Samaras and Robson help Celtic salvage pride

Published on Wednesday 2 December 2009 22:22

AT THE fifth time of asking, Tony Mowbray finally tasted victory in Europe at Parkhead last night.

As the Celtic manager had gloomily anticipated, it came too late to revive his team's hopes of reaching the last 32 of the Europa League.

This was a night when the vanquished took the spoils, Hapoel Tel-Aviv celebrating qualification from Group C despite going down to goals from Georgios Samaras and Barry Robson. Hamburg's win over Rapid Vienna in Germany sealed Celtic's fate and ensured their Israeli visitors would progress along with the Bundesliga side.

It reduces Celtic's assignment in the Austrian capital on 17 December to the status of a dead rubber. Mowbray's team at least climbed off the bottom of the group last night and reclaimed a modicum of pride in front of a half-empty stadium as they were formally eliminated from their third competition of the season, following exits from the Champions League and Co-operative Insurance Cup.

If the subdued atmosphere inside Celtic Park before kick-off certainly reflected the air of resignation exuded by Mowbray on the eve of the fixture, no-one could accuse the home players of being anything less than fully motivated for the task in hand.

They were bright and positive from the opening moments with Aiden McGeady and Scott McDonald typifying the eagerness which allowed them to take the game to Hapoel and certainly merited the first-half lead earned by Samaras.

With the Israelis effectively requiring only a point to assure themselves of a place in the last 32 of the tournament, their approach was understandably circumspect, although they did provide several indications of their counter-attacking threat.

While Celtic survived a couple of uncomfortable moments in and around their own penalty area, they generally controlled territory and possession. McDonald had the ball in the Hapoel net after just three minutes with the naked eye suggesting he was unfortunate to have his effort ruled offside after latching onto McGeady's piercing through pass.

The visitors had a penalty appeal turned down on their first significant foray upfield, Finnish referee Tony Asumaa informing Hapoel forward Etey Shechter to get back to his feet after he had been halted by Landry Nguemo's sliding challenge inside the box.

Celtic quickly regained the initiative and a slick move involving Andreas Hinkel and Marc Crosas culminated in McGeady dragging a low shot wide of the target from around 22 yards.

The Irish winger was the greatest source of concern for the Hapoel defence. McGeady had clearly been identified as such before the match by Eli Gutman, the Israeli coach deploying midfielder Zurab Menteshashvili to provide assistance to full-back Dani Bondarv in keeping tabs on him.

Despite the extra attention, McGeady was able to engineer plenty of promising openings. He linked up well with McDonald down the left before hitting the byline and cutting the ball back into the path of the Australian striker. McDonald was unable to get maximum power behind his shot, however, and Hapoel goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama made a fairly comfortable save.

Celtic were almost caught out at the other end when Hinkel conceded a free-kick with a foul on Shechter. Bebars Natcho took the set piece quickly, allowing Gil Vermouth to race free on the left side of the penalty area and square the ball for Shechter. Fortunately for the sleepy Celtic defence, the forward lofted his shot just over Lukasz Zaluska's crossbar.

Hapoel did not enjoy a similar outcome when they displayed a similar lack of alertness when Celtic took a quick free-kick just a minute later. McDonald, who had been fouled by Bondarv, fed the ball to McGeady on the left. With the Hapoel players backtracking, he chipped in an inviting cross which Samaras headed firmly past Enyeama from close range.

Having opened the scoring through the same player in Tel-Aviv in September, Celtic were aware they still had work ahead of them to secure three points. They pressed for a second goal before the interval but were frustrated. McGeady forced a decent save from Enyeama before Robson curled a free-kick off target. Mowbray's men came close again when McDonald dragged the ball wide of Enyeama and cut it back to Samaras. The Greek international flicked in a shot with the outside of his right boot, the ball striking Enyeama's left-hand post and rebounding to Robson whose follow up effort was blocked by Dedi Ben Dayan.

Confirmation that Hamburg and Rapid Vienna had reached half-time still goalless sparked at least a murmuring of hope among the Celtic supporters that the sequence of results required to keep their team in the qualification equation may yet pan out.

Those faint hopes dissipated, however, as news filtered through of the German top seeds forging their way into a 2-0 lead in the early stages of the second half. If it was possible for Celtic Park to become any more muted, it did so.

Celtic were also more subdued on the pitch. Hapoel made two changes at the start of the second half, replacing Menteshashvili and the anonymous Samuel Yeboah with Nemanja Vucicevic and Maaran Lala, scorers of their goals back on matchday one.

Gutman's team began pressing the ball far higher up the pitch, knocking Celtic out of their stride. The home side's play became gradually more ragged and it required a terrific tackle from Gary Caldwell to deny Shechter a clear scoring opportunity after he had beaten Hinkel with ease down the left to burst into the penalty area.

Zaluska, retaining his place in the starting line-up with the fit again Artur Boruc named among the substitutes, then had to make his first real save of the evening when he flicked out his right hand to touch a shot from the lively Shechter behind for a corner.

In the 63rd minute Mowbray sent on Marc-Antoine Fortune for Samaras. The substitute earned the free-kick from which Robson gave Celtic the breathing space of a 2-0 lead. Fortune was felled by Natcho 22 yards out and Robson curled a delicious left-foot shot around the Hapoel defensive wall and beyond Enyeama into the corner of the net.

Fortune and McDonald both missed glorious late chances to add to Celtic's lead, but it had long since become an exercise in futility for the home side.