Match Pictures | Matches: 2000 - 2001 | 2000-2001 Pictures

Demolition Derby

Trivia

• Match has been dubbed "Demolition Derby"
• Match with the famous Larsson chip goal!
• Martin O'Neill's first Celtic game against Rangers as Celtic manager.
• A turning point in Scottish football, signalling the beginning of the demise in Ranger's dominance of the domestic game.
• The most goals we'd scored against Rangers since the 7-1 League Cup victory in 1957.
• Notably, we lost the next derby game against Rangers 5-1! Seems to be forgotten by many, but it didn't affect our march to the league title!
• Chris Sutton scored a goal in just 51 seconds, a record for fastest goal scored in a Celtic v Rangers match. Despite Advocaat's attempts to call the first goal offside, the video evidence proves otherwise.
• John Robertson was confirmed as Assistant to Martin O’Neill on the 25/8/00.
• The draw was made for the first round proper of the UEFA Cup. Celtic were paired with HJL Helsinki with the first leg at home.
• After the game, Barry Ferguson, who was sent off in the second half, was involved in a street brawl in Bothwell.

Review

The importance of this game cannot be overstated. Prior to this game, there had been various false dawns for Celtic fans over the past 15 years, such as the Centenary double, the "St Patrick's day massacre" (both under Billy McNeil) and the classic Lubo-inspired 5-1 win (under Venglos). That was the background the club had to suffer under for many a year.

Rangers were in the ascendency having comfortably won the league the previous season and spent a massive sum on transfers on top of it all. Before the start of the season, the Huns genuinely believed they were to enter the next phase of domination both at home and in Europe (highlighted in their now infamous "spikey shoes" article). In truth, few Celtic fans saw any hope of us overhauling them but the club was beginning to regroup after a couple of disastrous years under the previous team managers.

New management and a new set of players in who needed time to bed in (supposedly) and so how was MoN to cope in his first Old Firm game? We tanked the Huns 6-2!!!

A reality not a dream, a glorious exhibition of football which really shook the game in Scotland to its core.

In this match, there were plenty of moments of glory, most special of which was the greatest goal in Celtic v Rangers history: Larsson's classic chip. This cemented Larsson as the legend that he is regarded as today, with even better still to come.

This match became a turning point in Scottish Football, with Rangers to begin a decline and for Celtic to begin a rise back up to respectability under Martin O'Neil.

For those not around prior to this game, its hard to explain the importance of the match and its impact, and in retrospect we ourselves began to only realise what we had the potential to achieve with what we always had in the club and all we needed was MoN to unlock it for us. Without the demolition in this game, its hard to see how we could have succeeded as we did in the coming years without it (both at home and later in Europe). The psychological impact was immense for both ourselves (positively) and the Huns (negatively).

It was the beginning of a new era for Celtic.

Teams

Celtic:
Celtic: Gould, Valgaeren, Stubbs, Mahe, McNamara, Petrov, Lambert (Mjallby 36), Moravcik (Boyd 54), Petta, Larsson (Burchill 87), Sutton.

Subs Not Used: Kerr, Berkovic.
Goals: Sutton 1, Petrov 8, Lambert 11, Larsson 50, 62,Sutton 90.
Yellow: Moravcik, McNamara, Boyd. (Celtic)

Rangers:
Klos, Ricksen (Tugay 22), Konterman, Amoruso, Vidmar (Kanchelskis 65), Reyna, Ferguson, van Bronckhorst, McCann (Lovenkranes 76), Dodds, Wallace.
Subs Not Used: Charbonnier, Malcolm.
Goals: Reyna 40, Dodds 55 pen.
Yellows: Dodds, McCann, Ferguson, Reyna. (Rangers)
Reds: Ferguson (81). (Rangers)

Referee: S Dougal (Scotland).
Attendance: 59,476

Individual Player Ratings

Report

• BBC
• PA Sport Match Report

Clockwatch

• Clockwatch of game

Pictures

• Match Pictures

Video

Stats

	Celtic	Rangers
Bookings	3	4
Red Cards	0	1
Fouls	24	15
Shots on Target	9	5
Corners	4	4
Offside	0	4

