The Replay: Celtic v Barcelona. March 11, 2004
Or why Chick Young is the Walter Cronkite of European football
Welcome to The Replay, where every month we blow the dust off a vintage match from bygone times, pour it into a pint glass and get all teary thinking about a time when we were young and good looking and there was no question that the future belonged to us.
Previously, we have revisited Scotland’s first group match at the 1986 World Cup; a crucial qualifier on the road to Euro 96; an Edinburgh derby from 2006 that played out like a sequel to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; and a Dundee v Kilmarnock clash from 2001 when Ayrshireman Alan Mahood outshone Argentine sophisticate Claudio Caniggia.
This time, as Martin O’Neill prepares to take Celtic into a knockout tie in Europe for the first time since 2004, The Replay is going back to that UEFA Cup run, the season after Seville.
Like O’Neill himself, that team seems to loom large over the modern history of Scottish football. Two different Rangers sides have reached European finals since then, and Celtic have had greater unilateral dominance of domestic prizes in the seasons since O’Neill first left. Yet those teams don’t quite have the heft of O’Neill’s best elevens, or those Rangers sides with whom they jousted across Glasgow.
Are we just romanticising our younger days, when the idea of 32-waist jeans didn’t seem like a cruel joke? Do we secretly prefer the visual aesthetic of pre-digital broadcasts, with less resolution, less depth of focus, less criticism of our choice to watch live televised sport from our co-habitants? Or is it — and stay with me here — that Henrik Larsson is a better watch than Daizen Maeda, regardless of how fast he can run?
In the first part of the century, Celtic — and Rangers — were attracting and retaining a better class of athlete, before moving by necessity to a recruitment model based more around development and resale. Also, this team in particular seared into the memory indelible moments, great goals by those big-ticket players scored during titanic heavyweight brawls with continental giants. That shit stays with you.
Let’s see why this team maintains such a rosy legacy, while welcoming to The Replay the plucky upstarts from Catalonia, who may just have a player or two worth watching themselves.
THE WARM-UP
Celtic are here, in the round of 16 of the UEFA Cup, only because they came up a little short in a tough Champions League group, finishing two points behind Bayern Munich and one more behind Lyon, having lost each of their three away games by a single goal.
Barcelona, on the other hand, are exactly where they should be. They have not won a trophy for five years and they finished sixth in La Liga last season. While Celtic were playing in Munich, Barcelona had to play a team called Matador Puchov, from Slovakia, in the spit-and-sawdust rounds of UEFA’s second-tier football fest.
The previous summer saw turmoil at Camp Nou. In came a new chairman, Joan Laporta, a new manager, Frank Rijkaard, and Ronaldinho, a 23-year-old Brazilian signed from PSG for €32.25million in the fulfilment of a key Laporta election pledge. He has long hair, massive teeth, he wears the Barcelona No.10 shirt and does things with a football you’ll want to tell your kids about. You can’t miss him.
More importantly than all that guff, this football match takes place mere hours after terrorist bombs killed 193 people and injured over 2,000 more in Madrid. There is a minute’s silence at Celtic Park to recognise a tragedy the terrible wake of which is still rolling over Spain’s capital.
Celtic are in terrible nick. Injuries to forwards Shaun Maloney, Chris Sutton and John Hartson mean Craig Beattie gets a rare start here. They only have six substitutes (including the reserve goalkeeper, who obviously won’t be a factor tonight) because that’s how many match-fit, UEFA-registered players they have on staff!
Celtic wear Umbro. I could do with the hoops being a bit wider and I don’t like the way the black Carling logo sits across the chest. 4/10, would not buy.
Barcelona are in Nike, old-school blaugrana verticles, a chunky collar and no sponsor. 😍
Your whistler is Wolfgang Stark and that is a good name for a referee. He’s 34 and he is a bank teller from Landshut, Germany. