CELTIC 4 FC UTRECHT 2
MARTIN O’NEILL and his Celtic players completed a Dutch double to seal their place in tomorrow afternoon’s Europa League knock-out draw.
The Hoops swept aside FC Utrecht after storming into a three-goal lead inside 20 minutes to add their scalp to that of Feyenoord who were beaten 3-1 in Rotterdam in November.
Top scorer Benjamin Nygren got the show on the road in the sixth minute after some clever play from his team-mates in the lead-up.
Colby Donovan slipped a right-wing corner-kick to Callum McGregor and took the return before knocking the ball to Kieran Tierney racing in from the right.
The World Cup-bound left-back showed a superb touch as he dragged the ball to his right before whipping in an inviting cross to the near post and there was the prolific Swede to turn a close-range effort beyond Vasilis Barkas for his 14th goal of the season.
GOAL-DEN BHOY…Benjamin Nygren netted his 14th strike of the season.
It got even worse for the former Hoops keeper, the club’s most expensive No.1 in history at the £4.5million he cost from AEK Athens in the summer of 2020, when he presented the hosts with a second goal only four minutes later.
The netminder was woefully off target with a pass out of defence which was seized upon by the alert Nygren.
He zipped a low left-foot cross across the face of the goal and desperate defender Nick Viergever stretched to get in front of Daizen Maeda, but only succeeded in turning the ball into his own net.
The third goal arrived in the 19th minute from the penalty spot after a VAR intervention when Auston Trusty headed down in the box and the ball struck Dani de Wit on the hand.
Finnish referee Mohammad Al-Ehara checked on the monitor and returned to point to the spot. In truth, in looked harsh.
Arne Engels took full advantage to thrash an unstoppable drive high past the helpless Barkas.
The pace of the game dropped noticeably after that and some slack Celtic play allowed their opponents back into the contest.
Just a minute before the interval, De Wit received a pass 20 yards from goal and, despite three home players in the vicinity, the Utrecht midfielder was allowed to take a touch before sweeping a low drive past the stranded Kasper Schmeichel.
Only moments later, it took a superb full-length diving save from the Great Dane to turn away a netbound header from Niklas Vesterlund to prevent the Dutch from claiming a second.
However, there was nothing Schmeichel could do when the Dutch did score again in the 62nd minute to silence the home crowd.
POINTING THE WAY…Martin O’Neill offers assistance.
Some more incredibly slack play allowed their opponents to cut through them with Adrian Blake providing a killer finish with a devastating low drive from 25 yards that thundered beyond the stretching keeper.
Thankfully, the anxiety was eased four minutes later when Engels curled over a left-wing corner and Trusty rose the highest to bullet a header into the net with Barkas isolated by the flight of the ball.
In the 68th minute, O’Neill made his first changes when he took off the totally ineffective Sebastian Tounekti and put on James Forrest. At the same time, he re-introduced Kelechi Iheanacho to the action after a 10-game absence as he replaced Maeda.
Ten minutes later, Paulo Bernardo and Luke McCowan took over from Engels and James Forrest replaced Yang. Both of the departing players had been booked and O’Neill was making sure no further mishap befell the pair.
Tierney was also withdrawn one minute into stoppage-time with Dane Murray coming on to see out the final moments.
Now all eyes are on the draw which starts at noon tomorrow.
TEAM: Schmeichel; Donovan, Trusty, Scales, Tierney (sub: Murray 91); Engels (sub: Bernardo 78), McGregor, Nygren; Yang (sub: McCowan 78), Maeda (sub: Iheanacho 68), Tounekti (sub: Forrest 68).
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