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Trivia
- Despite wanting to leave to seek a first team place elsewhere Stewart Kerr was assured he had a future at Celtic and was awarded a 2 year extension to his contract to July 2003.
- Off-field matters again impinged on Celtic’s performance in Europe. The spat between Lambert and Jock Brown continued in Zurich. Lambert was due to launch his book with a Press conference at the airport before the team flew out. This was scrapped. Then Brown pulled Lambert out of the pre-match Press conference with Stewart Kerr and Phil O’Donnell attending along with Dr. Jo. Brown then turned down the Press’ request to speak to Lambert and Stubbs. Despite all this, Lambert was made captain on the night in the absence of Boyd.
- Ten players were left in Glasgow due to either injury, suspension or ineligibility. Burley and Boyd were suspended. Moravcik and Riseth were ineligible. Rieper (ankle) and Annoni (hamstring) were all out injured. Healy, McBride, Crossley and Vaugh were all drafted in from the Under-21s along with Brian McLaughlin.
- Stubbs (groin) travelled and trained but was not included in the squad for the game when he said that he was not fit enough to play. Hannah came into the team to play at centre back with Mahe also moving infield to join his as a pair of make-shift centre backs. Jackson was also drafted in.
- About 1000 Celtic fans travelled to the game. They took the chance to give Jock Brown a hail of abuse both at Zurich Airport and at Prestwick, where he needed police protection, on the return flight.
- Zurich lost in the next round 3-2 on aggregate to AS Roma.
Review
In a match played in pouring rain, a makeshift defense lost the tie on the night and Celtic were out of Europe before Christmas again. Mahe and Hannah as central defense did their best to stem the tide but were passed at will through both the centre and on the left. All the goals came in the second half. A look at the bench showed the strength and depth in the Celtic side.
Teams
FC Zurich:
Pascolo, Hodel, Wiederkeher (Opango 65), Santanna, Bartlett, Lima, Signore (Nixon 78), Chassot (Castillo 78), Fischer, Di Jorio, Taroni.
Subs Not Used: Tronbini, Huber, Iodice.
Scorers: Signore 51, Chassot 56, Bartlett 61, Santanna 75.
Booked: Fischer (FC Zurich)
Celtic:
Gould (Kerr 64), Mahe, McNamara, Larsson, Brattbakk, O'Donnell, Donnelly, Lambert, Jackson, Hannah, McKinlay.
Subs Not Used: McLaughlin, Healy, McBride, Burchill, Crossley, Vaugh.
Goals: O'Donnell 57, Larsson 72.
Booked: Donnelly, O’Donnell (Celtic)
Aggregate Score: (5-3)
Ref: L Sundell (Sweden).
Att: 14,500
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Stats
| FC Zurich | Celtic | |
| Bookings | 1 | 2 |
| Fouls | 8 | 14 |
| Shots on Target | 5 | 7 |
| Corners | 9 | 6 |
| Offside | 3 | 2 |
Celtic left with no defence over classic European exit
The Scotsman 04/11/1998
FC Zurich 4 (Del Signore (51), Chassot (56), Bartlett (61), Sant'Anna (75) )
Celtic 2 (O'Donnell (53), Larsson (72))
Agg: 5-3
ALL European football used to be like this back before the days of coaches, systems, tactics, complicated stuff like that.
Celtic went out of Europe last night in one of those frenetic high-scoring encounters that seem to plague them every five years or so. That they deserved to lose the second-round tie is unquestionable, in that they played gamely rather than cleverly, their depleted defence being carved open regularly by a youthful Swiss side.
That said, the second half reminded us of classic European encounters of the past, Celtic twice suggesting that they might be capable of snatching a glorious victory from what had mostly threatened to be a comprehensive defeat.
Their hopes were only finally laid to rest when Cesar Sant'Anna scored Zurich's fourth goal 15 minutes from time. Even then Celtic battled on in the rain and mud, but like most brave battlers in modern European competitions they went out of the tournament, still having failed to reach the third round of a European competition since 1984.
Celtic would not have been too happy contemplating the weather conditions. They were the team obliged to score and the conditions were hardly conducive to slick, incisive passing movements. From the outset passes were going awry, while challenges were looking uglier than had been intended due to the sodden surface.
The conditions may have explained the inclusion of Darren Jackson, one player in Celtic's squad not averse to lumbering through the mud in pursuit of a hopeful (or hopeless) ball.
As expected, Alan Stubbs was absent from the defence, David Hannah coming into the side to start alongside Stephane Mahe. This combination was given an early warning when the Zurich striker Frederic Chassot darted between them chasing a long ball from the back and Jonathan Gould had to step out quickly to avert the danger.
The Celtic goalkeeper was again left helpless by his defenders in the 12th minute. A simple pass from Sant'Anna split the defence, Shaun Bartlett ran on and squared the ball to Chassot who skied the simple chance with an effort that suggested he wanted to cheer up Celtic's own hapless finisher Harald Brattbakk.
