celtic stay on course published: wednesday 6 august 2003, 22.10cet celtic fc 1-0 fbk kaunas (agg: 5-0) own goal seals passage for last season's uefa cup finalists.
last season's uefa cup runners-up, celtic fc, are one step away from the uefa champions league group stage as an own goal confirmed their safe progress past fbk kaunas in glasgow.
miller starts celtic, european champion clubs' cup winners in 1966/67, came back from lithuania last week 4-0 up from the first leg and took the opportunity to deploy 22-year-old midfield player liam miller from the start, with chris sutton and shaun maloney leading the line in the absence of injured pair john hartson and henrik larsson.
own goal however, although sutton and alan thompson both went close in the early stages, it was kaunas defender darius gvildys who was to prove celtic's goalscorer on 21 minutes. jamie smith received the ball on the wing and curled the ball in the direction of sutton, but as gvildys intercepted he headed into his own net.
goalkeepers make saves martin opic forced a save from celtic goalkeeper rab douglas soon after, but miller almost set up sutton to double the lead only for visiting custodian gytis padimanskas to make a fine stop. smith and thompson both went close after the break, but with celtic easing off the pace, it was kaunas who had the best of the chances, notably when opic set up gytis padimanskas just inside the box only for douglas to get a hand to his shot.
effort ruled out sutton had a header from a smith cross saved late on, but with celtic's progress already ensured, martynas karalius seemed to have scored a consolation - but his goal was ruled out for offside.
player's caution celtic now meet hungarian champions mtk hungária, and the scottish side's defender joos valgaeren said his side will be cautious after losing to fc basel at the same stage last season: "it will be a difficult game. i do not know anything about mtk but we must be wary after the bad experience we had against basel."
) 
