Europa League - Celtic crash to defeat in Israel

Eurosport - Fri, 18 Sep 09:55:00 2009

Celtic let a goal lead slip in the final 15 minutes of their Europa League Group C opener against an average Hapoel-Aviv side as they fell to a 2-1 defeat.

FOOTBALL Hapoel Tel Aviv's Yeboah challenges Celtic's McManus during their Europa League Group C match at Bloomfield Stadium in Tel Aviv - 0

Tony Mowbray's side seemed to be in cruise control after going in at the break 1-0 up thanks to a goal from Georgios Samaras in the 25th minute.

Hapoel struggled to create anything for long periods but Celtic started to sit back in the second-half and there had already been some warning signs for the Bhoys before Nemanja Vucicevic levelled matters in the 75th minute.

Substitute Maaran Lala then turned in a close range winner for the Israelis two minutes from time to send the passionate home support into raptures.

Hapoel were extremely poor in the first-half but they almost caught Celtic cold inside 60 seconds, as a cross from the left found Bebars Natcho at the far post but he could not place his header on target.

The home side steadily retreated into their shell and Samaras went close to opening the scoring on 12 minutes, with the Greek heading powerfully on target and forcing a fine save from Vincent Enyeama.

Hapoel looked all at sea at the back and Celtic broke through on 25 minutes, with Samaras collecting a clipped pass from Gary Caldwell before planting a crisp shot across Enyeama and into the bottom corner.

Hapoel offered little by way of a response and it took 43 minutes for Artur Boruc to make a save of note, with the Pole pushing aside a swerving drive from Zurab Menteshashvili.

Celtic must have felt bullish about their chances at the break but rather than go for the kill in the second-half, they began to sit back and invited Hapoel onto them.

Gil Vermouth force Boruc into a smart save in the 50th minute and Lala scuffed his first chance after coming on in the 62nd minute.

However, the equaliser finally came in the 75th minute when Boruc flicked Samuel Yeboah's low cross with his boot straight into the path of Vucicevic which allowed the bald-headed Serb to then smash the ball into the roof of the net.

The game opened up after the goal but Hapoel continued to have the better chances with Boruc having to make a couple of long range stops from Eran Zahavy.

Zahavy then pulled another great chance wide from close range after Lala was stopped in the box - possibly illegally - with Stephen McManus seeming to have a chunk of his jersey.

Hapoel did get the winner two minutes from time though as Vermouth burned Glenn Loovens down the left before putting in a low cross that an unmarked Lala turned into the net.

There was to be no late comeback from Celtic as the full-time whistle arrived without any further scares for Hapoel and the small band of travelling supporters let the Celtic players know what they felt of their performance with some angry finger pointing at the final whistle.

Eurosport

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  1. Big dogg you are a dog and a clueless one at that .The­ only reason GS win anything was that the oppsition was­ so poor . A blind man on a galloping horse could have­ win last seasons league with the players Celtic had­ .But what did wee gordon do ?.He decided to go on an­ ego trip not only disregarding the fans but side lining­ the then scots player of the year and sticking with a­ goal keeper that was clearly not in the frame of mind­ to be playing .No there is no place in the history­ books for GS.Martin o Neill was poor enough also but­ your attack on his reseans for leaving was uncalled­ for.

    From thetwotoedsloth, on Sun 20 Sep 11:49AM

  2. A dinnae think stickytapes will get wan point in the­ Europa league.....dae ye?....

    From Big Bluenose, on Sat 19 Sep 1:15AM

  3. 205 - Agreed! Mogga's only been in charge of 9­ "meaningful" matches! Perhaps we are shooting­ for the moon too early in his stint as celtic manager.­ Let's be realistic here - we should be­ concentrating on domestic honours for the remainder of­ this season. Anything else is a bonus. If we're all­ being honest here, our expectations might have been way­ too high in Mowbray's 1st season, but if we can get­ a good run in all things domestic, we should be content­ with that. We never got rid of as much "dead­ wood" as we would have wanted during the August­ transfer window, but let's see who's out and­ who's in in the January window before we start­ calling for heads on plates!

