Today’s photo of the day comes from 2004, when Celtic hosted Shaktar Donetsk in the UEFA Champions League group stages.
Having reached the UEFA Cup Final in 2003 and followed that up by reaching the Quarter Finals in 2004, eliminating Barcelona along the way, the Hoops had been a European force at this stage. Then, in the 2004/05 season, there was a lot of change in personnel, but a strong line up was still put out for the clash with the Ukrainian champions on 2 November 2004.
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Chris Sutton missed the game, meaning that Henri Camara started alongside John Hartson, but aside from that the Bhoys were at full strength: Marshall, Agathe, Varga, Valgaeren, McNamara, McGeady, Lennon, Petrov, Thompson, Hartson, Camara.
Though Celtic had suffered their first ever home defeat in the Champions League, against Barcelona, two months earlier – Paradise was still very much a fortress. With that in mind, Martin O’Neill’s side were favourites to come out on top and Alan Thompson’s opening goal in the 25th minute came as no surprise.
@Alantommo8 scores a low free kick to give Celtic a 1-0 win against Shaktar Donetsk in November 2004. One of many free kicks he scored by blasting the ball under/through the wall pic.twitter.com/kizKWrvZnY
— Liam Kelly (@cfcliamk96) February 1, 2021
Thommo thundered the ball low, beyond the wall and into the net, after Stan Petrov had rolled the ball to him. This was a tactic that the Englishman was a master at. Indeed, he did the same against Rosenberg in the Champions League in 2001 and also scored directly from a free kick which he struck under the wall at Anfield against Liverpool in the 2003 UEFA Cup Quarter Final.
Things got even better for Celtic when Shaktar received red cards in the 43rd and 59th minutes, but they couldn’t add to their tally thanks to some exceptional goalkeeping by Lastuvka for the visitors.
Nevertheless, three points were gained and Celtic fans could go home happy with yet another home win in Europe.
