Celtic beat Artmedia Bratislava

Glasgow:

Glasgow Celtic slumped out despite a 4-0 home win in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League second qualifying round tie against Artmedia Bratislava. The Scottish side trailed 5-0 after a disastrous first leg of their qualifying round tie in Slovakia, the first match of new manager Gordon Strachan's reign. They knew that an aggregate defeat would cost the club nearly $17,728,000. 'The Bhoys' needed to win 5-0 just to force extra-time.

Important breakthrough They got the breakthrough they desperately needed after 22 minutes, as Mohamed Camara crossed for John Hartson to head the ball back across the box to Maciej Zurawski. His clever turn prompted Ondrej Debnar to clumsily pull him back and concede an obvious penalty. Spanish referee Alberto Mallenco awarded the spot-kick and booked Debnar before Alan Thompson scored confidently from the spot. The 1-0 scpre to Celtic became two on the stroke of half-time when Thompson did brilliantly as he chased back, won the ball in the tackle, and spread a crossfield ball to Ros Wallace. Brave stroke Wallace, in turn, bravely headed the ball into the path of Hartson. The Welsh international muscled his marker out of the way and blasted the ball past Juraj Cobej to double the lead after 45 minutes. Celtic Park started to believe that the impossible may happen and that belief intensified after 54 minutes when Thompson's inswinging cross was headed on by Bobo Balde before substitute Shaun Maloney steered the ball back on to the head of Steve McManus. His deflected header gave him a first goal on his European debut. The score was 3-0 and Celtic Park was a cauldron of noise. Missed opportunity Maloney missed two great chances and substitute Craig Beattie's header had ricocheted to safety off a post before the latter did get on the scoresheet with just eight minutes remaining. Camara did excellently as he won the ball in the tackle and sent a great deep cross on to the head Beattie and his bullet header gave Cobej no chance. It was 4-0 to Celtic after 82 minutes and the impossible dream was still possible. However, after three minutes of injury-time, Mallenco's whistle broke Celtic hearts and they were left to reflect on and rue missed chances and some abject defending in Slovakia last week. Strachan can take heart from the performance but it will be very costly exit from Europe. On the other hand, Artmedia Bratislava can look forward to facing either FK Partizan or FC Sheriff in round three of qualifying. (AP)