1
H had never really seen me play live before,
they'd only seen me on the television.
It was a dream start to the match
wasn't it?
It was a dream start for me, but a dream
start for the team as well, We played
extremely well and created so many
chances, Throughout the team we had
quality players - Didier Agathe on the right,
Henrik Larsson and Chris Sutton up front
- and it's very easy to play with players
like that, There was a great understanding
there, especially between myself and
Henrik, and that made it so easy to play
together,
Do you remember your goal well?
Yes, I remember it very clearly, It was a
throw-in and Lenny played it to Sutty,
who took a touch, turned and crossed it on
goal, The keeper came out and punched it
away, he could maybe have done better but
I anticipated it so I got the ball. As soon as I
touched the ball I knew what I was going to
do, and it went in. I knew that's what I had
to do and it was an unbelievable feeling,
that moment meant a lot to me.
Do you think that goal startled Ajax?
Scoring away from home that early is
always good for the away team, I think it
did startle them a bit because we played
extremely well, as I keep saying, and
created so many chances. They weren't
dominating as much as they are known for
and we were playing really good football.
We showed how direct we could play, how
good we were on the counter-attack and
how we were also able to keep the ball,
Every one was on their game that day,
And things continued to get better
and better with Didier Agathe scoring
shortly after you?
Yes, Didier scored after a pass from Henrik,
The weight on that pass was perfect, and
Didier took a touch past him before striking
on goal. He made it look so simple but it was
so great at the same time. The third one
was from a ball to Sutty, He turned, played
it to the right to Didier, he took a touch and
puts the ball in, It fell between the two
central defenders and it was a beautiful
header from Chris Sutton.
Did the squad fly home feeling like the
tie was won?
No, there's always the second leg, Obviously
it was a good score to go home with but it's
never done at that stage. It went back to 0-0
on the home leg and we had to win that one
as well, We were buzzing but we weren't
complacent, we knew it wasn't over, We
knew if we were to stick to our game-plan
we would get through, and we did,
Where does that result rank in terms
of your career highlights?
This was definitely one of the highlights of
my career. It was the first time again that
in Celtic's history they had qualified for the
UEFA Champions League and to be a part of
that was really special,
You went on to have some excellent
nights in Europe. What stands out as
your favourite?
The Liverpool game, even though I wasn't
playing, was brilliant, that whole UEFA Cup
run was, But my highlight was the Juventus
game, it was an amazing atmosphere that
night, There were great goals, the fans
were amazing and we played against some
quality players. We were playing against
Nedved, Del Piero, Trezeguet and that's
where you want to be as a professional
football, You want to play at the highest
level, that's what you dream of as a kid,
and that's the highest level in club football.
Playing at Celtic Park on European nights is
something everyone always asks me about,
because it's something that is so special. You
only have to listen to the top players from
the top clubs because they always say how
amazing it was to play at Celtic Park - they
60 Celtic vAjax
