Today’s photo of the day takes you back to 31 October 2001 and one of the most iconic European nights in recent Champions League history.
Celtic Park was at it’s ear-shattering best as Juventus came to town, and two star studded line ups took to the field.
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Celtic: Douglas, Balde, Mjallby, Valgaeren, Agathe, Lennon, Lambert, Moravcik, Petta, Larsson, Sutton.
Juventus: Carini, Iuliano, Ferrara, Zenoni, Paramatti, Birindelli, Nedved, Maresca, Davids, Del Piero, Amoruso.
As if the likes of Lambert, Lubo, Larsson, Sutton, Nedved, Davids and Del Piero weren’t enough to excite – the benches included Thompson, Petrov, Hartson, Trezeguet and Buffon!
Amid a cacophony of defeaning green and white fervour, Del Piero gave the visitors the lead with a stunning free kick. However, the Italian’s joy was short lived as Joos Valgaeren scored a diving header to level things up.
Chris Sutton then scored to give Celtic a 2-1 lead on the stroke of half time, and that moment is our photo of the day focus, as he wheels away being pursued by the delighted defensive duo of Mjallby and Joos.
Mjallby and Valgaeren celebrate with Chris Sutton after he scores against Juventus. Joos scored a goal himself and Sutton scored an unreal volley later in the match.Lubo, Sutton, Larsson, Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet all on the pitch that night pic.twitter.com/pLFsowc4CU
— Liam Kelly (@cfcliamk96) February 3, 2021
David Trezeguet was introduced to the game in the second half and a clean strike from the Frenchman made things all square again, shortly after the restart. Nevertheless, that joy was again short lived for Juventus as Henrik Larsson calmly converted a penalty kick six minutes later to restore Celtic’s advantage.
The moment everyone remembers then took place on 64 minutes, when Chris Sutton blistered a left footed volley into the roof of the net to put the Hoops 4-2 ahead. The Englishman can’t have scored too many better goals in his career… and how the Celtic support enjoyed that one.
A topsy turvy encounter, Trezeguet struck his second to bring the away team back into things. Then a nervy final few moments saw the Old Lady have an equalising goal ruled out for offside.
The full time whistle blew with Celtic 4-3 victors. However, it wasn’t enough for Martin O’Neill’s team to advance to the last 16 as a dubious bit of play from Amoruso had robbed us of an earlier victory in Turin. Despite the ultimate disappointment, this game goes down in the archives as one of the greatest in the history of the UEFA Champions League with an atmosphere to compete with anything in Europe.
