For many people connected to Celtic, the UEFA Cup Final defeat to Porto in 2003 still holds a lot of bittersweet memories. Celtic fans travelled in their thousands to Seville confident that we could overcome Porto.
Celtic eventually lost the final 3-2 in extra time to the Portuguese giants. But it was a half-time confrontation with Jose Mourinho that former Celtic midfielder Alan Thompson recalled as one of his memories of that day.
Thompson said [The Celtic Way], “There were all sorts of antics from Porto on the night that made lots of people – myself included – unhappy.
“Porto were a good team and it was our job to deal with that in a professional manner.
“It still bites you a little bit when you think about it and I feel for the lads and all the Celtic supporters who forked out their hard-earned cash to go to Seville.
“We still laugh at the barney at half-time with Jose Mourinho and the coaching staff. I squirted some Lucozade in Mourinho’s face in the tunnel and all hell broke loose.
“Mourinho was a bit arrogant, shall we say, and when he went to Chelsea, he called himself ‘The Special One’ and all that.
“We were heading down the tunnel at half-time and the Celtic players were annoyed at their time-wasting.
“I can’t remember who started a scuffle but it was all handbags really.
“I had a full bottle of Lucozade. I think Mourinho was going off on one about something or other and I just stood back and took aim and squirted the drink and it caught him full on the face.
“It caused a bit of a rammy. I didn’t finish it as I bolted back to the dressing room. That’s the time when you hide behind the likes of Bobo Balde and Rab Douglas.”
I think many Celtic fans can understand the teams’ frustration at the time-wasting antics of the Portuguese side.
Every time a Celtic player made contact with one of their players they rolled around the pitch as if they had been poleaxed.
Those tactics ruined what I would regard as one of the most entertaining European finals of the modern era.
For Celtic fans, we will look back fondly at the memories Seville created for us despite its disappointing conclusion. Hopefully, we will experience another European final sooner rather than later. But with a better final outcome.
In other news, Martin O’Neill’s amusing ‘marched out of Celtic’ verdict on pivotal UEFA tie
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