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Trivia
- Larsson scored his 28th goal of the season to dump Rangers out of the Scottish Cup, following a 52nd minute goal-mouth scramble. It was a disjointed game and both sides lacked cutting edge.
Review
Teams
Celtic:–
Douglas, McNamara, Balde, Varga, Valgaeren (Kennedy 85), Agathe, Lennon, Petrov, Pearson (Beattie 57, Sylla 90), Thompson, Larsson.
Subs Not Used:- Marshall, Lambert.
Booked:- Balde.
Rangers:-
Klos, Moore, Frank de Boer, Berg, Ricksen, Rae, Arteta (Ronald de Boer 36), Hughes (Thompson 66), Ball, Lovenkrands, Arveladze.
Subs Not Used:- McGregor, Khizanishvili, Ross.
Booked:- Ricksen, Klos.
Attendance:– 58,735.
Referee:– H Dallas (Scotland)
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
Lonely Larsson leaves Rangers to rue lack of home help
Graham Clark at Celtic Park
The Guardian, Monday 8 March 2004 02.02 GMT
The winter of discontent has turned into a spring of despair and disillusionment for Rangers, thanks largely to Celtic's contrasting progress from strength to strength. Martin O'Neill's team won a poor quarter-final yesterday to underline their ambitions of a treble, and now only the Uefa Cup appears in doubt.
Nothing, it seems, can stop Celtic in Scotland, but Barcelona will represent a rather more difficult hurdle when they visit Parkhead in the last 16 of the Uefa Cup on Thursday. Despite this merited victory, O'Neill has his fingers crossed that Chris Sutton will be available after injury, the English striker having been badly missed here as Henrik Larsson ploughed a lone furrow for most of a turgid afternoon.
Depleted as they were, Celtic still carved out more opportunities and when one fell to Larsson after 53 minutes he made no mistake. A corner from Alan Thompson, being watched by the England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, a header from Bobo Balde, a shot from Stephen Pearson blocked by Stefan Klos and there was the Swede to swivel and fire the ball home.
That 28th goal of a final memorable season for Larsson confirmed match No73 at Parkhead without defeat for Celtic and put them into the last four along with Dunfermline, Inverness Caley Thistle – who had famously won 3-1 at Parkhead against John Barnes's Celtic team in February 2000 and repeated the feat, 1-0 at home, against O'Neill's in last year's quarter-final – and either Livingston or Aberdeen.
Rangers, meanwhile, are left to rue a season bereft of silverware, but their manager Alex McLeish claimed he could see "light at the end of the tunnel" and said that but for a series of injuries the season would have been better.
"We haven't been able to gain momentum," he said. "I'm not saying we would be top of the league or in the next round of the cup, but we would have been better.
"Newcomers like Gavin Rae and Stevie Thompson, along with Stephen Hughes, have had interrupted seasons through injury and some of the foreign players have struggled to get to grips with the culture here. Although we are disappointed, I can take some positives from today."
McLeish's mention of all things Scottish was no coincidence. He wants more home-bred players in his squad and of his foreign legion it now seems Nuno Capucho, Emerson, Michael Mols, Paolo Vanoli and Christian Nerlinger will be going in the summer, though he said of Celtic: "Their team has been together effectively for three or four years and that shows. They are a powerful side."
There was precious little else to enthuse over as the two teams struggled to get to grips with the occasion. Celtic certainly did that better and created more. Stanislav Varga, Thompson, Larsson and the substitute Craig Beattie had decent efforts whereas Rangers' only genuine chance came in the dying seconds, when Rae shot wide, and their only effort that troubled Rab Douglas was a minute or two earlier, when the goalkeeper held Michael Ball's effort.
So the champions-elect march on. Their domestic supremacy this season is down to a continuity of selection which Rangers have never enjoyed. Douglas in goal, Balde and Varga in the middle of the defence, Lennon and Petrov in midfield and of course Larsson and usually Sutton up front have given them a steely core.
With Didier Agathe and Thompson supplying width, it has been a consistent and successful formula for O'Neill, who occasionally tinkers with systems – as he had to in this match – but seldom unnecessarily disturbs the personnel.
"We have a busy and tough schedule and I thought that showed even in the first half of this match when we were a bit laboured after our midweek European tie in Teplice," O'Neill said. "But it was a very important win which I felt we deserved, and now we can look forward to Barca."
He would, however, dearly love to have Sutton available for Thursday. "He's doubtful and if the game was now he couldn't play," he admitted. "He's a big player for us because he's having a wonderful season, but it's impossible to know at this stage if he'll be ready."
With John Hartson and Shaun Maloney also injured, O'Neill is down to the bare bones in attack but his side are so well organised that they can still expect to unsettle Frank Rijkaard's team in Thursday's first leg.