Celtic Games - Barcelona UEFA Cup 2004

Barcelona 0-0 Celtic

2nd round leg
Nou Camp
(1st leg Celtic 1-0 Barcelona)
Attendance: 78,000




The memories flood back for this game. We were drawn to play Barcelona in the UEFA after another glorious failure to progress to the next round of the Champs lge, but after Seville the year before we were not dispondent. Drawing Barcelona though was never going to be easy, and quite simply as they were the in form side in Europe at that point (Barcelona had just won their 9th straight La Liga game!), so the odds were likely against us. BUT we are Celtic and we have proven against the odds before, and in this one we were taking a hard fought but contentious victory from our first leg at Parkhead down to Camp Nou.

No Rab Douglas (due to a ridiculous sending off in the first game due to a fracas in the tunnel), no Bobo Balde either (suspended for the game also), so in were drafted the inexperienced John Kennedy and David Marshall. Team as below:

Celtic
Marshall

Agathe Varga Kennedy McNamara(c)

Petrov Lennon Pearson Thompson

Larsson Sutton

Barcelona
If optimism wasn’t low enough amongst the faithful, then we could always rely on the Daily Record to help us out with the back page of George Haji slating our chances (cheers lads!). Anyhow, if nothing else then we were going to have a party, with around 30,000 travelling over, and taking over the Ramblas (the Sauchiehall Street in Barcelona) and turning it Green and White! We kept the Green flags flying high all over the place, and you would never have thought it was Spain at times, whilst the Spanish were incredibly friendly, and the banter was generally good natured.

The street musicians were right pests though, and after the 1,001,334th time of hearing “Henrik Larsson is the King of Kings” on the accordion I wanted to jump off the rooftops! Street football and sing a longs were order of the day in the squares, and there was a whole street full of Irish(sic!) pubs. The street artists didn’t know what they were facing when we ribbed each and all as we strolled up and down the Ramblas, most of the entertainers taking it in jest.

Anyhow, back to the game, and this was the star studded team we were up against:

Barcelona

“Victor Valdes”

Reiziger Puyol Olegeur

Xavi Cocu Gerard Gabri

“Luis Enrique”(c) “Luis Garcia” Ronaldinho

Manager: Frank Rijkaard

Ronaldinho, the best footballer in the world up against us! Oh Boy! Viva la Barca!

First blood was to Celtic on the night, as unaware to many of us when we paid for our tickets that we were to bring the weather with us! It was lashing down for the hour or two before the game, and this kept many Barca fans from turning up, scuppering my chances of getting any tickets for the game at all. Beneficially, it meant kinder weather and conditions to the Celtic team relative to the Barca boys, and helped level things up a bit more. The Barca board would not sanction extra release of tickets to allow us in, so only 7-8000 Celts were in the ground, but more then made themselves known.

The Game
The game began, and it was backs against the walls for our boys. Great passing from both sides, but no point denying Barca’s gulf in superior skills to ours. Then in the first minute Ronaldinho threaded through a wonderful ball in the box to Gerard and a great chance for a great goal, but David Marshall bravely parries the ball away from his feet and we can breathe a sigh of relief! Phew! Actually this was the pattern for the rest of the match. Gerard header down to Marshall’s left and another fine save, Garcia from the right and a great cross/shot at goal and Marshall smartly parries it over the bar, a goal mouth scramble and Marshall parries the ball away with a great reflex save and so on. And this was all just the first 15mins!

Marshall wasn’t the only great, as John Kennedy was also displaying ability and experience beyond his years, where amongst other great moments executed a great tackle on Ronaldinho in the box taking the ball away from him where some were shouting penalty but it wasn’t. He harried Ronaldinho and pushed him whenever he came close, clearing lines as need be, and helped to shepherd the defence greatly, having to compensate for the lack of speed from Varga.

We ourselves, to be honest, never made too many chances in the game, ending up defending for most of the time (not exactly the “Glasgow Celtic Way”), but these moments at least give the defence a respite.

