Dutch striker’s late goal earns Hoops old boys legendary status with win over Baresi and Co

Pierre Van Hooijdonk fired a last-gasp extra-time winner to seal the inaugural Emirates Airline Dubai Football Sevens title for Celtic last night.

The Dutch dynamo’s winner earned the Scottish outfit a 3-2 victory over pre-tournament favourites AC Milan in the Legends Cup final at The Sevens.

These two famous European clubs are used to meeting in the Champions League, but this time they had to make do with slightly more modest surroundings, in a low-key encounter on the Dubai-Al Ain Road.

But Celtic old boy Tommy Boyd didn’t seem to mind at all, claiming revenge was sweet after the Hoops veterans lost 3-0 to their Italian counterparts in the group stages on Friday.

“To be able to beat a team of Milan’s standing and the quality they have is a fantastic achievement,” said former Scotland defender Boyd. “Having been beaten convincingly in our first meeting we had to learn very quickly how to adjust to this kind of tournament and the boys did that.

“And revenge was nice. The key man we had to watch was Paolo Di Canio who was absolutely outstanding for the whole tournament.

“He’s a fantastic player. We hope he’ll be with us next year as he played with Celtic for a wee spell, so we’re looking to get a transfer kitty together. But most of our boys are too tight!”

Di Canio had given Milan hope after they went two goals behind through an Andy Walker tap-in and a low Van Hooijdonk drive past Simone Braglia in the Milan goal.

Di Canio, who played for a season at Parkhead, then drilled a fine shot past Gordon Marshall to get the Rossoneri back in the match, and they were back on level terms when Stefan Eranio equalised with two mintues left.

Mass Misery

However, Milan were outdone late on by Van Hooijdonk, when he drove in a powerful strike from long range for a ‘golden goal’ victory.

And a delighted Boyd joked: “Big Pierre had to hit the target once. He was always like that when he played for us - he likes to go for glory and we’re all delighted with the win.”

Meanwhile, Milan’s Daniele Massaro admitted he was disappointed that it was a case of so near but so far for the San Siro giants, who had been everyone’s tip to win with Di Canio and Franco Baresi in their side.

“When you arrive in Rome you want to see the Pope,” he said. “Celtic played very well, but I hope next time we have an opportunity for revenge.”

Earlier, the team representing the historic UAE 1990 World Cup side can be proud of their weekend workout after they were narrowly beaten 3-2 by Arsenal in the Legends Trophy final.

Martin Hayes opened the scoring for the Londoners with a cheeky backheel from close range in the second minute, only for Ibrahim Saleh to even things up with a powerful shot from 15 yards out.

Super Swede Anders Limpar, a winner of one league title and two domestic cups with the Gunners, then turned back the clock with a brilliant left-foot drive to make it 2-1 at the start of the second half.

Three minutes later, Daniel O’Shea poked home a third goal to seemingly put the game out of reach.

However, the UAE got one of the biggest cheers of the night when Bakhit Saad burst past two defenders and
side-footed past goalkeeper Vince Bartram.

But it was too little too late as Arsenal held on for victory.

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Leo’s looking to make leap

Olympiacos goalkeeper Leonidas Panagopoulos is hoping his Dubai heroics can propel him into the Greek side’s first team.

The young shotstopper showed his talent with an inspired display as he shut out a young Leeds United to help his side to a 2-0 victory in the Professional Cup final last night “It is the goal of all the players to play for the senior side, but all we can do is hope for the best,” said Panagopoulos after the match. “We are happy to win this tournament.

“It was a very experience for us and we’re delighted to return to Greece as winners. We all believed in our skills and that we could win here.”

However, despite the win coming courtesy of a well-taken brace from Greece U19 hotshot Georgios Niklitsiotis, it was the man in between the sticks that got the congratulations post-match.

Panagopoulus was repeatedly called into action as the second half wore on, but stood up to the test with a series of brilliant saves. And Leeds full-back Liam Darville revealed his side were frustrated they couldn’t find a way through.

“We kept the ball alright and had a lot of chances in the second-half, but couldn’t get past the keeper,” he said. “But we’ve done ourselves proud over the two days.

“You’ve obviously got to have faith in your own ability, but when we got here and saw the teams competing we knew it was going to be difficult. And it was absolutely boiling, so overall we’ve got to be happy.”

Meanwhile, in the Professional Trophy final, Blackburn Rovers dished out a lesson in fine finishing to Feyenoord, winning a massively one-sided game 5-0.

The Dutch side couldn’t handle Blackburn’s front trio, with Maceo Rigters scoring twice for the English side.