Hartson missed several chances |
Celtic have left themselves with a mountain to climb in Portugal after being held at home. But they went from mediocrity to magnificence against both Blackburn and Liverpool so they are more than capable of doing it.
Their best form has been away from home throughout the competition and certainly with the Boavista goalkeeper Ricardo you have always got a chance.
He was all over the place at times.
Celtic produced a superb response after going behind to an own goal that was a bit of mix up between the keeper and the defender.
It was a great composed finish by Henrik Larsson and the perfect answer.
At that stage it looked like we were going to get a real surge from the home side and to a certain extent we did.
I was full of praise for John Hartson against Liverpool in the earlier round and before the match but he missed four decent chances.
Celtic were lucky to get the penalty. There is no way that you can say the defender meant to handball it - it just came up and hit him.
Then we saw the best of the goalkeeper. It is true to say that it was at a good height for him but it was still a good save - he gambled, went the right way and made the save.
And it could prove to be a crucial miss for Martin O'Neill's side.
They have a lot to do but like I said they have done it before.
On that performance you would say they are in big, big trouble.
But I thought the same when they played Blackburn at Celtic Park and when Liverpool went there and played them off the park.
They definitely keep their better performances for away from home in Europe.
They will have to play a lot better than they did on Thursday to go through, but they can go to Portugal in two weeks knowing they can do it.
MMIX
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