Celtic's quest to continue their impressive introduction to the Champions League continues against Porto tonight without Chris Sutton. The English striker missed Saturday's 2-1 win over Motherwell with a virus and has failed to recover in time to travel to Portugal.
In his absence John Hartson, still seeking a first Celtic goal, will have a chance to stake his claim for an extended sequence of first-team games, albeit in pressurised circumstances.
Martin O'Neill's side will play the 18-times Portuguese champions and last season's quarter-finalists still needing to prove themselves amid ongoing scepticism from some sectors, something that continues to irritate the manager.
At a time when Celtic's position on top of Group E has sent reverberations throughout Europe, O'Neill has been stung by the accusation that his side have been fortunate to reach such a lofty tier.
"A notion has grown that we are not playing well," he complained yesterday. There has been a misconception about our home matches. Quite frankly, I don't give it any credence at all."
The air of scepticism to which O'Neill refers stems from the fact that Celtic have finished nervously, as if grateful to hear the final whistle, in their 1-0 defeats of Porto and Rosenborg at Parkhead.
"There is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. The truth is that Rosenborg have got players of top-class ability and plenty of experience, yet they didn't cause us a problem until the last 15 minutes," countered O'Neill.
"We were splendid in the first half against Porto and it was inevitable that a side of such class would come back at us late on. In my opinion, considering this is only our third game at this level for quite some time, to have won our two home games and have six points has been a commendable effort."
Their efforts to reach the second phase have certainly not gone unnoticed across the continent. A Bola, Portugal's leading sports daily, described them earlier this week as "the team of the tournament so far".
PORTO (Probable): Ovchinnikov; Ibarra, Silva, Andrade, Carvalho, Costinha, Paredes, Sousa, Cruz, Capucho, Pena.
CELTIC: (Probable): Douglas, Mjallby, Balde, Valgaeran; Agathe, Lambert, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson; Larsson, Hartson.
Referee: R Temmink (Netherlands)
