Celtic ahead against Parma

Celtic 1 Parma 0

There were substantially fewer supporters for Celtic’s game against Parma than had packed into Parkhead for Wednesday’s friendly against Ajax - but Martin O’Neill was clearly hoping that was down to season tickets being invalid rather than their recent dismal results.

Despite being tagged as a ‘glamour’ meeting between the two sides, many of Parma’s well-known names failed to make the squad and goalkeeper Claudio Taffarel and World Cup star Hidetoshi Nakata had to settle for places on the bench.

On a brighter note for O’Neill, he was able to welcome back both Joos Valgaeren and Stephen Crainey to a defence that has suffered badly through injury in recent games and that seemed to make all the difference.

Within 10 minutes of Wednesday night’s encounter, Celtic were already two goals behind but they produced a far more convincing display against the Italians in the early stages and took the lead after seven minutes.

Henrik Larsson squared the ball across the face of goal into the path of strike partner Chris Sutton, who produced a long, low shot to send the ball past goalkeeper Sebastien Frey.

The Hoops could have added to that tally after 16 minutes when Larsson met a Crainey corner only to nod over the crossbar from just six yards out.

If that was disappointing for the Swede, Frey’s save after 32 minutes must have been downright frustrating.

Neil Lennon took the ball into the 18-yard box before providing the cross for Larsson, who was ideally placed just a few yards from the goalmouth - his point-blank shot looked certain to hit the back of the net but he was left stunned when Frey produced an incredible save to deny Celtic a second goal.