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An amazing but ultimately deeply disappointing night for Celtic as they went out on penalty kicks after defeating Valencia 1-0 on the night. The team have certainly made their mark in Europe this season, defeating Ajax over 2 legs and beating Rosenborg, Porto, Juventus and Valencia at Celtic Park.Tonight for long periods we outplayed Valencia, the favourites for the competition and a team playing in probably the best league in Europe. There is tremendous pressure on players taking penalty kicks to decide these big games but we didn't manage to do what the Spanish team did, and that is get all the penalties on target. Celtic made a breathtaking start to the game, shutting down space and denying Valencia possession. Clear cut chances were hard to come by but in 19 minutes a Petrov free kick was deflected past for a corner. Rab Douglas was again in form, being called upon to save from a free kick himself in 26 minutes. Shortly after Carew's quick reactions in pulling out an overhead kick saw it go just over. A great move by Celtic up the left saw Petta play Moravcik in. His cross was met by Larsson who tried to dink it over the goalkeeper but it hit off him. Surprisingly the offside flag went up so it wouldn't have counted. Lubo then nutmegged a defender and moved in on goal looking a cert to score. He went for power and his dipping shot went over the bar. It looked as though we would be going in at half-time on 0-0 when Valgaeren intercepted a ball on the edge of the Valencia box and fed it to Larsson wide on the left. Henrik turned and curled a beautiful shot round Canizares and in at the far post.
Valencia had to push forward in the second half and Aimar shot wide in 53 minutes. Rab Douglas then did well to catch a looping fross from Vicente. Sylla replaced Moravcic and again Rab saved from Vicente. .At the other end Celtic nearly scored when Djucic's deflection almost caught out his own keeper. The match headed for the inevitable extra-time Alan Thomson replaced Petta and made a great impression. He cut inside from the left and his ball across goal looked perfect for Larsson but his weak shot was cleared off the line.
Hartson replaced Sylla in the second half of extra-time and he looked really up for the game, testing Canizares with a shot which he dived to touch away for a corner. With no chances converted the dreaded penalty shoot-out was upon us. With Lambert and Thommo scoring and Douglas saving from Vicente it looked good. However Larsson and Petrov both missed, failing to hit the target, with Santos and Sanchez scoring. Chris Sutton scored with Rab saving from Angloma. With Hartson and Pellegrino scoring it was up to Joos to keep us in it. Despite 2 tries (retake ordered) the keeper saved both and Mista stepped up to end our European dream. This was an outstanding performance for Celtic with the back three superb and Balde in particular having a brilliant game. Lennon and Lambert were everywhere in midfield and perhaps only Sylla was a bit disappointing. We seemed to miss the creativity of Moravcik when he went off and it looks as though Celtic are perhaps only one or two players away from being a top European side again.
The excitement of the European games will be badly missed, but we must get on with clinching the Championship to give us more of the same next year. CELTIC (3-5-2): Douglas; Mjallby, Balde, Valgaeren; Petrov, Lambert, Lennon, Moravcik (Sylla 55, Hartson 111), Petta (Thompson 78); Larsson, Sutton VALENCIA (3-4-1-1): Canizares; Pellegrino, Ayala, Djukic; Torres (Angloma 46),
De Los Santos, Rodriguez (Mista 67), Vicente; Aimar (Sanchez 82), Carew |