UEFA Cup Thursday February 20th

Celtic 3

VfB Stuttgart 0

0:1 Kuranyi (27); 1:1 Lambert (35); 2:1 Malloney (45); 3:1 Petrov (68)

Att:59,000

ref: Collina (Ita)

Celtic: Douglas; Valgaeren, Balde (Laursen 87), McNamara; Agathe, Lambert, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson (Smith 70); Sutton, Malloney

So here we are in the promised land. European football after Christmas. Tough opposition. Strongest team needed etc. Just the time for us to lose Larsson through injury, Hartson to suspension, and have to recall a half -fit Douglas.

The superstitious amongst us were slightly perturbed by the following coincidences; Felix Magathe was the opposition manager, and the ref. was the Italian Collina. The last time those two factors had been put together at Celtic Park was 1996, when Magath's HSV Hamburg ran out 2:0 winners. Happily this was to be a vastly different occasion.

It would be an easy way out to say that the sending off swung the game our way, and completely inaccurate. We were far from over-matched when both sides had eleven. Their midfield was certainly quicker than ours, but by and large we kept them contained. The one exception was on our right where Jackie McNamara was having a hell of a time.

They were reduced to ten men when Petrov was hacked to the ground when running through one on one with the goalie after some smart lead up play. Not only did they lose a man, but they subbed Jackie's main tormentor to bring on another defender. Stuttgart's reaction to going a man down was unusual; they tried to up the pace, presumably in the hope of leading us into something stupid. O'Neill resisted the temptation to hurl everything forward, but we were caught out by some ridiculously careless defending. Not only did the defenders stand off Balakov (Hello! Asking for it!), but Joos was sleeping as his man swept past him and headed that dreaded away goal.

That said, the way the players responded was nothing short of fantastic. Following the loss of Larsson the diary commented that it was stand up and be counted time in the Celtic dressing room. Well, every player wearing a Celtic jersey did themselves proud this evening. We could run through them here (Balde, Lambert, Sutton, Petrov, Lennon and the rest), but special mention must go to the man who looked to be on the verge of a nightmare of epic proportions; Agathe. He started terribly. Nothing would go for him, but after about 10 minutes he beat his man, and never looked back for the rest of the game. Running, tackling, taking on his man. Agathe played his part.

Our equaliser arrived on the half hour; Jackie crossed, Petrov chested the ball to Lambert, and he hit as good a shot as he ever has in his distinguished career.

Just before half time Thompson took the ball from Agathe and tried to find Sutton (who had the Stuttgart defence in all sorts of trouble). The ball was short, but the attempted clearance found only the nose of Shaun Maloney, and he cheerfully bundled the ball in to give us a half time lead.

Predictably, in the second half Stuttgart withdrew in an attempt to stifle the game. Basically their job was done, they had their away goal. If they could frustrate Celtic for 45 minutes the tie was probably in their favour. MON's tactic appeared to be to draw them out to the wings before hitting them right through the heart of their defence. It worked once. Having played the ball back and forth to the wing Lambert spotted Petrov's run through the middle. Stan appeared to have no option but to cut the ball back - then he had a quick look at the goalie's position and slotted the ball between him and the front post. A finish that Lubo would have been proud of! It capped Petrov's best game for months and here's hoping it signals a return to form.

The remainder of the game was played out in similar fashion, with Celtic trying to draw their opponents out, and despite some howls of anguish from the crowd we never threw everything at them, mindful of the hazards of conceding another goal.

Celtic took the same score to Basel and couldn't do anything with it. Without Larsson, and with a semi fit goalie we might struggle. But the memories of Basel still linger, and it would be nice to keep this Europe thing going.