SINCLAIR DOUBLE MAKES IT SO EASY
Only headaches have been off the pitch as Celtic breeze through
BY the end of a mis-matched contest Linfield were left facing a sober truth. A bottle thrown from the Windsor Park stand did more to upset Celtic’s rhythm over two games than the champions of Northern Ireland could manage where it actually mattered.
The Parkhead side advanced to the third qualifying round of the Champions League, following a surplus of aggro and security headaches off the pitch. On the field, Linfield were less of a nuisance.
Rosenborg visit Glasgow next Wednesday after overcoming Irish League side Dundalk after extra-time. Celtic can expect a sterner test from the Norwegians than they encountered during a comfortable 6-0 aggregate triumph over part-time opposition.
The outcome all but secure after an ill-tempered 2-0 first-leg win on Friday night, the home side took the lead within four minutes and Scott Sinclair’s early strike raised expectations of a turkey shoot.
Give Linfield this much. David Healy’s side were as dogged and organised as the full-time opposition who routinely turn up in Glasgow’s east end to be routed.
Celtic were wasteful in front of goal in the first half and on chances alone the Parkhead side could have racked up a hefty aggregate scoreline. But Linfield avoided the annihiliation Healy feared.
They scored plenty in the end, goals from Tom Rogic and another strike from Sinclair early in the second half creating a game so one-sided Scotland’s champions could have declared after an hour. Stuart Armstrong’s late finish added further gloss.
By then it was all becoming a little too much for some amongst the thousand or so Linfield travelling support. Pockets of ill-feeling springing up as police and stewards intervened.
Mercifully, there was nothing to match the bottles and missiles of Friday’s highly charged first leg in Belfast, an episode likely to prove costly for both clubs when a UEFA disciplinary panel convenes in Switzerland today.
A calf strain denied Brendan Rodgers the services of Leigh Griffiths and, even if he recovers, the Scotland striker could be banned for next week’s home leg against Rosenborg.
Nights like this, when chances came and went and the margin was still comfortable, suggest Celtic can cope. Nevertheless, they’d rather have him there.
UEFA have charged Griffiths with improper conduct after the Scotland international tied a Celtic scarf around a Windsor Park upright on Friday night.
DESPITE some ridiculous treatment from some idiots in the Linfield support, the needless gesture threatens to deprive the Parkhead side of a natural finisher against Rosenborg.
Make no mistake, Griffiths would have gobbled up some of the opportunities passed up here.
Celtic didn’t need him to win the tie as it turned out.
Neither did the benching of Armstrong — in what some will naturally construe (wrongly according to Brendan Rodgers) as a message towards Celtic’s contract rebel from his manager — disrupt the home side’s dominance.
New £4.5million signing Olivier Ntcham made a swift impact before being replaced by Armstrong in 66 minutes. The substitute made a point of his own, ramming a loose ball high into the net for 4-0 in stoppage-time.
Not before the man he replaced played a part in the opening goal, a controlled low shot from the edge of the area ricocheting off the foot of defender Mark Stafford and falling kindly for Sinclair to hammer another nail into Linfield’s limited ambitions with an angled shot from six yards.
This game part of the season ticket package, a packed Celtic Park had the feel of the Christians taunting lions.
There’s no love lost between the two sets of supporters for multiple reasons and it wasn’t enough for the home team to win. Linfield had to be seen to suffer.
That looked more likely than not after Sinclair added to his goal in Belfast by thumping Celtic into the lead.
But Linfield, in their Rangers blue, set themselves up to deny Rodgers and his team as best they could.
There was no pretence of retrieving the tie after a 2-0 defeat at Windsor Park; it was all about damage limitation.
Outstanding in the first game, the veteran keeper Roy Carroll denied the home side a second goal in 20 minutes, reacting quickly to parry a Moussa Dembele bullet header from a Sinclair corner.
Dembele didn’t look himself here. He skipped free of the high Linfield line later in the half; one on one with Carroll he looked odds-on to score, but flicked a feeble, non-committal effort across the face of goal. In the first half at least, that was Celtic all over.
Rogic got his goal in the end, but it took time.
The Australian had three terrific chances in a first half when a definite pattern developed. He could be forgiven the first, a low, left-foot shot from 20 yards which skidded inches wide.
A far easier chance at the end of the opening period was trickier to excuse, a loose ball in a crowded area slotted wide from eight yards.
The atonement came 90 seconds into the second half, a fizzing, low trademark shot from 25 yards swinging away from the despairing dive of Carroll to nestle in the corner of the net for 2-0.
The third came in 54 minutes, bearing marked similarities to the first.
It came, once more, for Sinclair. Again, an unfortunate break off a Linfield defender — Andrew Mitchell this time — produced the sniff the Englishman needed to thrash the ball high into the net from close range.
There was a run-out for another new signing in Kundai Benyu. The signing from Ipswich has exceeded expectations, impressing Rodgers enough to reach the first-team fringes sooner than expected.
Yet Armstrong, benched from the start, would not be denied the spotlight, rounding off the scoring as the board went up for stoppage-time, an emphatic sidefoot finish into the top corner accurately reflecting the level of Celtic dominance.