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  • Dynamo Moskow 2-0 Glasgow Celtic: Samaras sends Celtic through

    Celtic's Champions League dream is still alive after Tony Mowbray's Bhoys overturned a first-leg deficit to send Dinamo Moscow spinning out of the competition.

    Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras scored at the end of each half to clinch a 2-0 win on the night and a 2-1 aggregate success.

    The victory takes Celtic through to the final round of qualifying and within touching distance of the promised land of the Champions League group stages.

    If Celtic's plan was to silence the crowd in the opening exchanges, they executed it to perfection as the midfield pairing of Massimo Donati and Landry N'Guemo snapped into the tackles and the back four gave Alexander Kerzhakov no space in which to operate in.

    Dinamo seemed content to sit in and the Russians caused Artur Boruc no alarm in the opening half-hour.



    Celtic were far more positive than their hosts and Aiden McGeady was particularly bright down the right flank, although the end product was lacking as the balls into the box were poor.

    A minute before half-time, Andreas Hinkel showed McGeady, Daniel Fox and Shaun Maloney exactly how to deliver a ball into the box with a sumptuous cross which created the opening goal.

    McDonald had been starved of service for 44 minutes, but he proved his class as he pulled away from his marker to find a yard of space and head beyond Vladimir Gabulov.

    The goal sparked Dinamo into life and they came within a whisker of levelling the scores seconds before interval, as Hinkel was forced to hack Dmitri Khokhlov's low drive from 10 yards off the line.

    Dinamo failed to make the electric start to the second half that was expected and it took a sloppy piece of play from Hinkel to hand them a chance. The German let the ball slip under his foot, and Dmitri Kombarov strode onto the ball but flashed a shot a foot wide of target.

    The chance appeared to rouse Dinamo as the Kombarov brothers combined to almost open up Celtic. Dmitri whipped in a corner that was headed goalwards by Kirill but Hinkel was on hand to clear on the line for the second time in the match.

    The Dinamo onslaught failed to materialise and Maloney had a chance to win the tie in the 90th minute when burrowing into the box, but he shot straight at the keeper.

    Maloney still had his head in his hands when Samaras popped up to send Celtic's small band of travelling supporters into raptures.

    The Greek had only been on the field for 10 minutes but was attuned to the pace of the game as he gathered the ball in the box, worked his way across the area before steering a low shot into the corner to register his first goal in European competition for the club and see Celtic overturn a European first-leg deficit away from home for the first time.
    Alex Livie / Eurosport

    Source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/05082009/58/champions-league-samaras-sends-celtic.html

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