Dundee 0 Celtic 1

Last updated : 22 September 2002 By Footymad Previewer

Celtic collected all three points with a hard-fought victory against a battling Dundee side at Dens Park.

Celtic forced three early corners but the Dundee defence stood firm and a foul by Bobo Balde on Julian Speroni eased the pressure on the home defence.

Jonay Hernandez fired just wide in the seventh minute and seconds later Gavin Rae shot just past the post after latching on to a poor clearance.

In the 17th minute Celtic took the lead when Henrik Larsson picked the ball up on the right and played the ball deep to Steve Guppy before collecting the return ball and placing a right-foot shot into the top corner of the net.

Midway through the first half Speroni saved a Chris Sutton header before Dundee hit back on the counter-attack only for Nacho Novo to be denied by Robert Douglas.

Stilian Petrov should have doubled the visitors' lead in the 26th minute but he fired wide with only Speroni to beat.

Larsson headed wide from close range after good work by Mo Sylla just before the interval.

On the stroke of half time Novo hit the side-netting when Joos Valgaeren's attempted clearance fell perfectly for the little striker.

Just after the break Chris Sutton fired wide with a 20-yard effort after playing a good one-two with Larsson.

In the 57th minute a powerful left-foot drive from Guppy was well held by Speroni.

The Dundee keeper then made a great stop to deny Sutton before Ulrik Laursen headed wide from just four yards out.

With 20 minutes left Petrov's chip from the edge of the box came back off the crossbar with Speroni well beaten.

In the 85th minute a Georgi Nemsadze corner was well held by Douglas under pressure from Lee Wilkie but Celtic hung on to secure all three points