A few days have past since the final itself; I’ve had time to reflect on the outcome. Technically Porto had more gifted players than Celtic however the bhoys more than matched the Portuguese team with grit, determination and passion. At half time I don’t think anyone could grudge Porto the one goal advantage. But what a heroic come back in the second half by the battling Celts coming back not once but twice with two magnificent Henrik Larsson goals. (What an incredibly special player Larsson is! )

In extra time Porto scored the winning goal. At that stage it could have went either way, in fact I personally felt Celtic looked favourites to score the winner as Porto looked there for the taking and looked deflated after Henrik levelled twice for the heroic Celts!

I feel I also have to mention the incompetent and inexperienced referee. What a numskull! The Porto players where going down and rolling about the ground as if they had been shot with a sniper’s rifle. The Porto players cheated playacted and time wasted, all of which went unpunished by an incompetent referee!

I can’t honestly say that the referee or the disgusting way the Porto players behaved cost Celtic victory, it just left a horrible taste in the mouth. It doesn’t make any sense because the Porto players where extremely gifted and there were no need for them to stoop so low!

Unfortunately it was not to be. It was an incredible adventure and Celtic took a lot of big scalps on the way to the final. I got special satisfaction putting out Blackburn Rovers and Liverpool; it’s always good to get one over the cocky English!

Anyway, it was all incredibly exciting and the Celtic players and the huge magnificent Celtic support did the club and country proud!

HAIL HAIL THE BHOYS YOU DID US PROUD….

I LOVE CELTIC

Despite the 'Cocky English' put-down, i was rooting for you and was pissed off that you lost.

looking forward to tomorrow ScottNPG?


[This message was edited Sat May 24 13:20:19 PDT 2003 by Marrk]

Yes Marrk. Tomorrow will be exciting. Rangers a clear favorites but I'm an optimist, it is still possible although I'd rather be at home to Dunfermline than away to Kilmarnock. I'll just need to hope for the best.

HENRIK LARRSON WILL FINALLY get the recognition he deserves.Celtic were great,only there second year in proper in europe and they reach a final.Hail to neil lennon for funniest put down of porto player .The english press were bad towards celtic,i can remember alan hansen saying celtic would be knocked out by liverpool.hehe.

the team played great with valgaeren being the weak link.Agathe took too long to get into game.Sutton was posted missing for most of the game.

Damn its annoying you kick every ball with them too!!

only criticism of martin o neil is he should learn to change tactics quicker,maloney would have been on second half for me

ScottNPG said:

nothing like a good giant killing is there...

seriously it looked like all the celts had a ball over there, nothing like a good party. i hope u win the league, good luck.

OOH 2, OOH 2 B, OOH 2 B A GOONER.

jandaman said:

Alan Hansen is a scotsman who played for liverpool, his comments hardly constitute national ignorance do they now.

I don’t mean to be degrading English people when I use the term ‘cocky English’! When Celtic where drawn against the likes of Blackburn and Liverpool, Celtic where unfairly written off by the English media and pundits alike, yes they where most definitely ‘cocky’! Celtic rammed there derogatory comments down there throats, At the same time Celtic always gave there opponents the rightful respect they deserved, Celtic won their matches and carried themselves with dignity at all times.

Nevermind Scott my team got relegated from the Premiership, U didnt deserve it and neither did we.

Alan Hansen is the biggest plonker on TV! Hansen is so one-dimensional, no charisma at all, he is an obnoxious embarrassing pain in the arse. I'd rather listen to Jimmy Hill! Now that's saying something!

ScottNPG said:

a truer word has never been spoken, although i can only handle hill if venebales is with him, then there is always a good dust up.

just out of curiosity, if celtic were to join the english premiership, how do u think they would do, eg top 2 or 3 or in with newcastle and chelsea etc.

If Celtic were to join the English Priemership I think we would only get stronger. Celtic has a huge support and a massive worldwide appeal. The only other team who could perhaps match Celtic on that scale is Manchester United. I see no reason that Celtic couldn’t be as successful as Man U, for various reasons. Celtic could not only afford a better quality of player but also attract a better quality of player all down to the fact Celtic would be in a more attractive league.

I’d love this to happen but realistically I can’t see it, unfortunately! I think Celtic may take 2 or 3 seasons to settle in to the Priemership before actually challenging for the title itself. That’s the thing about the people in power down south, they know Celtic will challenge for the title, I don’t think they could handle that. How about this for a mouth watering scenario ‘Glasgow Celtic Priemership Champions 2003-2004 Conquers of England’, one word to describe that ‘orgasm’.

Opps!
[This message was edited Sun May 25 1:40:19 PDT 2003 by ScottNPG]