EUROPA LEAGUE GROUP PHASE/Celtic 1 Rapid Vienna 1:CELTIC FAILED to gain closure on 25 years of hurt as they were held 1-1 by old foes Rapid Vienna in their Europa League clash at Parkhead.
The home side were shocked to lose a goal to Rapid striker Nikica Jelavic after only three minutes but recovered to level in the 20th minute through Scott McDonald.
However, the visitors were worth their point in a decent match between two evenly-matched sides.
Celtic find themselves bottom of Group C with one point after two games and face Hamburg at home later in the month but they would probably have swapped any possible success against the Germans for a win over Rapid.
After losing 3-1 in the first game in Vienna when the sides met in the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1984, Celtic were 3-0 up at home and in control when Rapid player Rudi Weinhofer collapsed to the ground, claiming to have been hit by a missile thrown from the terraces.
After originally fining both clubs, Uefa ordered a third game to be played after an appeal by the Austrian club. Current Rapid boss Peter Pacult scored the only goal of the match, which was played at Old Trafford, to take his side through to the next round.
Despite the almost hysterical hype in the lead-up to the game, however, Celtic Park was well short of its 60,000 capacity but those who turned up left the visiting side, including a couple of thousand Rapid fans, many of whom were bare-chested, in no doubt as to their feelings.
Uefa’s “Respect” campaign found no place among those supporters who displayed banners with words such as “We Still Hate Rapid”, “Unforgiven’, and ”Cheats, Liars, Conmen“. It added to an already rancorous atmosphere but the Viennese side responded with an early goal which stunned the home support.
After testing Artur Boruc with a decent header from 14 yards moments beforehand, Jelavic raced on to a pass from skipper Steffen Hofmann and rifled an angled shot past the Celtic goalkeeper and into the far corner of the net.
Rapid’s apparent desire to simply defend their lead was their downfall in the 20th minute when slack play allowed McDonald to level.
Andreas Dober’s careless pass to fellow defender Ragnvald Soma 30 yards from his goal was intercepted by the alert McDonald who raced through to arrow his low drive past Helge Payer from just inside the box. The Parkhead side piled forward in the closing stages looking for the winner but too often their passing was frantic rather than controlled and in the end they had to accept the point.
CELTIC: Boruc, Wilson, Caldwell, McManus, Daniel Fox, McGeady (McGinn 81), Brown, N’Guemo (Robson 81), Maloney (Killen 81), McDonald, Samaras. Subs not used: Zaluska, Crosas, Loovens, Caddis. Booked: N’Guemo.
RAPID VIENNA: Payer, Dober, Patocka, Soma, Katzer, Heikkinen, Pehlivan, Kavlak, Hoffmann, Boskovic (Drazan 63), Jelavic. Subs not used: Hedl, Thonhofer, Kulovits, Salihi, Eder, Konrad. Booked: Pehlivan, Kavlak.
Referee: Bruno M D Paixao (Portugal).
