| Match Pictures | Matches: 1999 – 2000 | 1999-2000 Pictures |
Trivia
- After a four year battle Celtic finally accepted that the case for compensation in the transfer of John Collins to Monaco was lost when the European Court of Arbitration ruled against Celtic.
- Celtic signed a new 5 year shirt deal with Umbro worth £15million. This was roughly twice the value of the existing deal with Umbro. This was signed despite the poor quality of product delivered at the last shirt launch when many replica shirts fell apart on first wash and had to be replaced.
- Nicholas Ouedec, a forward with the French club Montpelier was lined up to come to Celtic as a trialist.
Review
First run out with the team for the new Brazilian boy in what amounted to a kick about of a game.
Teams
Fortuna Dusseldorf (5-3-2): Bitzer, Joures, Fregene, Zedi, Hay, Mollenhauer, Cartus, Kempers, Nuorela, Breetveld, Poutilo
substitutes Halat, Klein, Vossen, Shittu, Miechels, Miletic
Celtic (3-4-1-2): Gould, Healy, Boyd, Mahe (Petrov, 52), McNamara, Johnson, Wieghorst (Rafael, 59), Lambert (Mjallby, 51), Berkovic (Blinker, 46), Viduka, Wright (Burchill, 72)
Goals: Wright(9), Healy (43), Viduka (69)
Referee: Dusseldorf coach
Attendance: 100
Articles
- Match Report
Fortuna favours the Celts
Scotland on Sunday 16/01/2000
ANDREW SMITH AT THE PANINA RESORT
Celtic3 Fortuna Dusseldorf0
CELTIC'S non-strip squad members decided to zip around Panina Golf Resort Hotel's football pitch on which their team-mates were using buggies of the kind that Bob Hope was regularly pictured in. An indication that what was happening on the pitch was of slight concern. Celtic's week-long break in the Algarve was undertaken for fitness purposes, coach John Barnes has told anyone who will listen.
And as such where a training exercise ended and a game of football began was difficult to ascertain yesterday. The encounter against the Germans on a field only a stone's throw away from one of the hotel's far more verdant golf courses was only one step up from what The Fast Show's Ron Manager would have described as "a jackets for goal posts" kick-about.
Not to say that the men in green and white did not put their backs into it or that some – Mark Viduka, predictably, and young defender Colin Healy, perhaps surprisingly.
Healy lined up in a back three comprising the returning Tom Boyd and Stephane Mahe and caught the eye. Not as much, though it was not his fault, as Barnes decided that this was the match in which he would give Brazilian Rafael his first action for Celtic.
Barnes gave the 4.8m buy from Gremio, who has attracted a media hoop-la mostly because of the scatological fascination with his surname Scheidt, almost half an hour after taking off Morten Wieghorst.
It was peculiar then to see him begin his new career without fanfare on a pitch surrounded by no more than 100 people. The defender, in common with every foreign Celtic signing, has drooled about the prospect of taking his bows in front of 60,000. Yesterday, in Portugal, he had to settle for one man clapping (Ian Wright) when he crossed the white line in Celtic colours for the first time.
Rafael certainly looked anything but match fit and during a melee near the close which ended with Jonathan Gould making a sharp block he was halfway up the pitch pecking his way back towards his box. His touch and composure seemed sound, though, and it is odd that there seems so many people taking a gloomy view of his arrival in Scotland.
We already heard how he'll hardly be unpacking his suitcase before being dragged half way around the world by the Brazilian national team for Nike-initiated friendlies and how the climate and culture will inhibit his integration. The surprise is that nobody has yet traced his half-Germanic bloodline to South American settler Martin Bormann. There is still time.
Anyone asked to spot the silky-skilled Brazilian towards the end of the tame tussle with the German Third Division side Fortuna Dusseldorf yesterday would have pointed to the hulking frame of Antipodean Viduka. A man who looks to have found contentment, as evidenced by the languid and easy way he drifts past opponents, his play is nothing short of delightful.
The few months spent playing with Henrik Larsson, though, would seem to have brought him to the realisation that being Celtic's star striker should not make you a one-man team. His interplay with Wright, in fact, combined to allow Celtic to open the scoring in nine minutes. Tommy Johnson, in a rare outing, whipped in a cross which Viduka teed up perfectly for the former Arsenal hero to fire into the net from close range.
Wright had started brightly, hitting a post, although Dusseldorf's Daniel Cartus was also to hit the woodwork with a free-kick midway through the first period. It didn't matter – nothing did – and neither was Viduka being flagged for offside after finishing with aplomb minutes before the break.
By the end of the 43rd minute it was 2-0 to Barnes' men with Healy nudging the ball over the line after a Wright cutback from the edge of the area.
The expected raft of substitutions came early in the second half with Regi Blinker, Johan Mjallby and Stilian Petrov being given a work out. But none made the impression of Healy, and he was again involved in Celtic's next goal, delivering a sumptuous through pass for Viduka to finish off by lofting the ball over the advancing Dusseldorf goalkeeper in 68 minutes.
There is certainly a togetherness about Celtic as the banter played out between director of football Kenny Dalglish, Barnes' and the players on the sidelines testified to. But it's easy to be relaxed sitting on garden chairs, even on a grey afternoon.