Champions League - Celtic march on

Eurosport - Thu, 06 Aug 17:53:00 2009

Celtic's Champions League dream is still alive after Tony Mowbray's Bhoys overturned a first-leg deficit to send Dinamo Moscow spinning out of the competition 2-1 on aggregate.

Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras scored at the end of each half to clinch a 2-0 win on the night.

The victory takes Celtic through to the final round of qualifying and within touching distance of the promised land of the Champions League group stages.

If Celtic's plan was to silence the crowd in the opening exchanges, they executed it to perfection as the midfield pairing of Massimo Donati and Landry N'Guemo snapped into the tackles and the back four gave Alexander Kerzhakov no space in which to operate.

Dinamo seemed content to sit in and the Russians caused Artur Boruc no alarm in the opening half-hour.

Celtic were far more positive than their hosts and Aiden McGeady was particularly bright down the right flank, although the end product was lacking as the balls into the box were poor.

A minute before half-time, Andreas Hinkel showed McGeady, Daniel Fox and Shaun Maloney exactly how to deliver a ball into the box with a sumptuous cross which created the opening goal.

McDonald had been starved of service for 44 minutes, but he proved his class as he pulled away from his marker to find a yard of space and head beyond Vladimir Gabulov.

The goal sparked Dinamo into life and they came within a whisker of levelling the scores seconds before the interval, as Hinkel was forced to hack Dmitri Khokhlov's low drive from 10 yards off the line.

Dinamo failed to make the electric start to the second half that was expected and it took a sloppy piece of play from Hinkel to hand them a chance. The German let the ball slip under his foot, and Dmitri Kombarov strode on to the ball but flashed a shot a foot wide of target.

The chance appeared to rouse Dinamo as the Kombarov brothers combined to almost open up Celtic. Dmitri whipped in a corner that was headed goalwards by Kirill but Hinkel was on hand to clear off the line for a second time.

A Dinamo onslaught failed to materialise and Maloney had a chance to win the tie in the 90th minute when burrowing into the box, but he shot straight at the keeper.

Maloney still had his head in his hands when Samaras popped up to send Celtic's small band of travelling supporters into raptures.

The Greek had only been on the field for 10 minutes but was attuned to the pace of the game as he gathered the ball in the box, worked his way across the area before steering a low shot into the corner to register his first goal in European competition for the club and see Celtic overturn a European first-leg deficit away from home for the first time.

Alex Livie / Eurosport

Comment 213 - 232 of 232

Sort comments by: Most recent
  1. Why don't ye change the record ya tadger...Same­ pish week in week oot. I'm no living in the past­ one bit, and just to prove it, how many of those­ trophies have ye won this decade and how many have we­ won? When you win it, how long do you have it for? No­ even a baw kicked in the league yet and you are full of­ it. Take a pill noo and wait to the season starts and­ then come back and see who will have bragging rights­ again.

    From NokturnalKelt, on Fri 7 Aug 3:42PM
  2. I know what fenian means so dont tell me what i know­ and dont know and just as i thought,a sad sad Septic­ fan living in the past about a cup win when he­ wasn't born so thanks for that,ya thick ignorant­ @#$%,i couldn't give a damn what the rest of Europe­ thinks,it's always gonna be a bragging right to see­ who wins the title in Scotland as you're having a­ laugh if you think your mob is gonna do anything in­ Europe,Rangers will always be the No.1 team in Scotland­ and that's what sticks in yer throat.

    STAND UP FOR­ THE CHAMPIONS!!!

    From World Record 52 Champions, on Fri 7 Aug 3:32PM
  3. hahaha So I'm a Ned at 38 am I?... I'll need to­ tell the wife I sound younger than I am. As for being­ called a Fenian, you have absolutely no grasp of the­ term or what it is and I'm not even going to try­ and educate you about it.
    As for your titles written in­ black and white, well that's your history but­ no-one else's but if you want to argue that its 52­ or 51 and a bit, then that's up to you, it just­ shows the desperation your lot have when it comes to­ having to have that record. We would much rather play­ teams in Europe and at least attack instead of­ defensive pish football that gets you nowhere. You­ think the rest of Europe gives a shyte that you have­ won so many league titles in a wee country on the­ periphary of Europe - Not a chance. Now away back to­ bed as you obviously got up too early this morning when­ you pished yourself and yer mum had to change yer­ sheets.

    From NokturnalKelt, on Fri 7 Aug 3:20PM
  4. It's 52 Titles,ya thick fenian scumbag,get that­ through yer thick head,it's written in black and­ white and i'm guessing you're one of those wee­ neds that boast about winning a champions cup when you­ weren't even born,that makes you very sad in most­ people's eyes so continue to live in the past,at­ least Rangers haven't got one of the worst records­ away from home in the Champions League,you're a­ laughing stock with your immature comments.

