Miller's time comes for Celtic

LIAM MILLER inspired another scintillating European night for Martin O'Neill's men as they revived their Champions League campaign.

Celtic 3 Anderlecht 1

Having been beaten by the 10 men of Anderlecht in Brussels last month, manager O'Neill admitted that they would need to win to stop them looking to the UEFA Cup.

However, first-half goals from the Glasgow giants saw Henrik Larsson, Miller and Chris Sutton hit the net to put them back in the hunt for the knock-out stages and deny the hopes of the Belgian side, who grabbed a consolation from Dindane Aruna.

Martin O'Neill made just one change from the side which thrashed Kilmarnock 5-0 on Saturday with Didier Agathe replacing Michael Gray, who dropped to the bench, which meant youngster Liam Miller kept his place and faced arguably the biggest game of his career.

The home side's nerves were settled in the 12th minute when Henrik Larsson pounced for his first Group A goal.

Hartson this time did well to sweep the ball out wide to Agathe and he whipped a dangerous cross into the box for the Swede to glance his header past Daniel Zitka.

But that was only the start of it as just five minutes later Miller scored the second.

Another brilliant move was started by Jackie McNamara's long ball and again Hartson was the provider as he headed down into the path of the Irishman to fire low past Zitka.

The home side were threatening to kill off the Belgians by half-time and they carved out another good chance in the 25th minute.

Hartson did superbly well to brush off his marker and thread the ball through to the overlapping Miller, but his centre was too long for Larsson to capitalise upon.

Celtic continued to lay siege to the Anderlecht goal and Zitka pulled off an acrobatic save to tip Petrov's header over from Miller's cross.

However, there was nothing the goalkeeper could do to prevent his side from going further behind in the 19th minute with Sutton scoring his third goal in two matches.

Petrov's corner was flicked on by Hartson and the Englishman stooped to head into the back of the net.

Referee Kyros Vassaras then booked Sutton and Hartson for a foul on Aruna and handball respectively.

Walter Baseggio whistled a left-foot shot well wide in the 37th minute for the visitors and Miller should have done better in the 42nd minute but he mis-hit his shot and Larsson and Petrov were unable to take advantage.

Michal Zewlakow became the next player booked for a rash challenge on Larsson before Stanislav Varga fired a long-range shot just past the upright.

Miller broke through again before the break, but his cut-back was held by Zitka.

As expected, O'Neill elected to send the same 11 players out for the second half, but he knew that, barring a disastrous collapse, his side were already home and dry.

Celtic looked hungry for more goals as they charged forward relentlessly.

They still had to be careful in defence though and Aruna would have pulled a goal back had it not been for a double block by Bobo Balde and Hedman.

Miller was once again involved as Celtic came close in the 56th minute.

He played the ball to Sutton, who then passed it into the feet of Hartson and the Welshman turned and hit a low drive which Zitka saved at the second attempt.

Miller was given a standing ovation as he left the field with an injury in the 75th minute to be replaced by Gray.

Aruna won his side a consolation a minute later when he appeared to go down late following a clumsy challenge from Balde.

Hedman first saved Ivica Mornar's penalty and then kept out his rebound, but he could not stop Aruna's next effort from close range.

CELTIC: Hedman, Varga, Balde, McNamara, Agathe, Miller, Lennon, Sutton, Petrov, Hartson, Larsson.

ANDERLECHT: Zitka, Zewlakow, Tihinen, Kompany, Deschacht, Wilhelmsson, Hendrikx, Hasi, Baseggio, Dindane, Mornar.

Referee: Kyros Vassaras (Greece)