On this day in 2002 Graeme Souness brought his Blackburn Rovers side north of the border to take on Celtic in a UEFA Cup ‘Battle of Britain’ tie with the first leg at Celtic Park…
Arrogance has always come naturally to Souness, the former Rangers FC manager, and it’s fair to say that he fancied his chances and so did his team, which incidentally is fair, enough. Martin O’Neill was in the Celtic dugout that night and his team selections was as follows:
Douglas, Agathe (Sylla 81), Balde, Laursen, Valgaeren, Petrov, Lennon, Lambert (Hartson 76), Thompson, Larsson and Sutton. The unused Celtic substitutes were Gould, Fernandez, Maloney, Guppy and Crainey.
And the Blackburn team was:
Friedel, Neill, Short, Johansson, Taylor, Thompson, Flitcroft, Tugay, Duff, Ostenstad, Yorke. Subs: Dunn, Cole, Jansen, Grabbi, Kelly, Gillespie, Douglas.
Blackburn certainly looked like a decent side and had plenty of possession on a night where Celtic were far from their best. But the only goal of the game came with just five minutes left to play and it came from Celtic talisman Henrik Larsson, netting his 21 goal in European competitions to beat the Scottish record previously held by Ally McCoist.
A 1-0 away defeat was far from being a terrible result for Blackburn and they could take confidence from performing so well inside the intimidating arena at Celtic Park on a big European night. They however lost the tie after the final whistle at Celtic Park when they gave the Celtic team the perfect motivation to go to Lancashire a few weeks later and make Blackburn Rovers eat their words.
Here are the quotes that are available on The Celtic Wiki alongside much more on this match.
“The gaffer said it was men against boys out there,” Blackburn captain Gary Flitcroft on Celtic after the game at Celtic Park.
“If Celtic score one then we can score three. Hopefully by 10pm tonight people will be saying ‘Bloody hell, that Blackburn are a good side’” Graeme Souness said prior to the second leg.
Arrogance and over confidence aplenty. The men against boys line annoyed the Celtic players so much that Henrik Larsson actually swore on live television after him and the former Blackburn title winner Chris Sutton both scored Celtic’s emphatic 2-0 win at Ewood Park.
What a brilliant night that was for the travelling support!
He who laughs last…
👤 Henrik Larsson
🗓 31/10/2002
🏆 UEFA Cup
📍 Glasgow, Parkhead
🏟 Celtic Park ‘Paradise’
📍 59 553
✅️ Celtic FC 1-0 Blackburn Rovers
⚽️ Henrik Larsson 85′#Celtic #CelticFC #COYBIG 🍀🇮🇪☘️ pic.twitter.com/Z9DSMZC5u5— Celtic_FC_Francophone🍀 (@CSC_Francophone) October 31, 2025
As a Blackburn fan I thought we outplayed you at Celtic Park and deserved to win but O’Neill had a masterplan at Ewood where Sutton basically man-marked a deep lying Tugay and stopped us playing. It waas a master stroke and you had a well-deserved win.
It was a mistake to motivate a Celtic side that were already highly motivated anyway.