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Trivia
- Not a lot of trivia going on off the park but most of the statements in the chip-wrappers were far too one-sided to get any clear idea of what was going on except that the players felt the crisis and were doing their best to get it together.
- Most of the first team squad as well as those carrying injuries played. Notable absences were Blinker (carrying a groin strain), O’Donnell (thigh muscle strain), Boyd also a thigh muscle strain that he’s apparently been playing through and had missed the Hearts game through), Annoni (who was dropped following a heart-to-heart meeting between Brown, Annoni and his agent). Drafted in from the Reserves were Barry Elliot, Colin Healy (just arrived this season and playing for both the U18’s and Reserves), Brian McLaughlin (who had not been seen for some time that people doubted that he was still at the club) as well as Burchill and John Paul McBride. Riseth was ineligible for this game.
Review
Following the very public statements from various members of the team there began to emerge a definite sense of ‘get behind the team’ for the support. Gould saved a somewhat dubious penalty (or rather the crowd did enough for the guy to blast it over the bar). McKinlay and Donnelly, who had both come in for flak from the stands, played well delivering good balls and the defense held out till the 86th minute. Still, in the end the second half showing was again poor match fodder. The win gave us an aggregate score of 4-2 and we were through to the next round.
Teams
Celtic: (3-5-2):
Gould, Mahe, Rieper, Stubbs , Larsson, Burley , Brattbakk (Jackson, 85), Donnelly, Lambert, Hannah, McKinlay
Subs not used: Kerr, McLaughlin, Healy, McBride, Burchill, Elliot
Scorers: Stubbs (38), Larsson (90)
V Guimaraes (4-4-2):
Espinha, Arley, Alexandre, Berto, Costa, Gilmar (Basilio Almeida, 75), Milovanovic (Edmilson, 57), Sodestrom, Kasongo, Riva, Geraldo
Subs not used Paneira, Carlos, Auri, Sousa Gomes, Paiva
Scorer: Sodestrom (87)
Bookings: Alexandre, Costa, Riva (V Guimaraes)
Referee: O Sarvan (Turkey)
Attendance: 38,076
Articles
Pictures
Stats
| Celtic | V Guimaraes | |
| Bookings | 0 | 3 |
| Fouls | 19 | 14 |
| Shots on Target | 6 | 4 |
| Corners | 5 | 6 |
| Offside | 1 | 3 |
Venglos gets his Vitoria plum
The Scotsman 30/09/1998
FRASER MACKIE
Celtic 2 Stubbs (38), Larsson (90)
Vitoria Guimaraes 1 Soderstrom (87) (Aggregate 4-2 )
A FIRST-HALF header from Alan Stubbs and a late clincher by Henrik Larsson bore fruit for Celtic last night to reward them with the chance of rich pickings in the UEFA Cup second round.
Jozef Venglos, who had been pilloried for his talk of apples and plums in the build-up to this game, saw his players put their domestic woes behind them to join some of Europe's elite in Friday's draw. But they were not required to be at their best against a Portuguese team suffering from travel sickness no matter where they go.
On the back of three defeats in the Portuguese First Division, Guimaraes were appalling in front of goal. However, the visitors were given brief cause for hope with three minutes remaining when they snatched an equaliser to cancel out the Stubbs goal.
Jonathan Gould appeared to be caught out by the vicious swerve in Sven Soderstrom's 25 yard shot, making for a nervous end to the tie for the Scots. But just as the doubts began to surface, and seconds after Soderstrom went close again, Celtic broke for a deserved winner.
Darren Jackson weighted a perfect through ball to Henrik Larsson, who held off all advances to calmly beat Espinha from ten yards.
Zoran Filipovic, the Guimaraes coach, however, believed that the poorer team has advanced. He said: "If you look at the two games, I think that we were the better team. With all respect to Celtic, we were very unlucky. But there's no reason why Celtic cannot go further. They have great players and it is not easy for teams to come here and play well."
Despite his recent injury and lack of goals, Harald Brattbakk was thrust into a two-man attack with Larsson, who had led the line brilliantly a fortnight ago with a first-minute goal.
