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| April 12, 2003 | Saturday | Safar 9, 1424 |
Larsson penalty miss leaves Celtic on edge
GLASGOW, April 11: Portugal goalkeeper Ricardo superbly saved a late Henrik Larsson penalty as Boavista held out for a 1-1 draw with Celtic in their UEFA Cup semifinal first leg here on Thursday.
The Swedish striker, who had earlier equalised after a Joos Valgaeren own goal had given Boavista a scarcely deserved lead, struck his 75th-minute spot-kick with his customary pace and accuracy.
But Ricardo, the hero of the penalty shoot-out which got Boavista past Malaga in the quarterfinals, correctly anticipated where the ball was going and flung himself to his right to touch it around the post.
His save leaves Boavista the favourites to advance to next month’s final in Seville and deny Celtic a first European final appearance since 1970.
Celtic, who had two first-half penalty claims for handball turned down, were caught cold two minutes after the restart when Valgaeren, attempting to cut out Filipe Anunciacao’s cross from the right, deflected the ball inside Rab Douglas to gift Boavista a valuable away goal.
The equaliser came almost immediately, Neil Lennon feeding Stillian Petrov, who set up Larsson to fire home from inside the box.
Meanwhile, in Oporto, Porto outclassed Italy’s Lazio in their semifinal first leg, coming from behind to win 4-1 at the Das Antas stadium.
Claudio Lopez gave the Italians a sixth-minute lead but the visitors then collapsed in the teeth of waves of Portuguese attacks.
Ribeiro levelled the scores on 10 mintes before Derlei Silva put the hosts 2-1 up just before the half-hour mark.
Five minutes after the break Silva notched his second and Helder Postiga swept home the fourth for Jose Mourinho’s league leaders against a punch-drunk Lazio defence — which was missing thigh injury victim Jaap Stam — just six minutes later.—AFP
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