Lovenkrands inflicts further final pain on Celtic

Celtic 1 Rangers

Peter Lovenkrands continued his love-affair with Hampden Park, as he again inflicted a cup final defeat upon Celtic with the decisive goal which kept Rangers' hands on the CIS Insurance Cup.

The Dane scored the winner in stoppage time here last May when Alex McLeish's team snatched the Scottish Cup from their great rivals, but yesterday supplied an equally dramatic denouement, though the pain remained the same for Celtic.

John Hartson, who had scored the winner in the previous weekend's Old Firm league encounter, missed the penalty that seemed certain to reward Celtic's second-half siege which threatened to wipe out the lead Claudio Caniggia and Lovenkrands had supplied in the first half.

To make matters worse, Hartson had already had a legitimate equaliser cancelled out when he was wrongly ruled offside. The Welsh striker was seen complaining bitterly to the referee Kenny Clark as the Rangers players celebrated their success after the final whistle.

Though Rangers won this trophy last season, this was a sweeter success. It gives them the first part of the Treble that Martin O'Neill's team were also pursuing, while it inficted both mental and physical wounds on their rivals ahead of Thursday's Uefa Cup quarter-final second leg with Liverpool.

Chris Sutton was carried off 10 minutes from the end with what proved to be a broken wrist after being caught in a collision with his team-mate Bobo Balde and the Rangers defender Lorenzo Amoruso. The former England striker is likely to be out for six weeks, while time will tell if the damage to Celtic's morale is merely superficial.

To rub salt into the wounds, Neil Lennon was sent off in the 87th minute, collecting two foolish cautions in the space of a few minutes for bodychecking Fernando Ricsken and Shota Arveladze.

Lovenkrands could not disguise his joy and his thoughts have already turned to a clean sweep of honours. "If we keep playing the football we did in the first half, no one will stop us," the goalscorer declared.

Certainly, his pace was the instrument which tortured Celtic in the first half. Before Rangers scored, he had already been denied a goal by the leg of Joos Valgaeren, who had scampered back to hook the ball off the line after Lovenkrands had beaten Balde and Robert Douglas and poked the ball over the pair.

Lovenkrands' menace produced the opening goal in the 23rd minute. Ronald de Boer threaded a sublime pass into the Dane's path and though Douglas parried his angled shot, the ball fell to Caniggia, whose right-foot finish from six yard was unerring.

Twelve minutes later, the blond Dane drove in the second goal. This time Michael Mols was the provider, almost from the same yard of turf as de Boer, allowing Lovenkrands to get in behind Johan Mjallby and steer a left-foot shot past Douglas.

Game over, or so we thought. Celtic had other ideas. The pedestrian approach of the first half was replaced by tigerish pressing after half-time.

Henrik Larsson halved the deficit in the 57th minute when he got to Alan Thompson's inswing corner and thumped a header into the roof of the net.

Five minutes later came the pivotal moment of the contest. Larsson pounced on a mistake by Mikel Arteta and drew Amoruso before supplying Hartson, who rifled home. The Welshman's celebrations were cut short by a linesman's flag, but television showed Craig Moore had played him onside.

However, Celtic's intense pressure would see Rangers would buckle one more time, though not before Lennon and Sutton left the pitch in different ways. Amoruso crudely brought down Balde in the last minute, Hartson stepped up but clipped the penalty wide of the post.

However, O'Neill declared later: "No one blames John for the penalty miss, but the offside goal was a big decision. John held his position so well. But I am as proud of this team in defeat as I have been in victory over the last three seasons. We'll bounce back."

Goals: Caniggia (23) 0-1; Lovenkrands (35) 0-2; Larsson (57) 1-2.

Celtic (3-5-2): Douglas; Mjallby (Petrov, 87), Balde, Valgaeren; Smith (Sylla, 65), Lambert, Lennon, Sutton (Maloney 80), Thompson; Larsson, Hartson. Substitutes not used: Marshall (gk), McNamara.

Rangers (4-3-3): Klos; Ricksen, Moore, Amoruso, Bonnissel (Ross ,64); De Boer (Arveladze, 85), Ferguson, Arteta (Konterman, 78); Caniggia, Mols, Lovenkrands. Substitutes not used: McCann, McGregor (GK).

Referee: K Clark.

Booked: Celtic: Thompson; Rangers: Amoruso (Rangers) Sent off: Celtic: Lennon.

Man of the match: Lovenkrands

Attendance: 50,054.