    From Singin' Ginger!!, on Fri 18 Sep 5:11PM

  4. #200 stuart - bit early for the "Mowbray Must­ Go" shout i think! Lets see, McLeish got relegated­ with Hibs fair enough he brought them straight back up­ but he also finished bottom of the league with­ Motherwell and would have been relegated had it not­ been for the Shitheap of a Stadium Falkirk had. He­ ended up with the Rangers job and won 7 trophies.­ Gordon Strachan took Southampton into Europe and thats­ about it but he won 7 trophies at Celtic and was never­ accepted even tho he is 1 of only 3 managers in Celtics­ history to ever win 3 league titles in a row, the other­ 2 managers being Willie Malley and Jock Stein. He took­ Celtic to the last 16 of the CL TWICE something­ "Saint" Martin couldnt achieve. Lets face it,­ Martin O'Neill shafted us big time. He failed to­ offer then captain Jackie McNamara a new deal so he­ left for Wolves for same money, he gave Bobo Bombscare­ £30k a week deal which has just ran out this summer and­ his excuse for wantin out was that he wanted 2 take­ time out 2 look after his sick wife, funny how he took­ 1st job that came along.

    From James, on Fri 18 Sep 4:30PM

  5. #199 you really don`t know feck all do you Mowbray IS­ ENGLISH,away back to your cave ya trog

    From METZ, on Fri 18 Sep 3:04PM

  6. MOWBRAY MUST GO!

    From Stuart, on Fri 18 Sep 2:12PM
  7. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    I just have too laugh!!! Watching SHOTTISH fusbal is no­ different from taking the kids to the circus, what a­ joke, 11 clowns plus a zookeeper on the pitch, and that­ is when they are playing an International, otherwise­ its 22 clowns and 2 zookeepers during a local derby,­ its hilarious!!!

    From What-a-Load-of-Rubbish-U-Lot, on Fri 18 Sep 2:05PM

  8. TONY MOWRAY IS JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE CELTIC JOB!­ I WORKED DOWN SOUTH LAST YEAR AND ALL THE GUYS DOWN­ THEIR SAID THAT MOWBRAY DOESNT HAVE A CLUE ABOUT­ TACTICS! THATS WHY WEST BROM WENT BACK DOWN BECAUSE­ MOWBRAY IS CLUELESS! TACTICALLY NIAVE THEY SAID! I CAN­ HONESTLY NOT DISAGREE WITH THEM ON WHAT I HAVE SAW THIS­ SEASON SO FAR!

    189. STEVEOC HE DIDNT REDEEM HIMSELF­ BY GOING NUTS AT THEM, WHICH MEANS HE IS NOT CUT OUT TO­ BE THE CELTIC BOSS! HE IS TOO BUSY TRYING TO BE­ LIKED!

    TONY MOWBRAY MUST GOW NOW! TONY MOWBRAY MUST­ GOW NOW! TONY MOWBRAY MUST GOW NOW

    From Stuart, on Fri 18 Sep 1:59PM
  9. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Sunday sees Celtic vs Hearts, what a laugh this will­ be, coming of a loss in the week, what losers they­ really are, CELTIC! Come on guys, you really need 11­ Englishmen in the side plus an English coach, its­ really necessary, take a tip from mr PERFECT, ME!!

    From What-a-Load-of-Rubbish-U-Lot, on Fri 18 Sep 1:56PM
  10. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Well idiots!!! this weekend will be Kilmarnock vs­ Rangers, what a laugh that should be, two local Sunday­ SUPERMARKET teams having A friendly in the park over a­ couple of BEERS, go and support the wife-beaters and­ whiskey drinkers, enjoy a bit of HAGGIS and BLOW your­ mates BAGPIPE!!!

    From What-a-Load-of-Rubbish-U-Lot, on Fri 18 Sep 1:51PM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    MY MAWS ON THE GAME
    GO TRY N GET YERSELF A LIFE­ PARASITE YE HUV BEEN OAN HERE AW DAY
    TALKING PASH­ TRYING TO ANNOY DECENT EDUCATED SCOTTISH FOLK AND YOU­ URNAY GETTING ANYONE TAE BITE SO GO ANNOY YER MATES AND­ PRESS THE BUTTON OAN THEIR HOMEMADE WAISTCOATS KEN WIT­ A MEAN YA PARASITE

    SCOTLAND FOR EVER
    CMON THE HOOPS

    From Graeme, on Fri 18 Sep 1:51PM
  12. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    Please support NIGERIA for the world cup 2010,­ especially now that you LOSERS dont have any chance of­ qualifying, we need your CASH, please come over and­ support us, we wont steal your watches but maybe your­ girlfriends!!!

