The Europa League match between Celtic and Rapid Vienna at Parkhead on Thursday Oct 1, 2009.
Peace in our time was the outcome at Celtic Park on Thursday night as the SPL leaders and the Austrian champions contested an absorbing Europa League tie which was pleasingly shorn of the rancour which disfigured the last meetings of these sides in 1984.
There were, mind you, events that neither team will wish to recollect, but they fell into the category of defensive mistakes, each of which cost a goal, first from a Stephen McManus error and l! ater from an equally culpable blunder by Andreas Dober.
Tony Mowbray, the Celtic manager, had admitted beforehand that he was still "tinkering'' with his central defensive partnerships and on this occasion he opted for the pairing of Gary Caldwell and McManus, to the chagrin, one must imagine, of Glenn Loovens, who found himself demoted to the bench.
Aiden McGeady, having recovered from the injury sustained against Falkirk eight days previously, resumed his beat on the right of midfield, but there was no place for Paddy McCourt, despite his recent mercurial contributions, as Shaun Maloney occupied the left flank.
As for the issue that dominated the build-up to this tie, the ill-tempered meetings between these sides in the Cup-Winners' Cup 25 years ago, the match programme carried a comparativ! ely sanitised account under the headline, "That was then, t! his is n ow". Celtic were certainly introduced to present day realities with a vengeance before their supporters' introductory choruses had died away.
Although they had been warned that careless attempts to pass through the Rapid ranks would trigger dangerous counter-attacks, Mowbray's players found themselves speared in exactly such fashion. They were doubly cautioned by Nikica Jelavic's first touch, almost from the kick-off, a header which although planted straight into the arms of Artur Boruc, demonstrated that the Croatian forward had found his range.
Within three minutes McManus played exactly such an aimless pass into the congested area ahead of him and his shortage of pace was exposed when the ball was pinged straight back into the path of the dangerous Jelavic, who strode past the centre back to drill a vicious drive beyond Boruc.
This constituted a numbing start for Celtic and triggered a raucous reaction from the R! apid fans – including a claque who had inveigled their way into the Parkhead press box – and it took Celtic a good 10 minutes to bed themselves into the contest, in which respect Landry N'Guemo and Scott Brown were prominent in asserting the Hoops' presence in midfield.
Symmetry was achieved when Rapid conceded the equaliser with the same profligacy that had undone Celtic. In this instance, Andreas Dober misjudged his distance with a poor ball played back towards his goalkeeper.
It fell short and Scott McDonald pounced on the errant pass but, with three opponents between him and the goal, he still had the hardest work to undertake. This he accomplished with a swift jink and stride into the box where he struck a potent drive across Helge Payer and inside the far post.
Now the Celtic fans made themselves heard without interruption and the players responded by hitting a steady, probing rhythm while remaining wary of Rapi! d's ability to administer the sucker punch. Still, Boruc was r! equired to produce a top class reflex save to tip a free-kick from the Vienna captain, Steffen Hofmann, over his crossbar four minutes before the break.
There was time before the break for McManus to come close to redeeming his initial error when he met a McGeady cross with a full blooded header that only narrowly failed to find its mark.
The restart saw Celtic impose themselves in a fashion that rolled Rapid back upon their own lines and come agonisingly close to taking the lead when Maloney broke through with only Payer to beat but drove against the goalkeeper.
Even then, McDonald believed he had netted the rebound only to be thwarted by a fine goal line clearance by Ragnvald Soma. Another gilt edged opportunity was missed by Caldwell when he came upfield for a corner which fell nicely for him 10 yards out, but he stabbed his shot off target when it looked simpler to net.
Rapid inevitably came back into contenti! on as the match wore on but the proceedings developed into deadlock which was a reasonably reflection of the balance of play. Equally to the point was the fact that the evening passed off without untoward incident, a mercy by no means to be considered small.
