Celtic held in Euro grudge match as Everton, Fulham win

Celtic’s Europa League ambitions suffered another blow on Thursday when they were held to a 1-1 draw at home by Rapid Vienna in a match which brought back uncomfortable, ugly memories.

Celtic, who had lost their opening Group C match at Hapoel Tel Aviv, slipped behind after just three minutes at Parkhead when a mistake by Stephen McManus gifted Nikica Jelavic a goal.

Australia’s Scott McDonald levelled in the 20th minute but Celtic could not find the winner as the Scottish giants slumped to the foot of the table following Hamburg’s 4-2 win over Hapoel Tel-Aviv.

Twenty-five years ago, Celtic and Rapid clashed in the Cup Winners’ Cup. Rapid won 3-1 at home before Celtic took a 3-0 lead in the second leg.

But Rapid player Rudi Weinhofer collapsed to the ground, claiming to have been hit by a missile thrown from the terraces before UEFA ordered a third game to be played.

Current Rapid boss Peter Pacult scored the only goal of the match which was played at Old Trafford to take his side through to the next round.

Meanwhile, Everton resisted a valiant effort by BATE Borisov to leave Belarus with a 2-1 win which put them top of Group I with six points while English Premier League rivals Fulham top Group E after a 1-0 win over Basel.

Everton were a goal down by the 16th minute in Minsk as Dmitri Likhtarovich pounced on a loose ball 35 metres out and smashed it into the top corner past Tim Howard.

Everton equalised through Marouane Fellaini in the 68th minute before Tim Cahill grabbed the winner 10 minutes later.

“It was a really pleasing result considering the number of players who were not available,” said Everton boss David Moyes, whose squad was missing 10 first-teamers.

“We were resilient and that allowed us to get the victory. They scored an excellent goal but we regrouped and managed to get the goals we needed.”

Danny Murphy struck the only goal in the 57th minute at Craven Cottage for Fulham converting a fine pass from Andrew Johnson.

Elsewhere, Lazio beat Levski Sofia 4-0 in Bulgaria.

Brazilian midfielder Matuzalem opened the scoring in the 22nd minute and by half-time the visitors had doubled their advantage thanks to Italian striker Mauro Zarate.

Lazio scored goals in the 67th and 73 minutes through Mourad Meghni and Tommaso Rocchi.

FC Salzburg punched above their weight to beat tricky Spaniards Villarreal 2-0 while Ukrainians Shakhtar Donetsk thumped Partizan Belgrade of Serbia 4-1.

AEK Athens, PSV Eindhoven and Werder Bremen also won at home.