    From World Record 52 Champions, on Fri 7 Aug 3:10PM
  5. What the feck does it matter if I witnessed it or not­ ya bawbag? I know it was done and it was written down.­ Last season they were waxing lyrical because Man united­ looked like they were gonnae win everything and saying­ it was unprecidented - Well it wasn't unprecidented­ 'cos it has been done by Celtic. But, seeing as how­ you're a moron, I'll state it again, yer first­ trophy was shared with Dumbarton, so that shouldn't­ count should it? And for all these leagues you won, you­ then went on to the fumbling about in the Champions­ league and were a laughing stock nearly as bad as yer­ pals Linfield.

    From NokturnalKelt, on Fri 7 Aug 3:01PM
  6. 228 - Did you witness every trophy won??...i'm­ guessing no so STFU and start living in the­ present,it's gonna be 53 & Counting for the­ No.1 team in Scotland!

    STAND UP FOR THE CHAMPIONS!!!

    From World Record 52 Champions, on Fri 7 Aug 1:23PM
  7. #227 A point I made a wee while back son... 51 1/2...­ and Finished. When you win every trophy that is­ presented before you in one season then get back to us.

    From NokturnalKelt, on Fri 7 Aug 11:39AM
  8. To World Record 52 Champions, surely that should read­ 51 1/2. You only shared the first one wi Dumbarton.

    From sportsworld.johnmurphy, on Fri 7 Aug 10:55AM
  9. well done samy boi Celtic deserved to go through ! ! !­ great performance ! ! !

    From crfoxley, on Fri 7 Aug 10:12AM
  10. point 208 - aye it's 53 titles next year ya­ illiterate tarrier go back to school and learn!

    From World Record 52 Champions, on Fri 7 Aug 3:36AM
  11. #226 peterlarkin; Sorry trooper but, unless I'm­ going completely doolally, you've got it wrong on­ two counts, you've either never seen it, or your­ memory has become selective; 1 I'm a dyed in the­ wool Celtic man: 2 the final whistle had gone; The­ pitch 'invasion' was no worse that we had in­ Lisbon in '67; the 'gers fans were just every­ bit ecstatic as we were.
    The trouble was that the­ ground was filled with riot police, because the­ Russians were at odds with the Spanish regime and­ trouble was expected from the Russian supporters. When­ the ‘gers fans ran onto the pitch, the Spanish police­ waded into them with batons, causing all sorts of­ mayhem. The trophy was presented to John Greig in the­ tunnel. Castro made out that the ‘riot’ could have­ caused an incident with the Russian brigade and the net­ result was that Rangers were banned from European­ competitions for 2 Years. It got reduced on appeal to 1­ year, but it still remains an absolute liberty.
    Who’s­ the dafty now then?

    From lysdexic, on Thu 6 Aug 10:13PM
  12. well done the hoops tae the sad hun stay away and you­ die and the game wiznae finished it was a pitch­ invasion ya dafty hai hail

    From Peter, on Thu 6 Aug 8:06PM
  13. Hey no worries the Black Skull can play all right and­ it's magic to watch them walking along the­ Queen's highway,in fact i'm listening to them­ right now,Loud and Proud!!!

    From World Record 52 Champions, on Thu 6 Aug 7:59PM
  14. Hi

    Hi to Black Skull (???) Flute (if only you lot­ could play:-SSS)Band

    What's your take on the­ average, neanderthal, 'THING', Rangers­ supporter (yeah, well, you'd need to be born in a­ cave or up a tree to be one of them:-S)
    that calls­ himself/herself/IT 'Russell L, # 204?
    Such a­ lovely, human being...okokok, that's stretching­ things a bit, I know...but, genuine thoughts on a­ retarded, sick, illiterate, piece of evolution that has­ gone wrong. Might be difficult as Ibrox is full of such­ abominations regularly...

    From tony o, on Thu 6 Aug 7:52PM
  15. 204 ur just an attention seekin @#$% who obviously has­ a couple of screws loose. get well soon big john! gr8­ result bhoys! hail hail!

    From guitarbhoy, on Thu 6 Aug 7:31PM
  16. 204....really really sad..! i could not even THINK­ those thoughts far less put them on a forum!! this is­ not about football, actually i cant find the train of­ thought with these types of comments (thankfully). its­ awful how some people were dragged up.
    anyway, yes a­ great result, against a decent/good team - and away­ from home..
    hope this is a better celtic­ season...we'll see.

    From gregor_scotsfiddler, on Thu 6 Aug 7:12PM
  17. well done CELTIC keep up the good work we'er only­ started lets make one to remember HAIL HAIL

    From jamie, on Thu 6 Aug 4:48PM
  18. HELLO

    From BUCKIEJAG, on Thu 6 Aug 3:42PM
  19. Bayern Munich Champions League Winner 2010!!!

    From martin_kaufmann83, on Thu 6 Aug 3:25PM
  20. well done celtic back 2 there best

    From davidkelvin98, on Thu 6 Aug 2:44PM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account