Managers Comments

Martin O’Neill post match :
"We got off to a great start but there were plenty of uncomfortable moments. It could have been 3-2 after the first 17 or 18 minutes of the match, but you can't take anything away from the effort of the players.
"They were absolutely fantastic. Even at 4-1, I was thinking there is a long, long way to go. They got back to 4-2, and I think the only time I ever really felt comfortable was when Sutton put the sixth one in.
"But at the end of all - and I am not being patronising - Rangers are still the benchmark and are a top-class side.
"We couldn't have dreamed for a better start. We could play for another 100 years and not get a start like that again.
"I'm delighted, and the players were brilliant. The performance was really, really immense. I would have settled for scoring in the last minute and winning the game 1-0 - but there won't be many 1-0 games down here."

''The players are all delighted, but there is no feeling of euphoria because a few of them have been here a couple of years and they know not to get too carried away with anything.
"I'll be happy tonight and maybe tomorrow morning, but after that I and the players will concentrate on the next game.
"Dick Advocaat has said that he has seen Celtic make great starts before and we know that the players have often been in the shadow of Rangers, so I don't think anyone is getting too excited. Most of the players are going away on inter-national duty, and I just hope they come back unscathed."

“Paul is very, very sore at the moment. I don't think he helped matters by playing on with it and then going on a run down the wing - but Lambert is Lambert. I don't know about his chances of playing for Scotland at this minute but I will let you know as soon I have got news."

Dick Advocaat
"We lost in the first 20 minutes, especially with the goals we gave away,"
"Quite simply, we have to give all the credit to Celtic.
"The scoreline doesn't lie, and they deserved to win.
"If you give goals like that away at this level, you will get punished, but at least we know what we have to change.
"We were very poor, and it seemed like every attack they made was a goal. We have four internationalists at the back - and I don't want to point the finger at certain individuals - but we were poor today."
"I am told that their first goal was offside and that the one we had chalked off was not, but I will have to see that on the television."
"They had periods when they really had us under the cosh but we dug in and worked hard for each other.
"We can't get carried away, however, Hibs are going well and they are our next opponents. We have to concentrate on that now."

Match Report

Six-goal Celtic could have had eight

The Scotsman 28/08/2000

Glenn Gibbons at Parkhead

Celtic 6 Sutton (1, 90), Petrov (8), Lambert (11), Larsson (50, 62)
Rangers 2 Reyna (40), Dodds (55 pen)

FOR a team supposedly cowering under an inferiority complex developed by years of subjection, Celtic gave an impeccable impersonation of practised oppressors in what was an astonishing first Old Firm match of this new season.

Clearly inspired by the hardness of physique and spirit brought by the new signings, Chris Sutton and Joos Valgaeren, and the extraordinary resurgence of form by the previously ridiculed Bobby Petta, Martin O'Neill's renascent team not only freed themselves from Rangers' yoke, but reversed the accepted roles by putting their erstwhile tormentors through an ordeal.

Sutton's bravado in the weeks since he arrived on a pounds 6 million fee from Chelsea included the startling assertion that "it's time to put Rangers in their place", evoking yelps of profane retaliation and threatening to burst neck veins among the more animated Ibrox supporters and mere dismissive scepticism among the more placid.

The big striker could hardly have given more substance to his notion, scoring the first and last of Celtic's goals in, astoundingly, the first and last minutes. Sutton's contribution embraced more than a personal double, however, as he underlined the impression - growing since the first match - that he could be an even more profitable partner for Henrik Larsson than the unlamented Mark Viduka.

Sutton virtually terrorised Lorenzo Amoruso and the unconvincing Bert Konterman for most of an afternoon in which he seemed to sense from the start that this would be his game, the milieu in which all the bad memories of a wretched year at Stamford Bridge would be eradicated.

