Jim Craig: It’s Seville Day! 15 years ago today, so tell us your Seville stories

It had been an impressive run. 10-1 on aggregate against FC Suduva in round one; 3-0 Blackburn Rovers round two; 2-2 v Celta Vigo in round three, the away goal being crucial; 5-4 against Stuttgart in round four; 3-1 Liverpool in the quarter-final; and 2-1 versus Boavista in the semi-final.

Now, on this day in 2003 in the Estadio Olympico in Seville, Celtic fans made up a fair percentage of the 52,972 crowd which had gathered to see the action. Now, most of you will remember this match very well, so I will merely provide an overall resume of the action.

Deco put Porto into the lead just on the half-time whistle; Henrik Larsson equalized two minutes into the second half; in the 54th minute, Alenichev made it 2-1; three minutes later, Henrik puts us level again at 2-2. And as that was still the score at the end of 90 minutes, the match went into extra-time.

Celtic were struck with some bad luck almost straight-away when Bobo Balde was sent off for a mis-timed tackle and Porto took advantage, putting constant pressure on a Celtic side which was being pushed further and further back. Five minutes from the end, the dam broke. Substitute Ferreira raced in on goal and shot, it was blocked by Rab Douglas but only as far as the feet of Derlei and his shot spun agonizingly off the keeper and away from Laursen on the goal line.

Final Score Celtic 2 Porto 3

Team – Douglas Mjallby Balde Valgaeren Agathe Lennon Lambert Thompson Petrov Sutton Larsson

The Celtic Star is going to be featuring Seville 2003 today so please share your stories with us.

Jim Craig

WERE YOU IN SEVILLE? Tell us your stories today and we’ll share them on The Celtic Star. The best three will receive a free copy of Seville The Celtic Movement which is also available from our bookstore. Simply send your Seville stories to editor@thecelticstar.co.uk and we’ll do the rest.

The latest podcast is out now- it’s part 2 of the brilliant interview with Celtic’s SLO John Paul Taylor where he selects the games and the soundtracks of his own personal Celtic journey. Loved his memories of the 4-2 game in the first part of his interview. Here’s the latest instalment from the UK’s Football podcast of the year…

Listen to “John Paul Taylor with A Celtic State of Mind (Part 2/3)” on Spreaker.

About Author

The Celtic Star founder and editor, who has edited numerous Celtic books over the past decade or so including several from Lisbon Lions, Willie Wallace, Tommy Gemmell and Jim Craig. Earliest Celtic memories include a win over East Fife at Celtic Park and the 4-1 League Cup loss to Partick Thistle as a 6 year old. Best game? Easy 4-2, 1979 when Ten Men Won the League. Email editor@thecelticstar.co.uk

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