Boca also had the luxury of having 11 players on the pitch throughout the game – in their other two games they had a player sent off within the first half hour – and although manager Jorge Clemente said afterwards that he had not been pleased by the overall standard of refereeing, he was delighted by his side’s commitment.’The first game, against Benfica, was the hardest,’ he said.
‘We were still recovering from the 48-hour journey to Jersey and they had some very good players.
It was very testing.’We have played Manchester United and Celtic before.
Celtic are a good team.
They had problems the day before with dehydration.
But we had good players of our own against them.’In particular he was pleased by the workrate of No 9 Gaston Sangoy and No 14 Sebastian Ginobili, although the first goal, in the 29th minute, came from captain David Reano, whose header from a well-flighted free kick left Celtic ‘keeper Michael Roberston helpless as it powered into the back of the net.Reano was an excellent ambassador for the game, industrious and astute both in defence and attack.In contrast, after the half, Celtic were understandably lethargic – the strain of playing two games, in fierce heat, over the previous two days, having taken its toll.However, they showed occasional glimpses of skill and first No 6 David Pinkowski could have scored when gifted a free header in the 35th minute before, six minutes later, Michael Gardyne tested the Boca ‘keeper with a free kick from outside the penalty area, to the left of the goal.But the longer the game went on, the more confident Boca looked, and their second goal, midway through the second half, was another beauty.A free kick on the right taken by Reano was met with stunning power by Pablo Gonzalez, and with that second goal the game was effectively at an end.There were occasional threatening moments by Celtic, including a header, which went wide, by Chris McCormack, a powerful free kick by Mark Cassidy and a superb long-range shot by Rocco Quinn which was tipped over the bar, but the longer the game went on, the more Boca were able to show their footballing ability, with some lovely individual skills by No 17 Juan Lopez and Sangoy who, as Boca’s main thrust in the attack, worked tirelessly throughout the 90 minutes.With 20 minutes remaining and Celtic 2-0 down, the game did open up more, but by now Boca were well on top and they deserved the win which means they leave for Argentina, later today, unbeaten on Jersey soil.’We want to come back again next year,’ said Clemente after the game, with a smile.
However he does not want such a tiring outward journey, and he also hopes for a more ‘understanding’ referee than the one who looked after Boca’s game against Manchester United on Saturday.As for yesterday’s official – Jersey’s Mark Le Cornu – he was excellent in a free-flowing game in which only a couple of players were booked.Boca Juniors: Adelquis Ruffini, Ezequiel Vicente, Mikael Yourassowsky, Alvaro Delgado, Juan Castro, David Reano, Edilio Cardoso de Oliveira, Armando Monteverde, Gaston Sangoy, Leandro Becerra, Raul Osella.
Substitutes: Sebastian Ginobili, Juan Lopez, Pablo Gonzalez, Victor Galarza, Pablo Alvarez.Celtic: Michael Robertson, Chris McCormack, Scott Friel, Pat Scullion, Stephen Low, David Pinkowski, Mark Cassidy, James Elliott, Ross Harris, Aiden McGeady, Michael Gardyne.
Substitutes: Rocco Quinn, Gary Fraser, Craig Reid, Charles Mulgrew.Referee: Mark Le Cornu.
