| Match Pictures | Matches: 1997 – 1998 | 1997-1998 Pictures |
Trivia
- Celtic were again linked with a £1.5million bid for Sporting Lisbon’s Paulo Alves
- The plc’s annual report was published and showed turnover up 39 per cent to £22.19 million in the financial year ending June 1997, with pre-tax profits rising to 5.15 million. There were more than 40,000 season ticket holders – the highest number of any club in Britain – and attendances rose by 37%.
- Celtic appointed Peter Latchford as goalkeeping coach. He had been working part-time and when Bonner left he was given a full time position.
- The team travel arrangements to Austria were thrown into disarray when the aircraft chartered to travel to Austria developed an engine fault on the ground in Glasgow. The Celtic party were delayed by 6 ½ hours whilst another aircraft was found.
- Blinker was ineligible for this game having been signed after the deadline. Annoni and Johnson were still injured.
- Alan Stubbs first competitive Celtic goal.
Review
A poor performance, Stubbs' goal digging the team out of a big hole. Jansen, though, appeared quitre blyth about it in his after-match comments.
Teams
FC Tirol Innsbruck:
Cherchessov, Tangen, Kirchler, Vuilic (Krinner, 59), Severeyn (Yilmaz, 70), Brzeczek, Prudlo, Knavs, Mayrleb (Jochum, 84), Marasek, Abou El Dahab.
Non Used Subs: Weber, Wazinger, Baur, Aichmer.
Scorers: Mayrleb (22, 28)
Celtic:
Gould; Boyd, McKinlay, MacKay, Stubbs, Larsson, Burley, Thom, Jackson (Donnelly, 80), Mahe (McNamara, 46), Wieghorst (Hannah, 70).
Non Used Subs: Marshall, Gray, O'Donnell, Grant.
Scorer: Stubbs (84)
Bookings: Boyd (Celtic)
Referee: R Lunge (Netherlands)
Attendance: 6,700
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| FC Tirol Innsbruck | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 0 | 1 |
| Fouls | 11 | 16 |
| Shots on Target | 7 | 4 |
| Corners | 4 | 10 |
| Offside | 5 | 9 |
Stubbs rescues Celtic
The Scotsman 13/08/1997
FC Tirol Innsbruck 2 Mayrleb (22, 28)
Celtic 1 Stubbs (84)
COMETH the hour, cometh the man. Alan Stubbs could not have chosen a better time to open his account for Celtic, grabbing a valuable away goal in their UEFA Cup preliminary tie with FC Tirol Innsbruck which may yet save his side's expensive skin.
The £3.5-million record Parkhead signing struck with an 84th-minute free kick from 30 yards as Celtic and their band of 300 supporters in the Tivoli stadium grew increasingly worried as this first-leg match started to slip away from them.
Now Stubbs, the object of much criticism since moving to Celtic a year ago, could not only have rescued an abysmal performance by Wim Jansen's team, but also given them a chance of overturning the deficit in Glasgow in a fortnight's time.
Celtic had trailed to two first-half goals by Tirol's energetic striker Christian Mayrleb, and were second best to an Austrian side who seemed destined to deny the former European Cup winners even a place in the first round proper of this competition.
Stubbs though was not Celtic's lone hero. Goalkeeper Jonathan Gould, making his European debut at the age of 29, produced several superb saves, not least a 64th-minute acrobatic effort to deny Roland Kirchler, to keep Celtic in the tie, a fact appreciated greatly by Stubbs.
"Jonathan made a great save at a vital time when we were two down, which gave us a boost and then we got the break we needed with my goal. We had a bad first half but we got things sorted out at half-time and although Tirol were a very capable team, the ball is back in our court now. Things will be very different in front of a full house at Celtic Park."
Stubbs revealed that it took the departure of Pierre van Hooijdonk from Celtic to encourage him back into the frame with the kind of dead-ball striking for which he became noted at Bolton.
"Pierre used to take them all when I first came to Celtic and he was so brilliant at it that I just left him to it, but since he has gone, I think the team look to me more to take free kicks.
"The free kick took a deflection but it was going on target. It was nice to get the goal. I've waited a long time for it."
Celtic suffered a torrid first- half pounding from the Austrians. Mayrleb ran Jansen's team ragged down the right flank and his two-goal burst within seven minutes was a period of immense agony for Celtic defender Stephane Mahe.
Jansen revealed later that the Frenchman, who was replaced at half-time by Jackie McNamara, was suffering from a rib injury, but looking back on the way Mayrleb tormented him is likely to provide him with a greater source of pain.
Mahe and Malky Mackay were made to look foolish by the Tirol striker as he left them both for dead on the byeline in the 21st minute and although Gould saved Mayrleb's first shot, the forward buried the rebound to put Tirol in front.
Then, in the 28th minute, Mayrleb again escaped Mahe to latch on to a perfect ball from Ivica Vulic before running on to deftly chip Gould.
Mayrleb could have had his hat-trick just two minutes before the interval as his 60-yard run left a retreating Celtic defence in a panic but again Gould came to the rescue.
Things did improve slightly in the second half, although only in the sense that Tirol created fewer chances. Celtic, on the other hand, were almost non-existent as an attacking force.
However, it took Gould's outstanding 64th minute save to finally wake them up to the seriousness of their position. Had the goalkeeper not acrobatically thrown himself to his right to touch over a fierce shot from the edge of the box by Kirchler, following wonderful work by Tirol's Polish play-maker Jerzy Brzeczek, then Celtic would have been dead and buried.
Fortunately, Stubbs then emerged to hand the Scots a vital away goal. The hitherto anonymous Henrik Larsson was fouled by Tirol substitute Ali Yilmaz 30 yards out and Stubbs stepped up to drive a low powerful shot through the Austrian wall and past goalkeeper Stanislav Cherchessov, who was left flat-footed.
Even then, Celtic had to endure one more scare when Brzeczek's injury-time free kick took a wicked deflection and just spun over Gould's bar.
Dutch coach Jansen, looking less relieved than he should have, tried to convince everyone that the match had been little more than an ordinary day at the office.
"We knew that they had a lot of players who would run at us, and we talked about that, but Tirol scored two excellent goals. I felt the team played better in the second half and this result is very important for us but it is not going to be easy."
- Manager Interview
Wim Jansen, post match:
“We always knew they had players that would run at us and we had talked about that. They scored two goals by running in behind our defence but we were much better organised after the break.
“I am delighted with the way my players responded to what I told them to do at half time and I think we came out a much better side.
“Tirol are a fine team and it will be difficult at Celtic Park. While at 2-0 we would have had only a slim chance of getting through, at 2-1 we have every hope.”