[mikbhoy]

On This Day - 21st November – 1998

Today, as part of our occasional 'On This Day' series, we look back eleven years to the classic Glasgow derby match at Celtic Park which saw Dr Josef Venglos's side produce a footballing masterclass as they thumped the Huns 5-1. Lubo Moravcik, winding down his career at MSV Duisburg just two weeks before, exploded onto the scene with two magnificent goals and Johann Mjallby said of his first team debut: "I thought I knew about it all - then the game started. For the first 10 minutes, I was really shit-scared. I mean it. I didn't want the ball anywhere near me and when it did come to me I felt my touch was terrible. The noise around the place was incredible. I'd never experienced anything like it. After that start, though, I really began to enjoy it and, of course, we won 5-1. That game will live with me forever."

The following report is from 'Scotland on Sunday'......

A Tonic for Doctor Jo

Scotland on Sunday 22/11/1998
Celtic 5 Rangers 1

AMID the cataract of verbiage and blether on the Old Firm, no-one suggested this. Celtic bludgeoned Rangers, in the scoreline at least, although there was grace and artistry in this exhibition of their football, especially from Lubomir Moravcik, a little Slovakian whose arrival at this club two weeks ago was greeted with quiet sniggering. That kind of scorn, which was wrapped in ignorance, met a muzzling effect yesterday.

Celtic scored astutely after 11 minutes, a moment which charged the game with raw passion given that the home side were such underdogs, but Rangers were wrecked by a peculiar folly, highlighted in their shambolic defending. The visitors, in particular, were grossly vulnerable to the high ball, allowing two of Celtic's scorers, Moravcik and Henrik Larsson, to hurt them with headers from within congested penalty areas. Rangers' greatest sin, though, was the sending-off of Scott Wilson after 21 minutes, for a clean hack on Moravcik.

Celtic's movements were knitted together by this little player and the cerebral Larsson. Moravcik opened the scoring with a velvety punch from his left boot, but as the match wore on, and he intermittently hogged the left touchline and then the midfield, there wasn't a Rangers player capable of shackling his mind or feet. In one delicious pirouette he made a knot of Sergio Porrini, dancing with the ball between his ankles and feinting this way and that. For all his hours of football played with the old Czechoslovakia, this will surely remain one of Moravcik's special moments.

Plenty doubts were uttered prior to kick-off about these alleged bungles of Jozef Venglos, relegating Mark Burchill to the bench in order to play Moravcik as an attacker. With this game, and this result, and these goals, one had to say, the old coach knows a bit about footballing wisdom. This was a rich vindication and redemption for Venglos, after weeks of scorn and demeaning comment in our media.

This sophisticated and civilised man stood on the touchline at the finish, shaking the hands of both sets of players and allowing himself a punch of delight in the air. After months of toil with Celtic, he has abruptly foisted upon Rangers their worst Old Firm defeat in 32 years. You wouldn't guess from his comments, though, that Venglos knows anything about hubris or triumphalism. "Do you think I don't know about Moravcik's qualities, after 73 international caps and his games in World Cups and European Championships under me?" asked Venglos. "He is a very good player with lots of skill and awareness. But I thought my whole team showed great spirit and passion for the game."

The atmosphere caused convulsions in the blood but it was still impossible to diagnose Wilson's mad lunge after 21 minutes. His team were already a goal adrift, and Moravcik was fully ten yards within his own half, but the way Wilson threw his studs at this little Slovakian made you guess at some darker agenda which had doubtless brewed from the start. Wilson, red-carded by Willie Young, certainly trooped off shame-faced, while Dick Advocaat's prancing around the dugout didn't do a lot for any calm.

This Dutch trainer of Rangers is both an impressive coach and human being but you wonder if he needs a bazooka-fill of Valium before occasions like these. Advocaat here produced the foot-stomping antics of a desperate, writhing man. By contrast, the gentle Venglos absorbed all this like the old sage that he is, at one point even drifting down the tunnel behind his dugout with a wry smile. The game, however, with its bristling incidents and rancorous audience, was enough to stir the dead.

It was flung to a higher plane of noise and anticipation by Moravcik's stunning goal for Celtic as early as that 11th minute. And even this wasn't without controversy: only 20 seconds earlier, Alan Stubbs had appeared to be remarkably clumsy in challenging Rod Wallace in the penalty area, a scramble that left the striker in a pile on the turf. Rangers - led by their fiery general in the dugout -made roasting complaints about this.

But Celtic hardly flinched. Almost in the same instant, the game was swept to the other end, and Phil O'Donnell's cross from the left cut a tantalising pass across the Rangers area. When Larsson dummied the ball, it bobbled sweetly before Moravcik. The finish was exquisite: a lashing left-foot shot, cutting up and across the ball, giving it a venomous spin which left Antti Niemi clawing at air. The match simply took on a frenzy, seeming to rain down goals from a Celtic side so disparaged and ridiculed in recent weeks. ????: http://www.MonTheHoops.co.uk The Only Member Moderated Celtic Forum http://www.monthehoops.co.uk/showthread.php?p=364831

When Rangers attempted to assert themselves, the Celtic goalkeeper, Tony Warner, was obdurate. Warner clutched an Andrei Kanchelskis drive, spooned a Stephan Guivarc'h free-kick around a post, and once Rangers were sworded by Wilson's sending-off, the flames of their aggression simply subsided. Nothing deterred Celtic - as the match progressed, and Moravcik took up squirreling positions here and there, their numerical supremacy turned into a parade.

In the 49th minute, Moravcik's free header from Tom Boyd's cross evaded Niemi once more. Three minutes later, Larsson's run and shot for Celtic's third was typical intelligence from this Swede, as he coursed through onto Simon Donnelly's pass, dragged the ball beyond Colin Hendry, and clipped his shot over Niemi.

Celtic nailed this contest with their fourth goal, and third inside seven minutes, in the 56th minute, Larsson burying a header from Phil O'Donnell's cross. Burchill, arriving as a substitute, made it five with a low drive right on the 90th minute. Giovani Van Bronckhorst's free-kick, which cannoned off Warner's post and into the net, was almost an irrelevant goal for Rangers after 54 minutes.

Celtic: Warner, Boyd, Mahe, Stubbs, Larsson, O'Donnell, Donnelly (Hannah 79), Lambert, Moravcik (Burchill 82), Riseth, Mjallby. Subs Not Used: Brattbakk, Annoni, McCondichie.

Booked: Stubbs.

Goals: Moravcik 11, 49, Larsson 51, 57, Burchill 89.

Rangers: Niemi, Porrini, Numan, B. Ferguson (I. Ferguson 74), Kanchelskis (Vidmar 61), Van Bronckhorst, Albertz (Durie 61), Guivarc'h, Wallace, Wilson, Hendry.

Subs Not Used: Nicholson, Brown.

Sent Off: Wilson (22).

Booked: Numan, Hendry.

Goals: Van Bronckhorst 53.

Att: 59,703

Ref: W Young (Clarkston).