Celtic goal highlight of Miller's career

Celtic’s Liam Miller reflected on the highlight of his career after scoring his side’s opener in the 2-0 Champions League victory at home to Lyon.

The substitute, who had only been on the pitch for four second-half minutes, gave Celtic the lead with a header from Henrik Larsson’s cross before the Swede replicated the effort for Chris Sutton to make sure of the victory with a second.

“It has turned out to be a bit of luck for me,” said the Corkman.

“I was pleased with the goal but the main thing was that we got the three points tonight.

“There was good play down the left, Henrik managed to beat one or two and then swung it in and I was on the end of it.

“We had been unlucky up to then and I was quite pleased in the end. The team really dug deep today, it was a great team performance – but that is the highlight of my career so far.”

Earlier Alan Thompson had threatened to stall such a great night with more spot-kick torment.

The midfielder had a glorious chance to put Celtic on their way to their first points in Group A and erase the memory of their opening defeat to Bayern Munich but Gregory Coupet made a 40th-minute save.

Lyon were greeted by a daunting atmosphere but the noise did not faze them as the Frenchmen showed plenty of pace and guile on the attack to give Celtic plenty to worry about.

Celtic were screaming for a penalty in the seventh minute when John Hartson went down under an untidy challenge from Lyon captain Patrick Muller.

The Lyon defence looked vulnerable as Thompson picked out Henrik Larsson unmarked in the box, but he headed square when he should have hit the target from eight yards.

Muller was again involved in the 10th minute as Thompson let fly with a left-foot shot from the edge of the box, but the Swiss defender deflected the effort over the crossbar while Sutton pulled his right-foot shot over from 10 yards.

Hartson had the visitors in trouble again with a cross from the byline which eventually came to Larsson, but he failed to muster the power to beat Coupet.

But after soaking up the pressure Lyon would have gone ahead against the run of play had it not been for Magnus Hedman in the 22nd minute.

Vikash Dhorasoo picked out Giovane Elber with a ball over the top and his header looked to be spinning inside the post, but Hedman scurried back to turn the ball around the post.

The Parkhead fans went silent for a moment again in the 34th minute when Elber went down after colliding with Stanislav Varga and Bobo Balde, but the referee gave nothing.

Eduardo Iturralde, however, did point to the spot just five minutes before half-time and Celtic who had the perfect opportunity to strike.

Anthony Reveillere was adjudged to have clipped Larsson in the box, although television replays suggested otherwise.

However, Thompson watched in horror as his shot was kept out by Coupet.

Hartson responded by whistling a right-foot shot just wide after a persistent run into the box.

Later Petrov cut through the Lyon defence, but should have done better with his cross with Hartson waiting and the visitors cleared the danger.

Coupet again came to the rescue of his team-mates on the hour when he pushed Larsson’s powerful right-foot volley away from goal.

O’Neill made his first change in the 64th minute by sending on Liam Miller for Hartson and just six minutes later the substitute sparked wild celebrations.

Larsson got away in the box and chipped the ball into the danger area where Corkman Miller had taken up a great position to head down and out of the goalkeeper’s reach.

Celtic refused to sit back and that paid off in the 78th minute when Sutton stooped at the back post to head Larsson’s cross past Coupet and into the corner.

The English striker almost made it three with six minutes remaining when he headed Petrov’s corner into the sidenetting at the near post.