Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton fired Celtic into the third round of the UEFA Cup tonight with a 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers in the so-called Battle of Britain. It was a commanding performance by the Scottish champions, who controlled the tie after winning the first leg 1-0.
Up against a side lying seventh in the Premiership and on their own patch, Martin O'Neill's side gave a performance that smacked of class and authority. One goal to the good from the first leg thanks to Larsson, they easily secured their passage into the third round.
Larsson took his tally to 21 for the season with the opener after 14 minutes. Sutton played the ball in and Craig Short slipped allowing Larsson the freedom he needed to clip the ball over goalkeeper Brad Friedel to warm the hearts of the huge travelling support.
Blackburn responded and David Thompson rattled the bar with a 25-yard free-kick after Lucas Neill's effort had been smothered by Douglas. Neill again advanced and got on the end of a mis-directed shot from David Dunn but Douglas was alert to the danger. Celtic were not content to sit on their lead and the away goal though and Stilian Petrov saw a shot go inches wide of the post following a short free-kick from Larsson.
Celtic began the second half in similar fashion with Larsson firing a viscous shot just wide. Blackburn meanwhile were finding it difficult to break Celtic's resolve and Andy Cole was wasteful when he latched on to a ball from second half substitute Keith Gillespie.
Souness then decided to switch things around up front bringing off the ineffective Dwight Yorke for Matt Jansen in the 64th minute, but it was the visitors who went 2-0 ahead on the night and 3-0 on aggregate in the 67th minute.
Sutton peeled away from his marker and got on the end of Petrov's corner to head home at the near post on his return to his former club and send the Celtic fans into raptures and signal an exodus from the stands for the home fans.
Afterwards a delighted Martin O'Neill said, "I was very, very pleased. It was a terrific win by us - but all the pressure was on us. Sometimes a wee bit of skill can be overlooked, but good players work. We took a lot of criticism from the first game - much of it was merited but a lot of it was not, I felt. We didn't play well enough and tonight we were determined to prove a point - and I think we did that."
Filed by Johnny Proby
