Hoops leave it late to deny Boro

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink came off the bench to head a stoppage-time equaliser for Celtic in their Algarve Cup opener against Middlesbrough.

Vennegoor of Hesselink: Headed home late levelller
Vennegoor of Hesselink: Headed home late levelller

The Scottish Premier League champions were heading for defeat in Portugal when Darren O'Dea's underhit backpass gifted Jeremie Aliadiere a bizarre opener 19 minutes from time.

Substitute O'Dea's ill-advised pass to Mark Brown saw the goalkeeper's attempted clearance charged down by Aliadiere, the ball rebounding off the striker's feet and into the net.

But Vennegoor of Hesselink levelled in the second minute of added time when Bobo Balde headed fellow substitute Paul Caddis' cross back across goal and the Dutchman stooped to nod home.

The result saw both sides claim two points apiece, one for the draw and one for scoring a goal. That put them three points behind Cardiff, who beat Vitoria Guimaraes 2-1 earlier in the evening thanks to a double from former Motherwell striker Ross McCormack.

Celtic had chances to score in the first half, Georgios Samaras twice heading too close to Ross Turnbull after fine wing play from Aiden McGeady.

Boro's best moment came from Josh Walker, whose left-foot strike forced a fine save from Brown, while Mohamed Shawky was twice off target from outside the area.

The second half - which featured a raft of substitions - was even more cagey, though Brown did well to get fingertips to an Aliadiere snapshot.

Turnbull was almost caught out by a curling Barry Robson free-kick but he recovered well to parry.

After both sides netted, there was still time for Paul McGowan to nearly strike a winner for Celtic.

Your Comments

Greendude (Middlesbrough fan)

"borodane - i know it's only pre-season but 4 of us watched it, 2 lost interest and started playing pc games and 2 of us kept falling to sleep. awful awful game. turnbull was at fault for our goal, positioning was terrible and he just stood there like a statue, very schwarzer like...as was his kicking. he's schwarzer mkII without the shot-stopping ability. god help us this season. shawky looked solid, which was good to see. digard went on a nice run past 3 or 4 players in the 2nd half which gives me hope for his ability. everyone else was just bleh. celtic were terrible too. i didn't like us playing 1 up front. that was worrying. both halfs we played 1 up."

Nicktheonly1whosingsintheweststand (Middlesbrough fan)

"yeh i watched the game and yes emnes was very good, he has so much pace accompanied by very good skill aswell, im very excited about him and downing on the wings next season. The game was sort of a nothing as a friendly always is, we played decent enough, arca played well(hes bulked up a bit too) and the rest did ok, turnbull didnt have much to do but he sadly was part of the reason for the equaliser, poor punch right to celtic who eventually scored. Please buy a new keeper gareth, i just dont have enough faith in either jones or turnbull"

borodane (Middlesbrough fan)

"Did anyone see the game? Good result considering they are ahead of us in pre-season by more than a week. Did we play well? Other reports say Emnes was good."

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