LIAM SCALES rose like a salmon. Vladimir Weiss took the bait like one. 6 Liam Scales scored Celtic's opener and they never looked back Credit: Kenny Ramsay 6 Slovan captain Vladimir Weiss was a big disappointment Credit: Reuters 6 The ex-Rangers winger was roundly jeered by his old rivals' fans Credit: PA 6 He was booked for an off the ball kick at Arne Engels Credit: TNT Sports One man going above and beyond for the cause.
The other leaving his mates floundering. It’s 13 years and five months since the bullet-headed Weiss last kicked a ball for Rangers . Yet he charged out the tunnel here as if he’d just been pinned to the wall for a pep talk from John Brown and Barry Ferguson .
The Parkhead hordes saw the snarl on his face and their bared their teeth back. Read More Celtic stories DIRECT HIT Moment bird POOS on BBC presenter's head live on air during Celtic vs Slovan MAN BYS Celtic players' ratings after five-star show kicks off Champions League in style They didn’t just boo his every touch, they booed every time he THOUGHT about taking a touch. It’s times these, in atmospheres like these, when real leaders puff their chests out and go to war .
Weiss? Three times in the first five minutes he went to ground, nipping needlessly at the ankles of men half-a-yard too quick for him. He was biting on every taunt, every finger an opponent shoved in his face. Most read in Football IN HARM'S WAY Shock moment Gers hero Hamza Igamane is dragged away from heated flashpoint CELTIC 5 SLOVAN 1 Hoops secure biggest EVER Champions League win in dream Euro start 'SO LOVED' Tragedy as footballer, 24, dies as Oxford United lead heartbreaking tributes PLAN B Brighton owner Tony Bloom should invest in Rangers not Hearts insists radio pundit At 34 and a veteran of both club and international football , Weiss really should have known better.
Fifteen minutes in, he overplayed right in front of the Green Brigade and gave away the corner that led to a second which led to Scales bulleting the opening goal. Can Hearts overtake Rangers with the help of Tony Bloom's £10m investment? Within another 90 seconds or so, he was in the book for taking an off-the-ball boot at Arne Engels , an act of idiocy that could easily have sent him off. And which, if he wasn’t Slovan’s captain and his dad hadn’t been the coach, might have seen him given the hook for the team’s good.
And just to put the tin hat on a first half when he took muddled thinking to levels even Boris Johnson would have tutted at, he missed a massive chance to pull his team level completely against the run of play. When that opportunity presented itself, and for reason only he knows, Weiss opted not to shoot when clean through, cutting back in onto his right foot instead and running straight into a green-and-white traffic jam. With a calm head and the wisdom that so much experience brings, Weiss could have been the lightning conductor that absorbed the venom raining down from the stands and allowed those around him the freedom to play.
He might have been the distraction that allowed the rest to sneak up on Celtic . Instead, he tried to make it all about himself and it backfired spectacularly. By the time his number was up with 15 to go, the Celtic support rose as one in mock applause.
His dad gave him a hug and a handshake. He looked like he needed a good cry. 6 Because by then, the return to this stadium that had plainly meant so much to him, which had wound him up so completely, had turned into a nightmare.
The Slovakians were outclassed here, absolutely. With some better finishing, the Scottish champions could have been threatening the nine Bayern had racked up a night earlier against Dinamo Zagreb. Daezen Maeda planted a header straight at Dominik Takac when it was still 0-0.
A minute after Scales stuck away an Engels corner, Kyogo missed one on one with the keeper before slashing miles over from a perfect Reo Hatate cutback. The classy, gliding Engels had two ferocious efforts parried by Takac. The attacks came in waves, confidence flooding through the ranks.
The attacks came in waves, confidence flooding through the home ranks. When the ever-improving Nicolas Kuhn’s driven cross was knocked in by Kyogo straight after half-time, Celtic had the breathing space they’d failed to give themselves after taking the lead in all three of last season’s home games. When Engels then rolled home his second penalty in four days after Alistair Johnson was sent tumbling, the contest was done.
Kevin Wimmer’s outside-of-the-foot finish into Kasper Schmeichel’s top left corner – only the second competitive goal the Dane has lost since arriving in the summer – was a brief test of bottle for home players and fans like. But once Maeda sprinted away for the fourth everyone breathed easy. And they partied like they never had before on the opening night of this competition when sub Adam Idah slid a late fifth.
6 Throughout it all, the din around this place, the sheer ground-shaking ferocity, was quite astounding. You’d sat there before a ball was kicked, feeling the vibrations beneath your feet as the roars swelled, watching 60,000 scarves raise to the opening notes of You’ll Never Walk Alone – and you felt privileged to be present at something this special, this unifying, this emotionally powerful. Where this occasion then differed from so many other Celtic games, however, was that once the first whistle blew it didn’t all just settle down into the usual, tedious IRA karaoke contest.
This time, with the occasion blip when they reverted to type, the Green Brigade led the stands in chorus after ear-splitting chorus of proper songs of celebration. Read more on the Scottish Sun 'TOTAL CHAOS' Scots beauty spot CLOSED two days in a row as campervans gridlock narrow road DEAL ME IN Rangers' bumper new kit sponsorship deal is most lucrative in club's history And it was something special, it really was. If this was how that corner of Parkhead did its stuff every week, the world would see them in a very different light.
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