But, in a contest involving 11-man teams, nobody will ever achieve objectives, or even rid themselves of personal demons, without the support Sutton received from team-mates who played with the commitment of revolutionaries.

If Larsson appeared in the first half still to be appreciably short of the touch and sharpness which made him a diabolical presence before last year's leg break, he showed with two goals after the interval that these qualities are recoverable even in the course of a single game.

Curiously, the extraordinary Swede, during a first half of breathtaking incident, missed possibly the two easiest opportunities of the match.

Paul Lambert's exceptional contribution before he was replaced by Johan Mjallby (the result of a groin injury) encompassed more than an exquisite goal and Stilian Petrov, too, when recalling what he gave to the victory, would be entitled to reflect on much more than the close-range header which put him among the scoring credits.

Since the 5-1 defeat on the same ground in November, 1998, Rangers have established such dominion that nobody would have thought it possible they could concede that many, far less six, in a single match against any opposition, domestic or foreign.

As events unfolded yesterday, they could easily have been taken for eight.

These may be early days to be offering judgements on players who were signed only in the summer, but the evidence so far suggests that Konterman and Fernando Ricksen, the Dutch "defenders", already have a great deal of atonement ahead of them if they are to convince a demanding Ibrox support that they are the real thing.

Ricksen was removed after 21 minutes, and not simply because - with Celtic already three ahead - Dick Advocaat wished to resort to another midfielder when he drafted Tugay. It was primarily because the right-back had already been given a tortuous time by Petta, who at one point appeared to be teasing the Ibrox defenders. To Celtic fans, this would have been unimaginable a few months ago.

Konterman appears to lack conviction and solidity as a defender and, teamed with the sometimes disorientated and nonchalant Amoruso, there was an ever-present potential for mayhem in front of Stefan Klos. What would numb the senses of the visiting fans would be the rapidity and the mercilessness with which Celtic would exploit the weakness.

The unreality of those opening 11 minutes, when Celtic established a three-goal lead, made the whole thing seem like a rehearsal, as if the real show - the one in which Celtic perform creditably in defeat - had still to start. But the raucous celebration among the home supporters was a deafening reminder that this was no illusion.

The match was less than a minute old when Lubo Moravcik's corner kick from the left was touched into the box by Alan Stubbs. Larsson actually miscued his scoring attempt and the ball screwed towards Sutton, who bulleted it low over the line with his right foot from a position just a yard or so from the dead-ball line.

Rangers' appalling defending was in full bloom at the second, Petrov running untracked from the 18-yard line to meet another whipped corner from Moravcik six yards out and send the header past Klos. Not an opponent was seen within three yards of the Bulgarian.

It was the diligence and tenacity of Petta and Moravcik on the left which led to the third, the Slovakian finally taking possession, swerving past Konterman and rolling the ball back to Lambert, who drilled his right-foot shot from 15 yards far to the left of Klos.

During the period after Claudio Reyna reduced the deficit with a header from Rod Wallace's chip, an unnecessary anxiety seemed to descend on the home defence, but it may have derived from being in such an unaccustomed position.

Larsson put an end to the nervousness when he received Sutton's chested pass from Jonathan Gould's long punt, dragged the ball past Konterman and chipped Klos with perfect control from outside the area. The Swede headed the fifth from Petta's free kick - this after Billy Dodds had converted a penalty kick awarded for Stephane Mahe's foul on Wallace - and Sutton slotted in the sixth from close range, from Mahe's low centre from the left.

By then, Barry Ferguson had been sent off for deliberate hand ball, his second yellow card after being punished for an earlier foul on Petrov. The midfielder's gesture towards the crowd as he left the field may have recriminations.

As O'Neill himself emphasised before the game, nothing that happened would necessarily indicate that the new era of supremacy for his club is at hand. But those supporters who danced home under the influence of the kind of euphoria that comes only rarely, would receive yesterday's clubbing of the old enemy as at least a step in the direction of salvation.