Celtic are through to the semi finals of the UEFA Cup after defeating Liverpool 2-0 at Anfield tonight. Martin O'Neill's men hit back from their unfortunate CIS Insurance Cup final defeat to Rangers to became the first Scottish team to beat Liverpool with glorious strikes from Alan Thompson and weekend villain John Hartson to secure a 3-1 aggregate victory.
Celtic got the all-important breakthrough just before half time when a 25 yard free kick from Alan Thompson found it’s way under the Liverpool wall and past Jerzy Dudek in the Liverpool goal. Liverpool for their part were ineffective throughout and until the second half substitution of Milan Baros for Vladimir Smicer never looked like scoring.
Baros did give the Martin O’Neill cause for concern with some excellent runs but the Northern Irishman was celebrating wildly with 10 minutes to go as Larsson found Hartson and he made room for himself before drilling an unstoppable right-foot shot past the despairing dive of Dudek and into the top corner of the net.
Liverpool will have to make do with the Worthington Cup while O'Neill's men will now be confident of going all the way to Seville and a possible treble.
Elsewhere, two goals in the first nine minutes ensured Lazio eased through their away leg against Besiktas on a 3-1 aggregate scoreline. Stefano Fiore and Lucas Castroman with the goals.
Vanderlei Derlei scored twice to pave Porto's path into the last four at the expense of Panathinaikos. Trailing to an away goal, the Portuguese side travelled to Greece at a disadvantage, which was wiped out by Derlei's 16th-minute opener. That took the game into extra-time where a second from the Brazilian secured the win for the men from the Douro.
Filed by Johnny Proby