An early kill was the plan last night too. Brattbakk and Paul Lambert combined on the edge of the area to tee up Craig Burley from his favourite range but there wasn't sufficient dip in his drive to take the ball below Espinha's crossbar.Of the misfiring Brazilian double act from the first leg, Edmilson was dropped to the bench and Gilmar kept his place for the visitors.
But the most significant move by Filipovic was to start fellow Slav Branko Milovanovic in the centre of his midfield.
Burley needlessly conceded a free-kick 20 yards from goal and the man with the Prosinecki looks had a chance to copy the man who knocked Celtic out of the Champions League.
He succeeded in beating the wall, but not Gould, who pushed the ball out low to his right and Stubbs won the race to clear ahead of Gilmar.
But it was Celtic, without their injured skipper Tom Boyd, who had the best chances of the first half hour – from the most unlikely of scenarios. Tosh McKinlay, making a rare start, launched a 40-yard ball deep into the box where Brattbakk had peeled off Kasongo.
The Norwegian hit a first-time volley with his right foot only for Espinha to make an equally spectacular save.
Shortly afterwards Larsson, exuding confidence since starring in England's defeat in Sweden earlier in the month, arched a free kick from 22 yards which made Espinha scramble and the crossbar shudder.
Celtic have infamously made a hash of defending set pieces in recent weeks and Guimaraes showed themselves to be the Portuguese equivalent when then Scottish champions all but clinched the tie. Larsson was fouled on the left and McKinlay had Stubbs and Marc Rieper to aim for in the centre. Maybe even Brian McLaughlin could have risen to head home against the poor marking, but Stubbs deserves credit for being alone to glance a header home at the back post.
Stubbs was in the wars early in the second half when both he and Gilmar received lengthy treatment after an accidental clash. But the big Englishman, obviously not one of the timids of the treatment room referred to by Burley the other day, hobbled back into battle.
He would soon have to contend with Edmilson, who replaced Milovanovic in Filipovic's final attempt to break down the Celtic defence.
Kasongo threaded through to Sven Soderstrom, who had slipped in behind Stephane Mahe but the Swede couldn't beat Gould.
Celtic couldn't fully settle without scoring again, however, and they came closest to making the match a formality ten minutes after the interval.
McKinlay swung in a corner to the near post for Larsson to sneak in a header which Quim Berto nodded off the line.
At the opposite end, the Portuguese side's deplorable record in front of goal was summed up in 66 minutes when Gilmar missed a glorious chance to shoot his side back into the UEFA Cup.
Substitute Edmilson dribbled his way into a dangerous position in the box and, although he was looking for an excuse to tumble, Mahe was silly enough to offer him a boot to trip over.
Turkish official Oguz Sarvan rewarded Edmilson with a penalty, but his fellow Brazilian Gilmar was accurate only in placing the ball on the spot.
The man who missed an empty goal with a header in the first leg spooned the ball over the bar and made Celtic Park roar again.
Only Costa's crisply struck shot from 25 yards, for which Gould scarcely moved, could be described as a respectable try from the visitors – their goal apart – but that went the same way as Gilmar's penalty.
Some of the disappointing crowd of 38,076 chose to boo Darren Jackson on to the park as a late substitute.
Interestingly, the striker dashed straight up the tunnel after the final whistle while the rest of his team-mates milked the applause from his detractors.
Afterwards, Larsson claimed that his side were never in any danger. He said: "Even after equalising, they had to score some goals to knock us out. After 1-0, we did not need to attack like idiots."
- Manager Interview
Dr Jo Venglos post match
“The League is one part and the international competition another but these players are prepared.
“They have played in so many games and some of them have had to play through injuries that they have worked hard to maintain their standards and quality.
”The opposition were a clever team with short passing but our players responded well tactically.
“It doesn’t matter what I think about the equalizer – what is important is what the players did.
“They went on the attack with more men and used that to their advantage, but they did not panic.
“This was not an easy game and the players worked hard for the result but there are no easy teams in Europe.
“When Guimaraes equalised our boys responded well and the second goal was well made and prepared.
“At 1-1 it was still dangerous but even before Alan Stubbs had scored a nice goal, there was an excellent volley from Harald and a great Larsson free kick.
“The team read the game well as Guimaraes are very strong on the ball and we covered the space well.”