Celtic clinch opening skirmish in Battle of Britain

Agence France-Presse Paris

Celtic's Swedish international Henrik Larsson settled the Battle of Britain UEFA Cup second round, first leg clash against Blackburn Rovers in Glasgow on Thursday.

Outplayed for much of the match, Celtic snatched the winner five minutes from the end of regulation time after substitute John Hartson rose above the Blackburn defense to head powerfully towards goal.

Blackburn's American international goalkeeper Brad Friedel produced his second brilliant instinctive save of the evening to keep Hartson's effort up but Larsson swept the ball home from close range to secure a famous victory for Martin O'Neill's side.

It was the Swede's 176th goal in 222 games for Celtic and his 19th in 16 appearances this season.

Celtic goalkeeper Rab Douglas admitted that Blackburn had reason to be disappointed with the outcome.

"We didn't play that well in the first half, but got back in it in the second and got a cheeky wee goal at the end. "It gives us a good start to go down to Blackburn with."

A late winner from Harry Kewell earned Leeds a 1-0 victory over Israeli side Hapoel Tel Aviv at Elland Road.

Australian striker Kewell found the net in the 82nd minute to give Terry Venables' side victory and end a streak of six matches without a win for the Yorkshiremen.

Fellow English Premiership side Fulham put in one of the most impressive wins of the day defeating Dynamo Zagreb 3-0 in Croatia to take a huge stride towards the third round.

The match turned in the 33th minute when Zagreb midfielder Kristijan Polovanec was sent-off for a foul on striker Luis Boa Morte and the Londoners took full advantage with Boa Morte opening the scoring three minutes later.

In the 60th minute, Japan's Junichi Inamoto made a precise pass to Frenchman Steve Marlet who scored the second with Barry Hayles adding the third in the 78th minute.

The historic first European club match between a Turkish and a Greek side was overshadowed by violence.

Fenerbahce and Panathinaikos drew 1-1 in Istanbul but leading government ministers from both nations were hit by missiles thrown from the crowd while there were also a large number of injuries when police intervened to break up fighting between the two sets of fans.

Elsewhere, a 10th minute goal from Stefano Fiore gave Lazio a slender 1-0 first leg win against Red Star Belgrade of Yugoslavia in Rome in a game watched by just 15,000 fans.

A late goal from Adrian Mutu secured a 2-1 win for Parma at home to Wisla Krakow of Poland where only 6,000 spectators managed to rouse themselves.