Celtic 1-1 Rapid Vienna
Celtic's Scott McDonald: a fine equaliser
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By Darren Plant. |  |
Thursday, 01, Oct 2009 09:50
By James Christie.
Celtic's grudge Europa League Group C game with Rapid Vienna ended with honours even after an entertaining match which was largely dominated by the Scottish side.
The Glasgow club are still without a win in this year's competition having lost their opening game 2-1 and had extra motivation to defeat their Austrian opponents tonight.
It was 25 years ago that Celtic were denied a victory against the same opponents when they were ordered to replay the second leg of a Cup Winner's Cup tie after a Rapid player was allegedly hit by a missile thrown from the crowd.
The replayed game was won 1-0 by Vienna after a goal from the Austrian side's current manager Peter Pacult.
Pacult's men, whose every early touch was booed by the Celtic Park crowd, went a goal up in the third minute.
Celtic captain Stephen McManus conceded possession in his own half and could only watch in horror as a short pass released Vienna's Nikica Jelavic. The striker needed no second invitation to fire the ball past goalkeeper Artur Boruc.
An equaliser arrived in the 20th minute after Scott McDonald showed his speed and accuracy to win a hotly-competed chase for the ball and shoot into the net from a difficult angle.
The goal provoked some Rapid responses - the pick of which was a long-range effort from danger man Steffen Hoffman which only just cleared Boruc's bar.
McDonald nearly bagged his second goal of the evening just after the interval when his shot was cleared off the line during a frantic goalmouth scramble.
Celtic were by now enjoying the better of the high-tempo action, a curling Danny Fox shot, which was parried away for a corner, typifying their spirit of adventure.
Rapid were having to rely on some unintentional deflections from the referee to launch counter attacks during their rare moments of possession.
A Jelavic header from a corner nine minutes from time nearly gave Vienna the three points. Given the Bhoys' second half dominance it would have been a 1984-style injustice.