CELTIC REACHED THE group stages of the Champions League after a four year absence following a 2-0 win at home to Helsingborg on Wednesday that sealed a 4-0 aggregate qualifying round success.
A controversial first half effort from Gary Hooper and Victor Wanyama’s goal two minutes from time helped Scottish champions Celtic, the first British club to win the then European Cup back in 1967, to a place in Thursday’s draw after they were roared on to victory by their Parkhead faithful.
Already 2-0 up from the first leg in Sweden, the Glasgow giants’ 30th minute opener Wednesday saw them get a big break from the match officials.
Scott Brown shot from outside the box came to striker Georgios Samaras, whose pass along the edge of the six-yard area fell to a suspiciously offside-looking Gary Hooper, who tapped in from close range.
Hooper glanced nervously across to the linesman but, despite furious protests from the visitors, no flag was raised and the goal stood.But if there was an element of good fortune about the goal, it was no more than Celtic deserved for their attacking play.
Five minutes into the second half, Hoops keeper Fraser Forster, who made several important saves in the first leg, had to dive to his left to push a curling 25-yard free-kick from Jere Uronen round the post, with the home side surviving the ensuing corner.
At the other end, James Forrest struck a powerful shot against the post with impressive Helsinborgs keeper Par Hansson rooted to the spot.
Hansson then produced an excellent save from Brown to keep the Swedes in the match and, despite their side’s aggregate position, there was still an air of concern among the Celtic faithful.
But Neil Lennon’s men put the result beyond all doubt two minutes from time after an excellent double save by Hansson from Brown and substitute Tony Watt led to a corner.Kris Commons’s inswinging centre was met by Victor Wanyama, rising high in the middle of the six-yard box to head the ball beyond Hansson, who had a right to expect more from his defenders, and into the corner of the net.
Elsewhere tonight, Everton have cruised into the third round of the English League Cup with a 5-0 thumping of Leyton Orient, including four first-half goals.
Belgian winger Kevin Mirallas was the star for Everton with two goals, while Leon Osman, Victor Anichebe and Magaye Gueye also scored in the comfortable win.
Champions League results in full:
Lille (FRA) 2 (Digne 43, De Melo 105) FC Copenhagen (DEN) 0After extra time; Lille win 2-1 on aggregate
At Cluj-Napoca, Romania
CFR Cluj (ROM) 1 (Kapetanos 20) Basel (SUI) 0
CFR Cluj win 3-1 on aggregate
At Glasgow, Scotland
Celtic (SCO) 2 (Hooper 30, Wanyama 88) Helsingborg (SWE) 0
Celtic win 4-0 on aggregate
At Istanbul, Turkey
Fenerbahce (TUR) 1 (Sow 69) Spartak Moscow (RUS) 1 (Ari 6)
Spartak Moscow win 3-2 on aggregate
At Kiev
Dynamo Kiev (UKR) 1 (Ideye 88) Borussia Moenchengladbach (GER) 2 (Khacheridi 70-og, Arango 78)
Dynamo Kiev win 4-3 on aggregate
Played Tuesday:
At Udine, Italy
Udinese (ITA) 1 (Armero 25) Sporting Braga (POR) 1 (Ruben Micael 72)
2-2 on aggregate; Sporting Braga win 5-4 on penalties
At Ramat Gan, Israel
Hapoel Kiryat Shmona (ISR) 1 (Lencse 67) BATE Borisov (BLR) 1 (Pavlov 90+4)
BATE Borisov win 3-1 on aggregate
At Brussels
Anderlecht (BEL) 2 (Mbokani 81, Yakovenko 89) AEL Limassol (CYP) 0
Anderlecht win 3-2 on aggregate
At Maribor, Slovenia
Maribor (SLO) 0 Dinamo Zagreb (CRO) 1 (Tonel 12)
Dinamo Zagreb win 3-1 on aggregate
At Athens
Panathinaikos (GRE) 0 Malaga (ESP) 0
Malaga win 2-0 on aggregate
Fantastic result. Looking forward to watching it later.
Ruddock form 6 in ireland the past 6 months – he probably on form deserves to start v SA but wd be a big call from Schmidt.
Much like Munster winning there last year, shutting up those horrible, horrible Scottish fans was very sweet.
@Peter Brophy: They booed at literally everything
@John Boyle: I think they have a large contingent of Glasgow Rangers supporters ..Nuff said..
Super win!!
A great win. I can relax now and enjoy the rest of the weekend matches.
@Gary: I concur
It’s a mystery how Rhys Ruddock isn’t Ireland’s first-choice blindside flanker. At this stage, I think it might best if Peter O’Mahony and C.J. Stander got injured so Schmidt would have no option but to select Ruddock.
@beni gabor: what an odd thing to say
@beni gabor: I think Heaslip may have played his last international. Ruddock will definitely be involved in November internationals
@Darren Byrne: how does Heaslip come into this?
