobo Balde and Stan Petrov both started the game. O’Neill went with a 3-5-2 formation but has a lot to answer for. John Hartson was played up-front with Juninho running off him, a player with no pace. This move did not work. Also, Joos Valgaeren was played out of position when he seemed to be playing well in his regular slot over the last few games.
Some of our defending, passing and general play was diabolical tonight. We were playing against a very average team, who seemed to have a lack of ideas. Too many times we gave the ball away to Rangers, and too many times headers were lost, and 50/50 challenges went their way. This is simply not good enough from a Celtic side and will have to be sorted out.
Celtic were garbage in the first half. It’s quite degrading when a player like Nacho Novo seems to be running your defence ragged. The only chance we conjured up in the opening period was a John Hartson header from an Alan Thompson free-kick.
Rangers do not worry me one bit. It certainly is changed days from when the likes of Laudrup, Gazza and Albertz running at your defence. Tonight nothing really troubled us as they resorted to long-range efforts from guys like Namouchi and Lovenkrands.
Martin O’Neill seemed to have the players fired up for the second half as they emerged to the Ibrox PA system playing the likes of Dambusters, Rule Britannia and other boring shite.
Celts looked more determined and looked the better side at the beginning of the second period. Stan Varga came close but saw his header rebounding off the Rangers crossbar.
Almost instantly after this, John Hartson headed home from the resulting Alan Thompson corner, with 67 minutes played. As usual there was bedlam in the Celtic end, and the superb Celtic fans were in full voice.
Juninho was replaced by Camara during the celebrations and I am starting to wonder if he is ever going to make it at Celtic. He played alright tonight, but in Scotland, he is never going to get the time on the ball he requires.
Celtic were cruising at this point, to the extent that every pass was greeted with cheers from the Broomloan Stand. We had Rangers beaten and could have easily went for another goal. But once again, we sat back and defended, obviously content with sitting at 1-0. Sometimes, this can work for us, but tonight it didn’t. It’s alright saying pushing for a goal would have left us vulnerable at the back but it wouldn’t have. We were all over Rangers and they never looked threatening at all.
With only six minutes of the game to go, a misplaced pass by Alan Thompson resulted in Rangers attacking, and Prso netting from a David Marshall save. Tonight was Thompson’s second high-profile blunder of recent times – similar to the gift he gave Henrik Larsson for Barcelona earlier this season. Perhaps he needs to concentrate more and stop drifting into relax mode during crunch times of big games.
Celtic managed to hold on as Rangers surged for the late winner. Extra time was to be played and the word ‘penalties’ was at the back of most of our minds.
Craig Beattie came on for Stan Petrov, who done well, also out of position, and while carrying an injury. Beattie’s pace and willingness to run at the Rangers defence shocked the home side, who were forced to hack him down on a couple of occasions. Beattie almost scored when he got the ball past Klos, but Boumsong was on hand to clear the ball off the line.
The huns scored on 100 minutes, when Ricksen managed to fool the whole Celtic defence, and passed to Arveladze on the right-hand side of goal. He beat David Marshall at his near post, something which should not be happening to a goalkeeper.
Aiden McGeady was thrown on in place of the now injured Beattie, and he done more in fifteen minutes than Juninho did in the whole game. McGeady pulled off two delightful tricks in the Rangers box, but unfortunately, his final ball was poor. He has, though, staked his claim to start on Saturday.
Celts threw everyone, including Marshall, up-front in the dying minutes of the game but the realisation that it wasn’t going to be our night creeped in, and we went home with nothing.
Cue Rangers fans dancing in streets, and almost – ALMOST, a lap of honour from the boys in blue. The truth is they beat a bad Celtic team tonight, and only just. If we cannot beat them in ten days time we ought to chuck it all together, as we cannot possibly play as bad then as we did tonight.
We are still the Champions, still top of the league and still the best team in the country – by a long shot. Give the huns the CIS Cup all they want, we have bigger fish to fry. As I said at the top of the page, seven out of eight ain’t bad.
Celtic:
Marshall; Varga, Balde, Valgaeren; Agathe, McNamara, Petrov (Beattie 91 (McGeady 106), Lennon, Thompson; Hartson, Juninho (Camara 68)
Come On The Hoops Moment To Remember: McGeady’s skill once again.
Come On The Hoops Moment To Forget: Just everything about Rangers, I wish I could forget about them forever.