Same stadium different problem. When Celtic visited HJK Helsinki in September 2000 the pitch was again under the spotlight in the run up to the match.
Three clubs were using the pitch at the Sonera Stadium with a recent Tina Turner concert turning both goalmouths into grass-less swamps.
‘Simply the worst’ was the predictable headline before the match with Martin O’Neill highlighting the issue as he previewed the game.
“We’ve been told Tina Turner played a concert here a couple of weeks ago and the platform had caused some problems,” the former Celtic boss explained. “But a UEFA delegate told us the pitch is OK and we’ll just get on with it.”
Johan Mjallby was in the Celtic side that also included Eyal Berkovic making a rare appearance in the early days of O’Neill’s reign. HJK scored two goals either side of half time through Paulus Roiha forcing the game into extra-time.
With a penalty shoot-out looming Chris Sutton snatched a goal three minutes from the end leaving the Finns needing two goals to go through.
At that time some competitions were using the golden goal which meant that a goal in extra-time ended the match but Celtic had to survive three nervy minutes to claim their place in the next round of the UEFA Cup while charging to the domestic treble.
After going through O’Neill said: “It was very hard, as I expected but I’m obviously pleased to be in the next round. I was not disappointed by the display because we could have scored a lot of goals and we had a lot of chances, but they just wouldn’t go in.
“If we had taken those chances it would have been a different matter.
“I was always confident we would go through because we were capable of scoring but of course sometimes you think it is not going to be your night, especially when their goalkeeper made some fantastic saves.”
CELTIC: Gould, Boyd (Riseth 20), Mjallby, Valgaeren; McNamara, Lambert, Petrov (Moravcik 91), Berkovic (Healy 69), Petta; Larsson, Sutton
SUBS: Kerr, Tebily, Agathe, Smith
GOAL: Sutton 117
CLICK HERE for McLeish uncomfortable in EBT spotlight
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