@Conor Paddington: as he has been the most consistent back row in the irish set up for years but being out injured means someone else will move in to the 23. Ruddock will definitely be involved. With the likes of Conan leavey jdv all playing so well its going to be hard enough getting back in to the leinster team regularly let alone the irish set up by the time of the 6 nations.
@beni gabor: awful thing to say. I’d rather they were fit and he had to make a choice across 6 or 7 fit world class backrows.
@Elma Phudd: There’s no way Ireland have 6 or 7 world class backrowers. Maybe two or three at a stretch. There are a lot of good players out there who could be brought into the fold and introduced to international rugby to see where they stand. Stander and O’Mahony are very limited players
@Darren Byrne: He should have played his last international years ago, as should Rob Kearney and we all know it.
@beni gabor: Jesus, I’m a Leinster fan, but can’t agree with them being limited. Christ You don’t get picked to lead the Lions in a test match by being average joe.
@Elma Phudd: Gatland realised the error of his ways and dumped O’Mahony out of the side in favour of an out-of-position Sam Warburton. O’Mahony’s line-out work is sometimes to the fore, and you’re glad he’s in the team. His game is unremarkable outside the line-out, so when that’s not a centrepoint of the game, he’s largely ineffective.
Stander isn’t nimble enough to wrong-foot tacklers, and his decision-making when it comes to choosing whether to pass or run is sometimes quite poor. He’s not a cerebral player.
I don’t mean like serious injuries. Just a dislocated shoulder or something like that to keep them away from the team and unable to corrupt Ireland’s play with their backward mindset
@newbie: yet I’m here 4 years. Must have been in my blind spot up to now! I’ll put him back there.
@Rochelle: Rubbish, just your usual Leinster hating vitriol Rochelle.
@beni gabor: You do realise Ruddock captained the last tour, yeah?
@Rochelle: One of our very best players in a successful Autumn internal series less than 12 months ago.
@David Supple: pure poison laced with incredible ignorance
@Paddy O’Brien: *International. Jaysus.
Lots if us might been happy to leave with a LBP but to come away with 5 is amazing. Great performerance despite the bad conditions.
Serious contenders. Outside of the back 3 maybe, their combinations could match almost any team in Europe at this stage. Add Seanie, Isa Ringrose and Heaslip (if he can get back in the line up) and there is a legitimate claim to knocking Sarries off their perch.
@Johnny 5: I’d say Saracens would beat Leinster easily
@Johnny 5: don’t forget Lowe is yet to arrive
@Matt F: Carberry FB, Nacewa on one wing (or one of the younger guys if the improve) and Lowe on the other is pretty décent I would have thought. Irish centre partnership, and best 10 in Europe. All in all a potentially excellent backline.
@Andrew Hurley: I wouldn’t like to see 2 NIQ players in the back 3 at the same time when we have loads of young talent there in Carbery, Byrne, OLaughlin, Larmour and Daly. Those 5 players could have big futures in the green jersey, so it would be poor form if their development was blocked
@Rudiger McMonihan: they’d develop a lot better if Leinster go on a serious run in both the pro 14 and Europe. A successful Leinster side will be good for all the young players. Have a team of 23 young Irish players getting beat is no good for anyone.
A good win masking a lot of weaknesses
Especially midfield,huge amount of missed tackles again, needs to addressed to proceed.
@Martin McKenna: A great win
@Martin McKenna: Ringrose will help leaps and bounds, don’t worry too much.
Hope Daly’s injury isn’t anything too serious. Have been enjoying watching him play.
@Ciara Baines: he reminds me of the old French wingers..
It’s possible a long trip back from SA affected Glasgow in the first two rounds, all that being said I thought we managed the conditions superbly, especially in the first half. Delighted for Cian Healy to get them tries. MOTM was never in doubt for Ruddock. Hopefully we’ll have Ringrose and Isa back for the Chief’s games and James Lowe bedded in, I think player management may well become a problem, making sure everyone gets game time!!
@David Lawlor: When is Lowe due in?
@Dave Murray: His team in the Mitre cup have proceeded on to the next round, so he could be a while yet.
10pts after only 2 games means Leinster will almost certainly go through to the knockouts. Last year you needed 16 and the year before that 19. It’s hard to see them not making up that difference. I think today’s weather really helped them given the superiority of their pack and the injuries of Byrne, OLaughlin, Ringrose and Nacewa
@Rudiger McMonihan: need to rack up the points as we saw going to France in the semi was very very tough. The more the merrier
Why use two words when you can use one. The eastern province is called Leinster!
@Reg: you’ve obviously never had much interest i writing…?
@Conor Paddington: I’m not reading a novel or some great work of literature, it’s a match report and I know where Leinster is!
@Reg: Don’t let something so trivial get to you so much, it can’t be good for you.
@Reg: not as annoying as the indo who only refer to Leinster and Munster as the blues and the reds.
Great win today and 10 points is excellent from their first two matches. I’d worry about the high amount of missed tackles though.
“Finn Russell dissected the posts from the tee” … there’s a howler I haven’t seen in a while! “Bisected” is cliche you were thinking of perhaps?