Cornered Gordon helps out Celtic

Patrick Glenn
Sunday November 5, 2006
The Observer

Celtic maintained their record of single-goal victories after each of their midweek exertions in the Champions League, but it was the wastefulness of Hearts that was the most significant factor in denying them a victory that would at least have slowed the champions' march towards another title.

Having spurned a number of opportunities and finally led through Andrius Velicka, the visitors' concentration lapses at corners allowed the home side to come from behind with impossibly late goals from substitute Jiri Jarosik and the Hearts goalkeeper Craig Gordon.

Article continues
That it should take almost 19 minutes to produce the first authentic scoring attempt was an indicator of the suffocating crowdedness of a match in which due care and attention appeared to be the prime motivational factors.

By placing the defensively minded Marius Zaliukas in front of a back four who lacked nothing in height and strength, Eduard Malofeev, Hearts' temporary head coach, adopted a belt-and-braces strategy designed to frustrate a Celtic side whose self-belief had taken a battering in the 3-0 defeat inflicted by Benfica in Lisbon in midweek.

And, after Shunsuke Nakamura had made that first attempt, a left-foot drive hit straight at Gordon, it was the Edinburgh side who should have established an advantage as their tactics began to have the effect planned by their coach.

Indeed, they squandered two glorious chances within a few seconds as their intelligently crafted breaks through midfield left the home defence looking vulnerable.

Velicka began the first move with a precise chip forward to Saulius Mikoliunas that left the Lithuania forward clear through the inside-left channel. He skipped past the challenging Paul Telfer, but hesitated before releasing the shot and, by the time he did, he was being crowded as reinforcements arrived. His drive was not far enough to the left of Artur Boruc, allowing the goalkeeper to dive and push the ball wide.

Boruc had hardly regained his feet when Deividas Cesnauskis was released down the right and, without a challenge, cut the ball back to Velicka. Boruc having rushed to his near post, the goal was unprotected, but Velicka miscued his shot so grotesquely that the ball, screwing out to the left, did not even reach the dead-ball line.

If Celtic enjoyed the bulk of the possession in the second half, it was, by and large, in a non-threatening way. Hearts, on the other hand, once again created opportunities that should have been converted and, by the time Velicka did give them the lead, nobody could have been surprised.

A pass from Nakamura to Neil Lennon was left short, allowing Bruno Aguiar to take possession and feed the ball through to Velicka. He carried the ball to the edge of the penalty area as Stephen McManus, inadvisedly, hung back from a challenge. Allowed a clear look at goal, Velicka finished impeccably by rolling the right-foot shot away to Boruc's right.

Gordon Strachan had already summoned Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink from the bench, the tall, muscular striker replacing the relatively lightweight Maciej Zurawski. But, apart from a mis-timed header that betrayed his rustiness after a lengthy absence through injury, the Dutchman was rarely seen.

Kenny Miller, too, was given feasible opportunities by crosses from Telfer on the right and Aiden McGeady on the left, but, in both cases, he hurried the headers high and wide. It was not until after Jarosik replaced Evander Sno that the home side finally equalised, from a set piece.

Nakamura's corner from the left dropped virtually on the six-yard line, allowing the tall Czech to step in, simply lean forward and send the header low to the left of Gordon.

Nakamura's next corner, in the last few seconds of the fifth minute of stoppage time, created a scramble in which Gordon first blocked the ball with his feet and then, rushing back to catch, pushed it over the line with his outstretched hands.

Taken from the Guardian/Observer