Match preview
Story of the Matchmins3 - Corner for Rangers not cleared. Falls to Ross whose right foot volley from an angle is well saved by Douglas. 8 - Larsson receives ball on the right slips it past Ball and is hacked down. Ball booked. 10 - Flo heads wide after Averladze cross. 11 - Henrik has a snap shot from 25 yards. Saved by Klos at the post. 14 - Petrov clears Rangers free kick. 16 - Hartson booked after what looked like a fair tackle on Ball. 17 - Rangers corner flicked on by Averladze. Cleared well by Mjallby. 19 - Hartson gives ball away to Averladze. Great ball to Flo catches out Balde but Flo's strike hits the post and is cleared. 22 - Moravcik drive from distance held by Klos. 29 - Shot from Lambert goes wide after good work by Moravcik. 32 - De Boer sneaks in behind the defence and shoots from close range. Well saved by Douglas. 33 - Ross headers across goal. Just headered away by Balde. Flo has a shot but Balde clears again. 43 - Averladze falls down claiming he was struck by Balde. In fact he was accidentally caught by a trailing arm. Second half 49 - Celtic corner falls to Balde in front of open goal. Great tackle by Ross clears danger. 50 - Henrik skins Konterman on the left. His cross cum-shot misses out the advancing Moravcik. 55 - Maloney replaces Moravcik. 56 - Maloney makes a run into the box. Decides to beat a second man and shoot at a narrow angle rather than cross. Klos saves. 58 - Averladze fouls Lambert. Petrov free kick is touched on by Ball, then strikes the advancing Balde on the head. Valgaeren follows in well to score from close range. 62 - Valgaeren gets in the way of a Ross cross allowing Douglas to save thwarting the waiting Averladze. 65 - Caniggia cross to Flo. Great interception by Joos. 68 - Lennon plays Larsson through into the box. Konterman pushes Larsson as the ball is running to Klos. Penalty. Konterman not carded. Henrik blasts ball to keeper's right. 70 - McNamara replaces Hartson. 74 - Mahoney beats Konterman and is ready to run on goal. Brought down. Konterman booked. 76 - de Boer finds Caniggia (Averladze) and his cross finds the advancing Lovenkranz (Ball) who slot the ball home with McNamara sleeping. 85 - de Boer shot comes off Amoruso and goes wide. 3 mins injury time played. Comment Rangers looked very lively in the first half causing Celtic a lot of problems down the left. Douglas made a couple of great saves but the miss from Flo was very costly. Celtic played much better in the second half and my man of the match Joos Valgaeren slotted in a great striker's goal. Celtic started to look much more comfortable and we all felt we could relax at the penalty. Surprisingly the ref took no action against Konterman. Later when he fouled again the ref showed yellow then red but had to change his mind. He evidently thought he had booked Konterman at the penalty incident. A sending off at that time would have probably meant a couple more goals for Celtic, but instead the defence went to sleep, lost a goal and put us through 15 minutes of torture. However Rangers had no serious chances after their goal and now we are high and dry, ten points ahead. Apart from Valgaeren there Mjallby again produced another superb display, with Henrik showing signs that he's coming back to his best form. Lubo, we hope will save it up for the rematch with Valencia. |