The second half in particular was an anxious 45mins, and in the main followed the same pattern as the first in many ways. Barcelona were increasingly frustrated, unable to break down our defence, but both our youngsters, Marshall and Kennedy, were colossuses. Easily Marshall’s goalkeeping performance was the greatest goalkeeping I have ever seen by any Scottish goalkeeper ever, truly tremendous.

Personally, I was biting my nails tense as hell shacked up with all the other Tims in the pub anxious and nervous that we were seeing a great achievement beyond our dreams in some ways, the emotions were so high. Each second ticked by, and I got more nervous, but more great saves and tackles came but it was still all very close.

And then that was it, the final whistle!!! We’d held out.

Celebration
The emotions after the result in the whole of the Green and White universe were amongst the greatest you could imagine. In some ways it was incredible after the anti-climax of Seville, and to reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup, the prize for beating Barca, for the second year in a row was vindication of MoN’s managerial ability (no simple luck in doing that twice). I had never felt so high, I never hugged so many people in joy or kissed so many women, it was as if we'd just won the lottery!

Celtic boss Martin O'Neill about our hero for the night: "Marshall rose in stature and was fantastic", and that is as succinct as you can put his performance in that game.

This simply was MoN’s greatest managerial moment and achievement IMO (not Seville). It has been sidelined too much (or even forgotten) but this was against the odds big time. We had beaten one of the genuine top teams in Europe over two legs. Not always a pretty game to watch, but exciting and tense, and the feeling will never leave me. A game that surely needs to be rediscovered by many (especially by the doubters).

In any case, Seville was more than just the game and that is why it is remembered more than this one. A mini-Seville Carnival it was in Barcelona, and I for one will never forget it, or let it be so!
(JBC)

Spanish welcome
The fans may have drunk the town dry, but we wer made so welcome, that I have to highlight the great little article as follows:
"You'll never drink alone" - Mundo Deportivo



Barcelona: Valdes, Reiziger (Overmars 53), Puyol (Marquez 34), Oleguer, Xavi, Cocu, Gerard, Gabri, Luis Enrique (Sergio 64), Ronaldinho, Luis Garcia. Subs Not Used: Rustu, Quaresma, Iniesta, Oscar Lopez.

Celtic: Marshall, Kennedy, McNamara (Miller 52), Varga, Agathe, Lennon, Pearson, Petrov, Thompson, Larsson, Sutton (Sylla 83). Subs Not Used: McGovern, Lambert, Mjallby, Beattie, Smith.

Attendance: 78,000
Referee: Domenico Messina (Italy).


Quotes:
MoN on the game
"It was a fabulous effort - the players are all out on their feet. They were amazing to keep going like they did.
"Some of our younger players really came of age out there,"

Marshall on the game
"We just thought if we got a goal, we would have a chance but to keep a clean sheet in the Nou Camp was unbelievable,"

"In the first half, they were saves I expected to make but I made a good one in the second period. I was just pleased to help the team.


MoN on Marshall
"He walked into the dressing room to fantastic applause from the rest of the side."

“I thought David Marshall was absolutely excellent and the players in front of him were terrific.

“I did have great faith in him because he has terrific ability and I have been saying that for some considerable time.

“Tonight was a really big match for him. He made a terrific save at the feet of one of the Barcelona players in the first two minutes of the game.

“He definitely has risen in stature. One of his saves in the second half was from point-blank range to tip over the bar which was absolutely fantastic.

“He did a TV interview after the game and was the last one in the dressing room and when he came in there was an enormous applause for him off his team-mates.

“I didn’t say anything to him but just to try and go out and enjoy it. That was my only message to him.

“With David you just don’t know how he is because he is so laid back. I am sure he is nervous but he has a terrific presence and calmness. He doesn’t get fazed.

“I said to him after the game that it’s downhill from here – he should just retire after tonight.”

Henke on Marshall
(Celtic striker Henrik Larsson hailed Marshall's ice-cool display, but joked that his tender age had played its part.)
"I think he is too young to have any nerves - he doesn't realise how big it was," said the Swede.
"He was tremendous - from the first minute of the game onwards.
"The save he made from Luis Garcia in the second half was outstanding.
"I don't think you can have a better full European debut so I'm very pleased for him."

Pictures
Barcelona 0 Celtic 0 pictures

DVD