2009-07-24: Celtic 5-0 Al Ahly, Wembley Cup

Match Pictures | Matches: 2009 – 2010 | 2009-2010 Pictures

Trivia

  • Wembley Cup Tournament
  • Competition of two matches for each team: Celtic, Al Ahly (Egypt), Tottenham Hotspurs (England) & reigning European Cup champions Barcelona (Spain).
  • Spurs 1-1 Barcelona in other game in first round.
  • Debut for new signing Danny Fox.
  • Celtic top of the group in this game.
  • Celtic became the first Scottish side to play in the new Wembley.

Review

A bit of turn for the books. Al Ahly were pronounced as the African dream of the Century previously and one of their players was stated as the Egyptian Zidane. Somehow how that wasn't on show today and they were pathetically poor, and Celtic ran riot as soon as we got the match by the scruff of the neck. Even after a batch of substitutions in the second half for Celtic, this didn't dampen our hold.

Great goals by the revitalised Donati, Maloney and Skippy steered us to an unexpectedly easy victory, whilst Killen bagged one into the bargain also. Al Ahly were nowhere in the game but had a few chances, but Boruc was excellent and pulled off some good saves.

Hopefully we can beat Spurs in the next game.

Teams

CELTIC (4-4-2)
Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell (O'Dea, 46), Loovens, Naylor; Maloney (Fox, 74), Donati (Crosas, 65), N'Guemo (Flood, 65), McGeady (Mizuno, 74), McDonald (Killen, 65), Fortune.
Non-Used Subs: Zaluska, Samaras, McCourt, Caddis, Ferry.
Goals:Donati 31; McDonald (pen) 39; Maloney 49; McDonald 58; Killen 83

AL AHLY (4-4-2)
Hameed; Ali, Gomaa, Samir, Gilberto; Eno (Shebeta, 74), Ashour, Treka (Hosny, 69), Forkey (El Egezy, 58); Moawad (Hassan, 46), Faty.
Subs: Moneim, Saleh, El Sayed, Shebeta, Farouk, Yasser, Belal, Sedeek, Al Belkasy
COACH: Hossam El Badry

Referee: Lee Probert
Assistant referees: David Bryan, Andy Newbold
Fourth Official: Keith Hill
Attendance:

Articles

  • Match Report

Pictures

KStreet

Articles

Wembley cup: Celtic warm up for Dinamo Moscow in style with 5-0 win over Al Ahly
Daily Telegraph

Should Tony Mowbray need any reminding of the importance of Celtic's Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Moscow on Wednesday, he need only pick up the telephone and speak to his predecessor Gordon Strachan.

Despite four highly successful years as manager, Strachan faced a strange battle to win acceptance from some supporters after his reign began with a 5-0 European defeat against Artmedia Bratislava. He later joked that, on his gravestone, he would like the following words carved: "This is better than that night in Bratislava."
A 5-0 scoreline was in Celtic's favour on Friday night and, with the serious business having now almost arrived, it was of little surprise that Mowbray should treat the Wembley Cup friendly against the Egyptian champions Al Ahly with the utmost importance.

Landry N'Guemo and Marc-Antoine Fortune, two of Mowbray's new additions this summer, both started, while Daniel Fox, who was only signed on Friday from Coventry, was among the substitutes.
True, the Egyptians offered strictly limited resistance but Mowbray could draw encouragement from the ease with which Celtic kept possession as well as the quality of their finishing. Within minutes Celtic were acquainted with the Wembley woodwork as Scott McDonald, Shaun Maloney and Glen Loovens were all quickly denied by the narrowest of margins.
Al Ahly found McDonald particularly difficult to suppress, although it was Massimo Donati who took advantage of several failed clearances to glide through the African club champion's defence and comfortably take the ball around goalkeeper Amir Abdel Hameed for the first goal.
McDonald then put Celtic two goals clear with a penalty after being brought down by Hameed. The second-half brought three more goals; two of a particularly high quality. First Maloney turned and shot accurately beyond Hameed from the edge of the penalty area before McDonald produced an exquisite curling effort into the top corner. The rout was completed in the 83rd minute by Chris Killen.
Fox will now be in immediate contention to start the match against Dinamo on Wednesday. "He won't be too far away – he looked very eloquent with the ball and has a cultured left foot," said Mowbray.
Celtic, who also became the first Scottish club to play at Wembley, conclude their pre-season on Saturday against Tottenham, whose manager Harry Redknapp has said that he would now like to see Scotland's two leading clubs join the English league.
"I think it's a real possibility, people used to talk about travel but that's not a problem any more," said Redknapp. "We fly everywhere now anyway. I think they would bring an awful lot to the league, they are massive clubs with great support.
"It's where they start. They would probably have to start in the Championship so how you would work all that out I wouldn't be sure. It's got to happen sooner or later, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't happen."
Redknapp also admitted that Tottenham are interested in the former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira.
"Patrick was someone I was interested in but I'm not sure where that's gone – it's not developed," he said.

Landry N'Guemo and Marc-Antoine Fortune, two of Mowbray's new additions this summer, both started, while Daniel Fox, who was only signed on Friday from Coventry, was among the substitutes.
True, the Egyptians offered strictly limited resistance but Mowbray could draw encouragement from the ease with which Celtic kept possession as well as the quality of their finishing. Within minutes Celtic were acquainted with the Wembley woodwork as Scott McDonald, Shaun Maloney and Glen Loovens were all quickly denied by the narrowest of margins.
Al Ahly found McDonald particularly difficult to suppress, although it was Massimo Donati who took advantage of several failed clearances to glide through the African club champion's defence and comfortably take the ball around goalkeeper Amir Abdel Hameed for the first goal.
McDonald then put Celtic two goals clear with a penalty after being brought down by Hameed. The second-half brought three more goals; two of a particularly high quality. First Maloney turned and shot accurately beyond Hameed from the edge of the penalty area before McDonald produced an exquisite curling effort into the top corner. The rout was completed in the 83rd minute by Chris Killen.
Fox will now be in immediate contention to start the match against Dinamo on Wednesday. "He won't be too far away – he looked very eloquent with the ball and has a cultured left foot," said Mowbray.
Celtic, who also became the first Scottish club to play at Wembley, conclude their pre-season on Saturday against Tottenham, whose manager Harry Redknapp has said that he would now like to see Scotland's two leading clubs join the English league.
"I think it's a real possibility, people used to talk about travel but that's not a problem any more," said Redknapp. "We fly everywhere now anyway. I think they would bring an awful lot to the league, they are massive clubs with great support.
"It's where they start. They would probably have to start in the Championship so how you would work all that out I wouldn't be sure. It's got to happen sooner or later, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't happen."
Redknapp also admitted that Tottenham are interested in the former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira.
"Patrick was someone I was interested in but I'm not sure where that's gone – it's not developed," he said.