Goals from Ambrose and Samaras see Celtic through

Celtic 2 Cliftonville 0 (Celtic win 5-0 on agg): Celtic eased through to their Champions League qualifying tie with an expectedly comfortable win over Northern Irish part-timers Cliftonville at Parkhead last night.

Goals from defender Efe Ambrose and forward Georgios Samaras made it 5-0 on aggregate and confirmed the Hoops will play Elfsborg in the next round after the Swedish side won 4-0 against Daugava in Latvia earlier in the day to progress 11-1 over the two legs.

Ambrose, who had cut short his delayed summer break for last week's first leg in Belfast when manager Neil Lennon found himself short of defenders, put Celtic ahead in the 16th minute when he headed in an Anthony Stokes cross after clever footwork from Mikael Lustig on the right.

As the procession towards the Reds goal continued in the first half James Forrest skimmed Conor Devlin’s bar with a right-footed drive in the 38th minute.

However, there was no addition to the score until the 70th minute when Samaras, who had scored last week in Belfast, made it 2-0 when he headed in a Kris Commons cross from close range.

Gary Hooper replaced Beram Kayal and hit the outside of the post with an overhead kick but the visitors held out to leave Glasgow with a respectable scoreline.

Elfsborg, well into their league season, will provide a tougher test for Celtic than Cliftonville whether or not Mo Bangura, on loan from the Hoops, plays against his parent club and that is the issue which will surround the tie until kick-off time at Parkhead next week.

Reds manager Tommy Breslin admitted the match was in reality a damage-limitation exercise for his part-time side but there appeared little they could do to prevent the home side turning the match into a game of attack versus defence in the early stages.

In the fourth minute visiting goalkeeper Devlin made a fine point-blank save from Samaras's header, following an inviting cross from Lustig. Devlin was again called into action to prevent Lustig's cross reaching Samaras but the goalkeeper had no chance with Ambrose's deadlock-breaking header.
CELTIC: Forster, Lustig, Wilson, Ambrose, Izaguirre, Forrest (Balde 76), Kayal (Rogic 65), Brown, Commons, Samaras, Stokes (Hooper 65). Subs Not Used: Zaluska, Watt, Mouyokolo, McGregor.
CLIFTONVILLE: Devlin, Cosgrove (O'Carroll 76), Marc Smyth, McGovern, Seydak, Caldwell (Curran 58), Catney, McMullan, Johnston, Garrett, Boyce (Gormley 85). Subs Not Used: Brown, Ronan Scannell, McNeill, Martin Donnelly.
Referee: Thorsten Kinhofer (Ger).