    From What-a-Load-of-Rubbish-U-Lot, on Fri 18 Sep 12:52PM
  13. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    stevoc1968!!! have you ever been mugged? sorry I­ suppose you are a MUG!!! Are you still going on about­ what Celtic could or should of done, stop crying­ IDIOT!!!

    From What-a-Load-of-Rubbish-U-Lot, on Fri 18 Sep 12:48PM
  14. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    You SHOTTISH are all the same, you KENNY DO THIS, YOU­ KENNY DO THAT, what the hell can you do, you certainly­ cant play footbal, wash your ears out INVERKENNY,­ idiot!!!

    From What-a-Load-of-Rubbish-U-Lot, on Fri 18 Sep 12:45PM

  15. From front to back, ths team are awful. Caldwell and­ McManus are like headless chickens when someone runs at­ them. Loovens positional awareness is nil and if­ Mowbray is relying on these players to defend a one nil­ lead then he needs his head looked at. Imagine what­ would have happened if Hapoel had realised this early­ on. They're supposed to be the weak team of the­ group. I dread to think what Vienna and Hamburg will do­ to us.

    I'd sell Caldwell now! He is obviously­ only there for the money and to be honest he has a­ nerve demanding anything. He's just not good­ enough. The Celtic board need to get their fingers out­ of their arse and their wallets out of their pockets­ otherwise this team will just end up as an­ embarassment.

    From John L, on Fri 18 Sep 12:39PM

  16. We need to start with someone like a big Paul Elliot­ again in centre of defence.

    Really... what the @#$%­ has happened to us... bloody disgrace!

    From stevoc1968, on Fri 18 Sep 12:17PM

  17. Have followed Celtic since the early 1960s. Frankly­ this outfit are an embarresment. No disrespect to the­ manager or Celtic but when the best they can get is­ either Mark McGhee or Tony Mowbray then the warning­ lights should be flashing. Owen Coyle would rather­ stick to a dog fight in the lower regions of the­ Premier league than come home to his first love. No­ heart, no ethos, no spirit except that embarresing and­ outdated pile of plamas...The Huddle. Grow up and get a­ new trick. When I think of Willie Wallace, Joe McBride,­ Harry Hood, Dixie Deans and compare them to this lot I­ could weep.And... whats with wearing those Halloween­ pantomine away jerseys, where is the pride in the­ hoops. That Israeli team last night wore red, Celtic­ should wear their traditional jersey. Everything­ should'nt be down to the last dollar they can­ squeeze from the "customers". There used to­ be a football team at Parkhead once.

    From john, on Fri 18 Sep 11:43AM

  18. inverkenny... kind of agree with you there... albeit,­ look at Scotland performance against Holland, thought­ we at least competed with them, could have won the­ game, deserved the draw, but it was positive.

    Tell you­ this... wish I was standing at Glasgow airport when­ they touched down this morning... would have given that­ team big time pelters... so called football players­ need to get there fingers out their a_s_s

    From stevoc1968, on Fri 18 Sep 11:20AM

  19. i think it's alot to do with attitude, we used to­ be the canny Scots, now we're the cannae Scots,­ "cannae dae this, cannae dae that" every­ manager seems to be saying "we cannae compete with­ the money they've got" or "we cannae buy­ the type of players they've got" cannae,­ cannae, cannae, it get's very boring, and makes me­ ask the question how did a team the size of Inverness­ manage to beat the old firm, in Glasgow too, i'll­ tell you why, because they wanted to, and beleived they­ could, im sick of the negativity of Scots these days,­ my father would never have said "we cannae",­ aye we kin"

    From inverkenny, on Fri 18 Sep 11:07AM

  20. justlovethisgame go and take your aborigini butt­ elsewhere... we want to discuss football matters­ here... you don't even belong in this country...­ beat it spearchucka.

    From stevoc1968, on Fri 18 Sep 11:00AM
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