Henrik Larsson's early second-half gave Celtic a slender 1-0 lead to take to Spain's Celta Vigo in a fortnight's time following a night of controversial refereeing decisions at Parkhead. The Swede struck after 52 minutes of a tense encounter in which Celtic manager Martin O'Neill was shown the red card for protesting a series of poor decisions by French referee Claude Colunbo.
Celtic have not survived beyond Christmas in any European competition in 23 years but they will fancy their chances of ending that dismal run after dominating for long periods against the Spanish high-flyers. After a frustrating first-half for the home side, Larsson broke the deadlock seven minutes after the break, latching on to a John Hartson flick-on from Steve Guppy's corner to head home from close range.
The margin could easily have been more comfortable for Celtic. A series of chances went begging in the first-half and Hartson had a good penalty shout turned down in the 66th minute after he appeared to be tripped inside the area by Sebastian Mendez after a good exchange of passes with Chris Sutton. But after making it five wins out of five in the UEFA Cup this season, Martin O'Neill's side will head for Spain confident of completing the job.
Celtic had been given a pre-match lift with influential midfielder Stilian Petrov managing to join the starting line-up despite still suffering from the face wound that required 15 stitches following a horrific collision with Marvin Andrews at Livingston on Sunday. But they almost fell behind inside the first 30 seconds. Joos Valgaeren lost the ball and Catanha seized it before feeding Silvinho down the left channel. The Brazilian looked up and pulled the ball across goal to Gustavo Lopez, but his low first-time effort was well saved by 'keeper Rab Douglas at the second attempt.
Celtic hit back almost immediately with Petrov firing just past the upright from 25 yards to ignite the huge home crowd. Celta Vigo goalkeeper Jose Pinto then had to race from his area to stop Hartson from getting on the end of a Larsson lob. The Parkhead faithful were convinced Pinto had handled outside his area but referee Colunbo was deaf to their claims. A minute later, Celtic came agonisingly close to taking the lead when Larsson got on the end of Didier Agathe's cross. The Swede's effort was pushed out by Pinto and the ball ricocheted off Guppy and flew over the crossbar from five yards.
Agathe squandered another glorious chance after Pinto flapped at a Guppy cross. The ball landed at the feet of the winger but he slashed his right-foot shot over from inside the box. Larsson finally brought the Celtic fans some relief but they could yet rue their failure to make more of the chances they enjoyed this evening.
Filed by Shane Murray
