Celtic feel cheated by Amoruso 'dive'

The Italian Job is unlikely to figure among Martin O'Neill's favourite films any more. Theft was committed on a grand scale once again in Turin on Tuesday night, only this time it was the Celtic manager who was the victim.

No Mini Coopers and no Michael Caine, simply the best acting money can buy. Nicola Amoruso's dramatic tumble in Stadio delle Alpi left the Scottish club nursing the best supporting role, but Juventus had made off with the prized Champions' League points.

Even by Serie A standards of deception, Amoruso's dive in the box as he brushed past Joos Valgaeren just two minutes from the end, before dispatching the penalty which stole a 3-2 victory in the opening game of Group E, was scandalous.

The Italian film-maker Franco Zefferelli – a Fiorentina fan – once famously accused Juventus of buying favours from referees, but the only thing the otherwise excellent Helmut Krugg bought was Amoruso's dive just seconds after stepping off the bench.

The man with no fame, who had been on loan to Perugia and Napoli for the last two seasons, rescued the big reputations of a side upon which Marcello Lippi lavished £106 million during the summer. "The match winner was one of our lesser players," noted Lippi later, "but he is used when he needs to be." The Juventus manager declined to say, though, if Amoruso's sole task was the con job.

His counterpart, O'Neill, was barely able to contain his rage. "It was a woeful decision," said the Celtic manager. "Any penalty is a big turning point in a game but to give that with two minutes to go robbed us of something we deserved. "The players were devastated in the dressing-room. I have to assume the referee saw something not a single person in the ground saw. I had turned away expecting a goal-kick to us because the ball had gone out."

O'Neill's rage was so great that he was not around to see Amoruso convert the penalty which erased all Celtic's good work in overcoming the two-goal lead David Trézéguet had given Juventus. The Northern Irishman was ordered off and was forced to stand in the tunnel.

Neil Lennon had little doubt about Amoruso's act. "The ball was going out of play," insisted the midfielder, "and the guy just took a dive and the referee has been suckered, really."

Henrik Larsson, whose own penalty minutes earlier – after Chris Sutton had been tugged down down by Alessandro Birindelli – seemed to have given Celtic a merited draw, summed up the mood of O'Neill's players. "We all feel as if we had been told we had won the lottery, then they said they had announced the wrong numbers."

They did not, and that is Lippi's own verdict. "Yes, I feel lucky," he conceded. "It should have been a draw. Celtic are a good team, but I knew that because I had seen the tape of their win over Ajax, but this game confirmed it."

O'Neill knew that too. His team had matched the passing game of Juventus, with Stilian Petrov immense, and once the Bulgarian midfielder's lethal shot cut the deficit, Lippi's much-lauded side almost crumbled. "My team grew up out there," O'Neill said, "but it does not give us any extra points."