The Road to Seville – Celtic’s Incredible Journey to the 2003 UEFA Cup Final | OneFootball

Celtic’s Run to the 2002/03 UEFA Cup Final: A Look Back …

As we all know, Celtic were the first team in the history of British football to lift the European Cup, which would then become the UEFA Champions League. That success came back in May, 1967. Unfortunately, as this season’s European campaign kicks off for the rest of the continent, there will be no Scottish representation throughout the latter stages of UEFA’s three club competitions this year. Both Celtic and arch-rivals theRangers exited the Champions League at the group stages, and oddschecker now makes Manchester City the favourites for the trophy.

The scoreboard displaying the final score is seen during the UEFA Champions League group A match between Rangers FC and Liverpool FC at Ibrox Stadium on October 12, 2022. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images)

For avid football fans, there are few moments as memorable as watching a team battle through a tournament and make it all the way to the end. Celtic’s run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2002/03 was one of those special moments. Led by Swedish striker Henrik Larsson, Celtic beat some of Europe’s best teams on their way to the final. With the Bhoys heading into the second half of the campaign with no European football on the horizon, we decided to take a look 20 years down memory lane.

Let’s take a look back at the incredible journey to Seville and remember what made it so special.

The Road to Seville

The run began with a convincing 10-1 aggregate victory over Lithuania’s FK Sūduva in the first round. Henrik Larsson bagged himself a 29-minute hat trick in the home leg at Parkhead, and that was a sign of things to come for the Swedish hotshot.

That victory set up a tie with English side Blackburn Rovers in the second round. The 2001/02 Premier League season was the Lancashire club’s first in the English top flight in two years and they managed to finish tenth in the table, as well as defeat Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup final to pick up the trophy. That would secure them a foray into Europe, but goals from Larsson and former Rovers striker Chris Sutton gave Celtic a 3-0 aggregate victory and safe passage through to the third round, a date with Celta Vigo.

Here, the Bhoys would struggle. Another goal from Larsson would seal a 1-0 victory in the home leg. John Hartson would score in Spain, meaning that the hosts needed three goals to progress. In the end, they could only manage two, meaning that Celtic progressed on away goals.

In the fourth round, they faced off against German giants Stuttgart and the two legs threw up nine goals. Surprisingly, Swedish striking sensation Larsson wouldn’t bag a single one of them. Fans didn’t care one bit, however, and a 5-4 aggregate victory set up a mouthwatering quarterfinal with 2000/01 champions, English giants Liverpool.

The Latter Stages

This was a Liverpool team that was filled with stars. Four of the team, namely Michael Owen, Emile Heskey, Steven Gerrard, and Nick Barmby were all regulars with the Three Lions. The aforementioned Gerrard, as well as Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypiä, Milan Baroš, Vladimír Šmicer, Jerzy Dudek, Dietmar Hamann, John Arne Riise, Igor Bišćan, and Djimi Traoré, would all feature prominently in Liverpool’s UEFA Champions League success three years later.

However, over these two legs they were second best, and by some distance. Celtic won the tie 3-1 on aggregate, including a stunning 2-0 win at Anfield, and secured their place in the final four.

There, they would meet the Portuguese side Boavista. With just over ten minutes remaining in the second leg of the tie, Celtic were on the brink of exiting the competition. However, their star player would once again come up with the goods. Larsson would bag with ten minutes left on the clock, sealing Celtic’s first European final in over three decades.

In the end, Jose Mourinho’s FC Porto would prove too much to handle in the final, although Martin O’Neill’s team gave as good as they got. The Portuguese side would twice take the lead. However, Larsson would bag two equalisers to send the tie to extra time. With the game on a knife edge, Brazilian striker Derlei scored the winner in the 115th minute, sealing Mourinho’s first of five European trophies. He would add the UEFA Champions League to his collection with Porto the following year, a victory that remains one of the greatest shocks in the history of the competition.