Mowbray and Celtic left with mountain to climb

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Celtic 0, Dinamo Moscow 1TONY MOWBRAY can only hope a new era brings an end to a miserable record. Celtic's recent away form in European competition is so bad that the sanity of even their most fanatical followers should be questioned before they board charter flights from Glasgow airport for such games.

The added trouble on this occasion is that the club have never returned an aggregate victory from a competitive tie against continental opposition having lost the first leg. In blunt terms, Mowbray and his players have a mountain to climb on Wednesday.

Alexandr Kokorin’s seventh minute goal handed Mowbray an inauspicious competitive opening to his career as the Celtic manager. The only surprise thereafter was that more goals did not arrive in a match which was at times gripping.

For Mowbray, reaching the final qualifying round at the expense of a team who are midway through their Russian league season is now a meagre aspiration.

Both halves of the Old Firm are aware of the troubles associated with meeting teams who have started their domestic season in this qualifying stage. A year ago, Rangers bounced out of Europe after an embarrassing reverse at the hands of Lithuanian outfit FBK Kaunas but it was an encounter in 2005 which may have handed Mowbray added trepidation ahead of this match.

Gordon Strachan’s Celtic tenure opened with a 5-0 humbling, after all, in Slovakia against Artmedia Bratislava. Strachan soon discovered that the subsequent elimination from Europe inflicted a slight on his reputation which a section of the Celtic support would never see past.

The home fans had been in vocal mood at kick-off as the Mowbray regime began in earnest. Expectation, though, soon regressed into abject concern. Andreas Hinkel had spoken on Tuesday of his close friendship with Alexander Kerzhakov from the pair’s time as team-mates at Sevilla. Yet that served as no excuse for the Celtic full-back, who handed Kerzhakov time and space to supply a low cross from the right flank. Kokorin, from six yards, slotted underneath Artur Boruc.

Celtic, who had not conceded a single goal in their pre-season campaign, were instantly shaky and clearly rattled. Aiden McGeady came the closest to a swift respite but even that is stretching grammar; the winger firing five yards over the Dinamo crossbar from long range.

It took 22 minutes for the visiting goalkeeper to make a meaningful touch on the ball, Marc-Antoine Fortune testing Vladimir Gabulov from close range.

Fortune’s profligacy on that occasion was nothing compared to his 27th-minute attempt, when the €4.4 million signing from Nancy inexplicably missed the ball completely. Shaun Maloney had provided him with the opportunity, just three yards from goal, with the majority of Celtic Park already on their feet to hail a hitherto unlikely restoration of parity.

Scott McDonald came within a despairing goal-line clearance of securing an equaliser within 90 seconds of the restart as the hosts displayed renewed vigour. The conduit for the revival was Landry N’Guemo, who has joined Celtic on loan from Nancy, with the midfielder both able to break down Dinamo’s brisk counter-attacks and supply his own front line.

Mowbray was correct to sense his troubles were in that forward area. He withdrew McDonald and the hapless Fortune, Georgios Samaras and Chris Killen handed half an hour to impress their new manager and wrestle any kind of momentum back before the trip to Russia.

Worryingly for Mowbray, the man he had spoken about in such glowing terms on the eve of this match, McGeady, was proving a peripheral figure. Samaras was to prove the fall guy, heading straight at Gabulov from close range. Dinamo returned to their pragmatic best thereafter to see out the night and deservedly maintain their clean sheet.

CELTIC:Boruc; Hinkel, Caldwell, Loovens, Naylor; McGeady, NGuemo, Donati (Fox 67), Maloney; Fortune (Samaras 60), McDonald (Killen 60). Subs not used:Zaluska, Crosas, Flood, O'Dea.

DINAMO MOSCOW:Gabulov; Kowalczyk, Fernandez, Kolodin, Granat; D Kombarov, Svezhov, Wilkshire, K Kombarov; Kerzhakov, Kokorin (Smolov 74). Subs not used:Denisov, Shunin, Tansijevic, Dimidko, Ropotan.

Referee:Nicola Rizzoli (Italy).

Guardian Service