| Match Pictures | Matches: 1996 – 1997 | 1996-1997 Pictures |
Trivia
- Having got over the worst of the injuries there were still lingering doubts on the fitness of a number of players.
- Paolo Di Canio made his first team debut after missing the early games of the season through injury.
- Van Hooydonk missed a penalty.
Review
Get out of jail time when the team failed to fire in front of goal and needed a late Cadete goal to progress to the first round proper. Van Hooijdonk missed a penalty and Kosice had a man sent off.
Teams
Celtic:-
Marshall, Boyd, McKinlay, McNamara, Hughes, Grant, Van Hooijdonk, Thom, Cadete, Wieghorst, McLaughlin (Di Canio, 52).
Unused Subs:- Kerr, O'Neil, Stubbs, Anthony.
Goal:- Cadete 87.
FC Kosice:-
Juracka, Kozak, Prazenica, Semenik, Hornyak, Toth, Sovic, Zvara (Lalik, 84), Janocko, Rusnak, Kozlej (Obstinik, 85).
Unused Subs:- Benko, Moder, Danko.
Referee:- J Hireiniemi (Finland).
Att:- 44,448
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
- Match Pictures
Articles
An astonishing finale which saw Celtic miss a late penalty then score an even later winner through Jorge Cadete erupted into post-match rancour at Parkhead last night when Jan Kozak, Kosice's coach, launched a stinging attack on the match officials.
As Celtic celebrated reaching the first round proper of the UEFA Cup, Kozak bemoaned the decisions by Finnish referee Juha Hireiniemi which saw the Slovakian side reduced to ten men when Karol Prazenica was sent off in between Pierre van Hooijdonk's 80th-minute penalty miss and Cadete's 88th-minute goal.
"Today we played against a Celtic side with 14 players. They used 12 on the park, the 13th was the crowd and the 14th was the referee," said Kozak.
"I told the referee that he and his two assistants were no good and deserved three zeros." He then looked around the Celtic Park press room and challenged: "Can anyone in this room tell me what the penalty was given for and we don't know why our player Karol Prazenica was then later sent off. As I know the Scottish people are gentlemen you must agree with my opinion."
The Slovakian coach also directed his anger at Celtic substitute Paolo di Canio who came on in the second half for his first competitive match for Celtic and was later involved in the penalty incident.
Kozak added: "I expected Di Canio to be playing from the start just to get the penalty."
Tommy Burns, the Celtic manager, responded by saying: "The lads tell me that there was no question at all that it was a penalty. We are just delighted with the result because we had to work extremely hard to get it.
"Kosice showed they were very well organised and it takes time to break teams like that down although we didn't play as well as we can."
In terms of finishing that was certainly true with Van Hooijdonk the main culprit in front of goal.
All that will be forgotten, however, by a Celtic support who went into raptures after Cadete's vital strike. With two minutes left, Andreas Thom sent the ball across the face of the goal, it was touched on by Morten Wieghorst and there was Cadete to slam home the winner from close range.
The goal certainly took the pressure off Van Hooijdonk who was given the ideal opportunity to settle the tie when the referee awarded a penalty after Di Canio appeared to have been pushed over in the box. The Dutch striker was too deliberate with his spot kick and watched in horror as goalkeeper Juracka dived to his right to save. Within minutes, Kosice lost the services of Prazenica who was sent off for aiming a kick at Cadete.
Celtic's progression can be attributed to a sturdy team performance and in particular a fine save by Gordon Marshall in the 66th minute, a fact recognised by Burns who headed straight to the goalkeeper to congratulate him when the match ended. The crucial save came after Martin Obsitnik, a Kosice substitute, was gifted an opportunity by Tom Boyd who was woefully short with a pass-back.
However, it was Celtic who created the most chances and, with an impassioned support urging them on, they must have felt an acute sense of frustration at their inability to find the net for fully 87 minutes.
Morten Wieghorst
"The noise level before the game was unbelievable, it was just a wall of sound. That was the best experience of my football career. The only game to compare with it was the night I played for Lyngby at Ibrox but the Celtic supporters were even louder."
"Everyone could see they [Kosice] could play a bit and like most European sides they put an extra man into the midfield," added Wieghorst. "We learned from the tie because the Scottish game is a different one as European teams are capable of hitting on the break. Kosice impressed me the way they played the ball out of defence where a Scottish club would punt the ball. But you can always count on Jorge to be in the right place at the right time."