The scare at least energised Celtic into announcing their attacking presence. Their early attempts had involved hitting vague passes for Brattbakk and Henrik Larsson to chase; now Paul Lambert, who had been made captain for the night, Simon Donnelly and Phil O'Donnell tried to get forward in support, but too many of their movements foundered on poor passes once they got inside the Zurich half.
It was Hannah, after half-an-hour, who had the first real sight of goal, slicing his speculative shot well wide after some persistent work out on the left from O'Donnell had eventually set up the chance.
The Swiss, defending competently, were also playing the more aggressive attacking football, getting forward swiftly, Andre Wieberkehr testing Jackie McNamara regularly down the left, while the front two of Chassot and Bartlett kept making intelligent off-the-ball runs. A scampering run forward by the full-back Franco Di Jorio ended in a tumble in the area and the predictable hopeful home howls for a penalty.
The clouds opened up a little wider in the second half and the goals came in a similar current, four of them going in during a frantic ten-minute spell. Celtic needed to start keeping possession in midfield if they were going to set about creating goal-scoring chances. Instead they fell behind to an untidy goal, failing to deal with a routine cross towards the middle. The loose ball bounced up invitingly around the six-yard box, and the midfielder Giorgio del Signore was there to head it into the net.
The Zurich second was sweeter, if once again attributable to defensive slackness. Mahe and Tosh McKinlay neglected a hopeful long pass hit down the Celtic left, Chassot didn't, collecting the ball, comfortably rounding Hannah and chipping the ball precisely over Gould into the net.
While the Swiss were still admiring the finish, Celtic went up the other end and bundled the ball into the Zurich net, Larsson holding off the Swiss defence and setting up a close-range chance for O'Donnell. Suddenly Celtic were back where they started again, needing just one goal to qualify for the next round. In hindsight it might have been smarter to have been a bit more patient going about finding it.
Galloping forward en masse in search of a swift second they left themselves exposed at the back. Another precise ball out of defence found Bartlett one-on-one with Gould, and the South African striker took it around the goalkeeper before side-footing the ball into the net.
Gould went off injured shortly afterwards to be replaced by Stewart Kerr. That particular brief revival of Celtic's hopes had lasted just three minutes. The next had exactly the same life span. Larsson was the player who restored a spark of optimism on 72 minutes, his classic strike from the edge of the area arrowing into the corner.
Once more, a magnificent recovery seemed eminently possible, only for Sant'Anna to wipe away the smiles once more, when his shot took a deflection on its way past Kerr to restore Zurich's by now familiar two-goal lead. And that was that. Larsson in particular laboured manfully for the last 15 minutes in the hope of another chance, but by then Zurich had got wise and closed up shop.
Celtic will have learned some useful lessons themselves, but then maybe it is time Scottish teams stopped learning lessons in Europe and began to apply them instead.
- Manager Interview
Dr Jo Venglos post match:
“When players are playing in a strange position it is very difficult for them but I thought Stephane and David both worked well.
"The injuries just go on and on. You saw our bench tonight.
"We had to put five youngsters there because of the number of players who are missing.
“The game was quite exciting, and it was a good performance.
"I thought the players who were in the team played well but, when we pulled ourselves back into the game by scoring, we did not hold our position.
“Every time we scored they scored straight away at the other end to make things difficult.
''If we had remained in a situation where just one goal would have taken us through, then psychologically it would have damaged Zurich.
"As it was they looked nervous on each occasion but we were not able to stay there for more than a few minutes and that was disappointing.
"I still feel that the players worked hard and when I look back to the first game I think that is when we could have scored more goals and we could have been in a stronger position coming here.
"Obviously I am looking for new players, especially with the injuries continuing, but it is a question of how and when the players can come.
"'When' is the most difficult part when I look at things tonight.”
“When their fourth goal came it was a shot from 20 or 25 yards out and it took a deflection. This happens, what can you do?"
(On the make-shift defense)
"They weren't naive, but under those conditions in the big spaces there was always a big danger in one-on-one situations. Of course, I'm sure with the first-choice defence there would have been a better understanding among the players, but the boys who did play tried hard.
"My optimism comes from the fact the players played hard and well."
Henrik Larsson:
"The team played well when you consider the position we were in with so many players missing, and when you look at the conditions. I felt that we were a little unlucky.
"If we had been able to keep Zurich out after each of our goals for just a little longer then I believe that we could have beaten them."
Raimondo Ponte, FC Zurich coach:
"I have never known a game such as this in all my time as a coach. It was completely nerve-racking.
"Each time Celtic scored I was a little bit scared that they would be able to do enough to win the game.
Shaun Bartlett, FC Zurich.
"It was a big surprise to me to see a team as big as Celtic having to put youngsters on their bench.
"You would have expected such a club to have substitutes who would be almost as good as the players on the pitch. That gave us some confidence.
"I thought that Celtic were very naive in their approach to the game.
"They played as if they were three goals up and they never came at us directly.
"Okay, they missed some of the experienced players but we expected more from them. They were a disappointment