Dundee 0
Celtic 4
League (Premier League)

Match Report

Martin O'Neil will be first to admit Dundee's lively Latins provided a genuine dress rehearsal ahead of Celtic's Champions League opener in Turin on Tuesday.

Sure, the Scottish Champions won well in the end. But the scoreline was rather misleading.

If the Dens Park side had not demonstrated the flaws in the Southern European/South American temperament Celtic would have been hard pushed to win all three points.

In the first half especially, Dundee looked the better side by far and were unlucky to go in one down after Celtic scored in injury time.

However, with the three opening goals emanating from rashly conceded free-kicks, added to Walter del Rio being sent off 20 minutes from the end, the home side have only themselves to blame for losing so heavily in the end.

Full marks to Celtic, though, for displaying a ruthless streak without ever attaining their best form.

At the end of the day, they were afforded the luxury of being able to use 14 players without any injury scare in the knowledge they can play far better.

Just as most observers were agreed that Celtic would be fortunate to go in at half-time on level terms, the visitors took the lead deep in time added on.

Previously, Rab Douglas pulled off good saves from Nemsadze, Robertson and Rae.

Then, Marrocco conceded a needless foul on Sutton, Moravcik floated in a delightful free-kick from the right and Henrik Larsson timed his leap perfectly to out-jump everyone and head-glance the ball in at the far post.

Larsson's talented head put Celtic further ahead after Dundee had conceded another avoidable free-kick which led to a corner on the right.

From Thompson's in-swinging flag-kick, the Swede again got to the ball first to move Celtic towards Easy Street.

This was most definitely reached 20 minutes from the end when Stan Petrov crashed a 35-yard shot into Langfield's top-left corner, following a short free-kick from Larsson.

Then just before the end, teenager Shaun Maloney raced through on a Paul Lambert lay-off to stroke the ball into the net. By this time, del Rio was most probably in and out of the bath following his second yellow card for a second desperate challenge on Larsson.

Obviously, it's difficult to criticise Celtic after a 4-0 win at Dens Park.

However, they know they can't afford to allow Juventus to dictate Tuesday's game the way Dundee did in the first half. Douglas, Lambert and Larsson were their top performers here.

Yet again, Dundee entertained but failed to deliver. They certainly should have been ahead before Celtic scored but, in the end, they lost their discipline which proved fatal.

Romano and Nemsadze were Dundee's best. Apart from del Rio there were also yellow cards for Marrocco, Romano, Thompson and Valgaern.

Match report written by The Sunday Post