Dundee 2 Hibernian 1

August 4th 2001
Scottish Premier League
Attendance:

Scorers:
Hibernian: O'Neil.
Dundee: Sara, Caballero.

This is a copy of a report of the game as it appeared in the Scotland on Sunday on Sunday 5th August 2001

Hibs given lesson from Juan’s gospel

"God loves Dundee so much that he gave Juan Sara so that everyone, who believes in Dundee may not despair but have eternal hope." Apologies to John Chapter three: verses 1-7.

If you turn the lanky, languorous Argentinean tee-shirt inside out his value to Dundee is becoming more and more evident. He scored 18 goals last season and, after one in a Tayside derby last week, he took only eight minutes to put Dundee ahead against Hibs yesterday. It was exactly the fillip Dundee needed after losing in all four league fixtures to Hibs last season and conceding a dozen goals. Maybe the bald statistics don’t quite give an accurate picture of the difference between the sides, but Alex McLeish’s team did have a harder edge of professionalism to them than Ivano Bonetti’s.

But the opening fixture between them this season was given a different perspective when their Italian midfielder Alessandro Romano said Hibs were half the team they were without Russell Latapy, and he was ultimately proved right in this encounter at Dens Park.

Hibs’ midfield appeared leaden, flustered and frustrated against their slick-moving Dundee counterparts. While Giorgi Nemsadze and Gavin Rae were a solid block in the middle, with the Scot in the holding role, a further threat was posed by the quicksilver Beto Carranza on the left, who was working neat interplays with Marcello Marrocco behind him. Up front, Sara lingered but not without menace, while Fabien Caballero drifted dangerously from left to right, and through this area the Dundee breakthrough came.

Carranza had already cut back on the left to dip in a shot from the edge of the box after four minutes, and four minutes later in a similar position he fed Caballero. The Argentine turned Gary Smith and swung over a cross to the back post, where Sara had stepped around Ulrik Laursen to almost gently head the ball down and past goalkeeper Nick Colgan.

Precision rather than power was his intent and it paid off. Hibs’ defence had been caught out and they looked susceptible to Dundee’s pace and technique. But Franck Sauzee’s experience ensured that at least they were rarely going to let them get round the back of them in the middle. It was just as well, as Zurab Khizinashvili almost increased the lead with a header from a Romano cross.

Then in the 24th minute Sara was put through by a Nemsadze burst from the midfield and, as the striker set up his angle, Sauzee made a goal-saving tackle. That the years were catching up with the Frenchman was evident last season and painfully obvious in Kilmarnock’s first goal at Easter Road last week, but if the legs are no longer willing at least Sauzee still reads the game as well as anyone in the SPL. Which was just as well as there was little inspiration on either side or in front of him.

With Bosnian Alen Orman out, his replacement Grant Brebner was struggling to fit in with Mathias Jack and John O’Neil. The only real threat seems to be posed by Hibs’ new Ecuadorian singing on the wing, Ulises de la Cruz, who had compensated somewhat for Latapy’s departure with his debut performance last week. The threat his pace posed lured Marrocco into a first-half booking and it was, indeed, through the South American that Hibs’ first real chance came, albeit, not until the 50th minute. His downward shot from an O’Neil corner reared up dangerously, only for Carranza to head it off the line.

Already Dundee’s penchant for creating trouble for themselves - which had been evident in the first half, with sloppy passing from Walter Del Rio almost gifting a goal - had returned. They stood off Craig Brewster as the Hibs striker made his first impact on the game a minute later, and it was left to goalkeeper Jamie Langfield to spread himself and save.

This assault from Hibs kickstarted the second half for Dundee and Carranza should clearly have increased the lead when Romano put him through with a pass that Latapy would have been proud of, but the Argentine cut back and delayed, giving Hibs time to recover. The midfielder chose to go it alone a minute later only to see a 25-yarder clip the bar.

But still Hibs were able to go back up the field against the run of play and grab an equaliser, when John O’Neil squeezed a shot under Langfield as once again Dundee’s defence lost all formation when a De la Cruz cross dipped into the centre of the box.

An hour had gone, and from two half-hearted efforts Hibs had got a goal. But a sense of injustice saw Dundee surge into counter-attack and they were back in front in two minutes through a combination between Cabbalero and Sara.

The winger put Sara through one on one with Colgan and, while the Hibs goalkeeper did well to slide in, his clearance only went as far as Caballero, who neatly sidestepped the by-now prostrate Irishman, skip daintily past the back-rushing Hibs defence and prod the ball in with the inside of his right foot in between two defenders on the line.

The goal nullified any chance Hibs had of seizing the momentum, which had obviously been Alex McLeish’s aim as he threw on substitutes David Zitelli and Gary O’Connor up front for the ineffective strikers Francisco Luna and Brewster. But the ineffectiveness of this was summed up when O’Connor himself was substituted eight minutes from time after falling awkwardly.

Meanwhile, Bonetti’s side never again lost control of the game and, indeed, Hibs by now looked less than half the side they were at their peak last season. As for Dundee, they looked slicker and sharper but nagging doubts must remain about their defensive frailty. This was a match they should have won at a canter.

The Teams:

Hibernian: Colgan, Laursen, Sauzee, G. Smith, De La Cruz, Brebner, Muarray, O'Neil, Brewster, Luna, Jack.


Dundee: Langfield, Smith, Rae, Khizanishvili, Nemsadze, Romano, Del Rio, Marrocco, Carranza, Caballero, Sara.
.

Tale from the Terracing - Fatty's View

Traffic problems meant that I arrived at Dens Park at 3:15 to discover that the game had kicked off without me and that we were a goal down! The size of the Hibs crowd was very impressive, although they seemed a little subdued in the warm sunshine.

Hibs seemed to play the better football in what I saw of the first half and De La Cruz continues to impress, although I wish he would take his man on more often.

The second half saw Hibs really go at Dundee, and eventually get the equaliser through a scrambled John O'Neil goal. Then Alex McLeish totally baffled us by replacing Brewster and Luna with Zittelli and O'Connor before the restart. I'm not sure why he did this, but there can be no doubt that it unsettled the team just as they got on top.

As if to prove the point, Dundee went ahead again three minutes after the equaliser.

There can be little doubt that Dundee play some lovely football at times, and in Sara and Caballero they have two quality strikers. They probably deserved the three points from this game, but lets hope Alen Orman is back for next weeks match against Aberdeen.

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