AMENDS TO THAT
Hoops win mind game to settle score that’s still sore
THERE were a couple of frights on the night and the occasional flashback to a Champions League horror story so fresh in the memory it still makes the blood run cold.
But no more than is to be expected when Celtic step under these lights.
In fact, if anything – from the moment Mohamed Elyounoussi doubled their lead with half an hour to spare – this became as close to a comfortable, routine European group victory as Scotland’s champions have experienced in a long time.
That it really ought to have been an entirely stress-free affair following Odsonne Edouard’s early opener is not the point. That Celtic became a little anxious the longer they waited on the second goal to arrive is perfectly understandable given the brutal nature of what happened here in August the last time Cluj came calling.
This one was always going to play tricks on the mind and the convincing manner with which Scotland’s champions settled the score may give manager Neil Lennon all the more reason to curse that catastrophic collapse in the qualifiers.
Most of all Lennon will be content with a job well done and a win that leaves his side sitting pretty at the top of Group E and eyeing an extended European run after all.
Lennon’s big call was to promote Elyounoussi into his starting line-up even though the £16million Norwegian was left on the bench last weekend as Jonny Hayes and Scott Sinclair came on in a bid to conjure up a winner at Hibs.
Yet here he was, running Celtic’s left flank on a night that offered no room for passengers nor errors of judgment.
With that in mind the night got off to a bad start when the notoriously hard of thinking corner of Celtic’s home support appeared to put on an organised pyrotechnic show as if they have not already tested UEFA’s patience on this matter once too often.
All of which seemed like a spectacularly stupid attempt to shoot themselves in the foot – and precisely what Lennon was looking for his players to avoid doing on the pitch.
No, after the mess they made of it last time out against the Romanians, what the manager needed was a competent, composed performance with mistakes kept to a minimum.
And it could have got off to a perfect start after only 10 minutes when big Christopher Jullien found himself on the end of two terrific chances.
First the towering Frenchman was picked out by Callum McGregor’s cross but his header was superbly turned round the post by Giedrius Arlauskis.
The corner was cleverly worked into the feet of Boli Bolingoli who pinged it straight back on to Jullien’s forehead. This time the defender’s effort squirted high and wide.
But Celtic’s intent had been stated nonetheless. Sharp all over the pitch, Lennon’s players snapped into action, hustling the away side out of their slick, counter-attacking stride – not giving them a second to breathe let alone plot a way over the halfway line.
Amid all this early intensity a breakthrough moment never felt that far away. When it did arrive in 20 minutes the only surprise was that it had taken quite this long to get here.
Cluj had only just survived by the skin of their teeth after Ryan Christie and James Forrest had combined quite brilliantly to carve their defences open.
But before they could regroup they were being carved open again, this time by a McGregor pass that was a
thing of beauty. Bolingoli raced to catch it at the byeline from where he stood a cross up into the six-yard box and Edouard provided the finish, guiding a header past Arlauskis who was left clawing at thin air.
Now this was pretty much the perfect opening for Lennon who punched the same air in delight.
Celtic’s manager was also able to puff out a huge sigh of relief soon after when Kevin Boli appeared to have bundled Cluj level after Fraser Forster had spilled a dangerous longrange free-kick from Mateo Susic that had come skidding towards him across a slippery surface.
But as Boli prepared to pounce a couple of yards from goal he was also being picked out by a linesman’s flag and his furious protests were waved away by the German officials.
In fact, ref Daniel Siebert made an even better call just before half-time when he booked Mario Rondon for launching into a blatant dive inside Celtic’s box in a desperate attempt to con his way to a penalty kick.
The Venezuelan got exactly what
he deserved, as did Celtic as they headed inside with their one-goal lead still intact.
That Cluj were starting to play their way into this one will have been Lennon’s chief concern at the break.
What he needed was to snuff this out with another high-tempo start to the second half. It didn’t happen.
Instead Jullien was booked for stopping another counter-attack in its tracks and when the Romanians did finally get up to the other end of the pitch, danger man Billel Omrani came close to smashing home an equaliser with a spectacular back-post volley.
Accordingly the anxiety levels were cranked up a notch. Celtic’s supporters had seen this movie before – and they didn’t much like it the first time around. It was all becoming horribly familiar and understandably edgy.
So what a time Elyounoussi picked to properly introduce himself to the proceedings after hanging about on the periphery of this contest pretty much since it began. It was almost on the stroke of the hour when he decided to step into the thick of it, tearing back across the halfway line to whip the ball off the toes of Omrani just as the striker was putting another raid together.
Elyounoussi dumped him on the seat of his pants before setting off in the other direction and sending Forrest on his way with a ball in behind the Cluj defence.
He didn’t stop there either. Rather, he kept on motoring to the edge of the box and when Forrest picked him out with a cut-back Elyounoussi let fly with a first-time shot which cannoned off the unfortunate Andrei Burca and into the net.
All at once Celtic had time and space to suck in a deep breath.
The final half-hour was as stress-free as any Celtic have gone through in recent years. If only these nights were always so straightforward.