Historic victory for Celtic

Liverpool 0 Celtic 2 (Agg 1-3)

Martin O’Neill’s men hit back from their unfortunate CIS Insurance Cup final defeat to Rangers to became the first Scottish team to beat Liverpool with glorious strikes from Alan Thompson and weekend villain John Hartson.

Celtic defender Johan Mjallby was walking a tightrope from the fourth minute after being booked for crudely cutting down Michael Owen as he skipped away from the Swede on the left touchline.

Liverpool carved out the first good chance of the match in the 11th minute which Celtic were fortunate to survive.

Danny Murphy played Smicer through with a great defence-splitting pass. His shot across goal was missed by Robert Douglas, but Mjallby got in ahead of Owen to clear the danger.

O’Neill’s men responded positively and the Reds needed an over-elaborate dive from Jerzy Dudek to push away Henrik Larsson’s 23-yard free-kick from creeping inside the post.

But there would have been little the Liverpool goalkeeper could have done in the 21st minute as Hartson headed Paul Lambert’s free-kick just inches past the upright. Douglas also came to the rescue of Celtic a minute later when Hartson could only head John Arne Riise’s corner to Steven Gerrard and the England international let fly with a powerful 25-yard strike which Douglas did well to acrobatically turn behind for a corner.

Celtic were riding their luck at the back and they somehow survived again soon after.

The lightning-fast Owen raced away from Balde and his effort ricocheted to Heskey, who fired wide from close range. The Parkhead men were again let off the hook in the 26th minute as Heskey’s point-blank header from Riise’s corner hit Douglas on the line and the Celtic defence cleared. But Hartson should have given Celtic their much-needed away goal two minutes later when Larsson swung an inviting cross into the area and having peeled off his marker he headed wide with just Dudek to beat from eight yards out. Riise had shaken off an early injury, but he was floored again by Sylla in the 31st minute to earn the former St Johnstone man a yellow card. But the Ivory Coast player almost made amends in the 36th minute when he went on a surging run and struck a low right-foot shot which Dudek did well to push past the post.

But Celtic assumed control just a minute before the break when Thompson drilled a left-foot free-kick past a rooted Dudek after Larsson had been fouled by Djimi Traore.

Larsson could have silenced the home crowd again and given Celtic a cushion in the 49th minute.

Sylla picked the Swede out with a great cross-field ball, with Carragher caught ball-watching, but he failed to lob the advancing Dudek before he lashed the loose ball wide.

Houllier attempted to put more pressure on the Celtic defence as the clock ticked down and he decided it was time to throw on Igor Biscan for Smicer in the 56th minute.

The Czech looked an immediate danger, but he should have done better in the 62nd minute after being picked out in the box by Murphy. He took too much time and his eventual weak right-foot shot crawled into the hands of a thankful Douglas.

But Heskey frustrated the Liverpool fans further three minutes later when he was played through by Gerrard and had the chance to take the ball closer towards the goal, but instead slashed his left-foot shot wide.

The England striker was then cut down unceremoniously by Thompson, who became the next man booked.

The heads of the home players were beginning to go down as Carragher failed to pick out the run of Owen in the box before Douglas was booked for time-wasting. But Celtic suffered another injury blow in the 72nd minute when Lambert was forced to hobble off and was replaced by Jackie McNamara.

But the Hoops came within a whisker of scoring their second of the night and what surely would have been the killer goal just moments later.

Larsson peeled away from his marker to flick Petrov’s corner on target, but Dudek miraculously touched the ball onto the top of crossbar and over.

O’Neill, who had felt the wrath of UEFA with a touchline ban this season, was clearly getting anxious and he was spoken to by the fourth official.

But the Northern Irishman was celebrating wildly with 10 minutes to go as Larsson found Hartson and he made room for himself before drilling an unstoppable right-foot shot past the despairing dive of Dudek and into the top corner of the net.

LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Traore, Hyypia, Riise, Murphy, Hamann, Gerrard, Smicer, Heskey, Owen.

CELTIC: Douglas, Mjallby, Balde, Valgaeren, Sylla, Lennon, Lambert, Petrov, Thompson, Larsson, Hartson.

Referee: Markus Merk (Germany)