Mowbray banishes Hoops' away hoodoo

Celtic FC manager Tony Mowbray said a positive attitude made all the difference after his side defeated FC Dinamo Moskva 2-0 to overturn a first-leg deficit in a European tie for the first time and advance to the UEFA Champions League play-offs 2-1 on aggregate.

'Best team won'
Celtic had a mountain to climb after losing the home leg last week 1-0, but they rose to the challenge and a goal at the end of each half from Scott McDonald and Georgios Samaras sealed their progress to the UEFA Champions League play-offs. "We told them to forget about history, to go and make their own and thankfully they did," Mowbray said. "We were unlucky to lose last week and we came here believing we could win. I'd like to believe that there won't be too much argument over the two legs the best team won. Dinamo played a very structured counterattacking game as they did in Glasgow and the only difference is that this time we controlled the game and took our chances."

'Positive'
Prior to beating Dinamo, Celtic had not won in 22 away matches in Europe over a six-year period, a run new manager Mowbray ended at his first attempt. "I can only affect the games I'm in charge of, but we came here trying to be positive," he said. "I believed we had the better players and tried to control the football match and I think we managed to do that. It was looking as though chances were going to come and go. There wasn't a host of chances at either end, but I thought that because of our control and discipline we deserved to win the game."

'Heads down'
Celtic's progress was not decided until the final minute when Samaras struck. "I think in the end we deserved to win the game," Samaras said. "We made more and better chances than Dinamo. We were maybe lucky to score a goal in the last minute but over both games I think we deserved to go through. We're all delighted about that, but now we have to put our heads down and start working harder because the next round will be tougher than this one."

'Quality teams'
Celtic now go into Friday's play-off draw with a place in the UEFA Champions League group stage at stake. With the likes of Arsenal FC and Olympique Lyonnais lying in wait, Mowbray was keeping his feet on the ground. "The club have been there over the past couple of years and the aim is to try and emulate that and surpass it," he said. "But it's very early days and we're not getting carried away. We saw the quality of the teams in the next round. There's a lot of hard work ahead of us but I do believe that on our day we can give anybody a game."