Celtic 1 Sunderland 0
Henrik Larsson gave Celtic the perfect boostbefore they start the defence of their trebleagainst St Johnstone this weekend.
But manager Martin O'Neill would have beenmore satisfied with the work-out his side weregiven with just four days to go as Sunderlandprovided them with the ideal test of theirfitness.
The FA Carling Premiership side were the betterside in the first-half and Lilian Laslandes almostupstaged Golden Shoe winner Larsson and cameback to haunt Celtic again at Parkhead.
The Frenchman struck a cruel double here lastseason for Bordeaux to shatter the Hoops' UEFACup dream.
And he went agonisingly close in the first periodtonight, as well as having a goal disallowed.
However, in the first 45 minutes it wasLaslandes' strike partner Kevin Phillips who wascausing the home side all the problems.
The England forward's running off the ball andpace gave Celtic a massive headache from thestart.
And it was Phillips who almost created theopener in the sixth minute when he burst downthe right flank and fired across the face of goal,but Laslandes blazed just wide of the mark.
Again he sliced the Celtic defence open in the10th minute and his cross-shot was pokedhome by Laslandes inside the box _ only for thelinesman to rule the effort out for offside.
O'Neill was frantically shouting instructions tohis players from the sideline and a change information seemed to have the desired effect ashis side tightened up slightly.
In fact, they were unfortunate in the 14thminute when Larsson beat the offside trap totake Bobby Petta's cross in his stride, but hewas wrongly flagged up by the linesman.
Phillips' pace again caused havoc after 20minutes as he left Oliver Tebily for dead toaccept a pass from Don Hutchison, but hisweak effort was comfortably saved by DmitriKharine.
Celtic came back again in the 36th minute andwent agonisingly close to taking an undeservedlead.
Jackie McNamara got to the by-line and cut theball back to Neil Lennon, but the NorthernIreland midfielder's right-foot shot flew inchespast the upright.
Larsson came more into the game towards thehalf-time whistle, but Sunderland lookeddangerous on the break.
Boyd was given the runaround more than anyother in the first half and O'Neill decided toreplace him at the break with Belgianinternational defender Joos Valgaeren.
Sunderland boss Peter Reid also made a changewith French free transfer David Bellion comingon for Hutchison.
But the Glasgow side seemed rejuvenated afterthe restart and almost broke the deadlock inthe 60th minute through McNamara.
Larsson slid the ball into his path, but his effortwas well saved by Thomas Sorensen.
The old legs of Lubo Moravcik were replaced byyoungster Shaun Maloney as the customarysubstitutions began to take place.
But Danish number one Sorensen was busier inthe second half and had to make a vital savefrom Petta in the 65th minute before theclawing the ball away from the poachingLarsson.
Niall Quinn continued his comeback from hisback problems when he replaced the livewirePhillips, who appeared to be hobbling.
But no sooner had the striker left the pitchthan Larsson seized the chance to fire his sidein front from the spot.
The Swede had been quiet by his ownstandards, but after Petta had been broughtdown by Darren Williams, he stepped up to sendSorensen the wrong way and fire into thebottom left corner.
Petta became more menacing as the matchwore on and with 10 minutes remaining healmost drilled home Celtic's second, butSorensen again got down to his left to denyhim.
Substitutes Mark Burchill, Maloney and TommyJohnston all fired wide of the target late onbut that would have been an injustice forSunderland and their large and vocal travellingcontingent.