Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Moravcik double cheers O'Neill

Chris Roberts
Friday 11 August 2000 00:00 BST
Comments

The Swedish striker Henrik Larsson did much to heal heal the emotional scars of his horrific broken leg in Lyon last year with a goal to help Celtic comfortably brush aside opposition from Luxembourg on his return to European club competition.

The Swedish striker Henrik Larsson did much to heal heal the emotional scars of his horrific broken leg in Lyon last year with a goal to help Celtic comfortably brush aside opposition from Luxembourg on his return to European club competition.

Last October he broke down in agony in the second round of the Uefa Cup with a career-threatening injury, but he has come back to star for his country at Euro 2000 and for Celtic in their early league games.

Larsson announced his return to the big stage last night with Celtic's third goal after the Slovakian playmaker Lubomir Moravcik had struck two impressive goals.

Moravcik and Bobby Petta had something to celebrate with their first starts of the season. The Dutchman Petta hit the final goal to put Celtic in charge of this Uefa Cup qualifying round tie. Chris Sutton also had a good game and showed signs of developing a genuine understanding with Larsson.

Celtic had to wait 36 minutes for the first goal. Larsson slid the ball into the path of the on-rushing Moravcik inside the penalty area and he calmly slotted the ball past John van Rijswijck in the home goal.

The overworked goalkeeper could do little to prevent Celtic adding a second in the 58th minute, when Sutton played a well-weighted ball between two defenders into the path of Moravcik, who fired emphatically into the bottom corner.

Three minutes later Sutton and Larsson combined on the edge of the area and the Swede controlled the ball with his right foot before placing it past Van Rijswijck with his left. Petta added a fine solo goal in the 81st minute to conclude the scoring.

Jeunesse Esch: Van Rijswijck, Lamborelle, Thill, Schaack, Schauls, Wagner (Meylender, 72), Borbiconi, Scuto, Kurtz (Nies, 65), Amodio, Bekil. Substitutes not used: Logenin, Laruall, Dillmann, Müller, Sabotic.

Celtic: Gould, Mahé, McNamara (Healy, 62), Valgaeren, Larsson (Johnson, 62), Sutton, Lambert, Petta, Mjallby, Riseth, Moravcik. Substitutes not used: Kerr, Berkovic, Sheilds, Tébily, Burchill.

Referee: G Kasnaferis (Greece).

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in