Earlier today I wrote about how John Hartson recounted the infamous and heartbreaking 2003 UEFA Cup Final. One of the most important days in Celtic’s recent history.
With Celtic set to return to Seville to take on Real Betis in the opening game of the Europa League stage, Hartson was reminiscing about the famous UEFA Cup run that saw the Hoops knock out giants like Liverpool, Stuttgart and Celtic Vigo.
But one tie that stuck out for Hartson and it was the two legged affair against Graeme Souness’ Blackburn Rovers.
Celtic won the first leg at Paradise 1-0 and Hartson, speaking on The Go Radio Football Show, regaled the famous “men against boys” quote from Souness and how that spurred the team on for the away leg at Ewood Park, “We had some big wins along the way as you know Liverpool, Vigo, Boavista, Liverpool, Blackburn, you know we knocked out some Premier League teams along the way.
“We showed that we were a match for the Premier League teams at the time. People say the standard and everything else, so were right up for that. One was Graeme Souness.
“I was surprised at Graeme. A man of his experience and his knowledge of the game. We play Blackburn at home, and I came off the bench in the last minute, and I got all the above Craig Short and I bulleted a header in the bottom corner.
“Brad Friedel saved, Henrik Larsson tapped in the rebound and we won the game one nil.
“Blackburn were very good. They had Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, David Thompson, Craig Short and Friedel and they played very well at Celtic Park.
“Then we go back to Ewood Park the week after and Graeme Souness already said in his press conference it’s going to be men against boys. We’ll them over when they come down here.
“So as you can imagine, Martin pinned it all up in the dressing room, didn’t need a team talk, and we went out there when we absolutely obliterated them 2-0 on their home patch.”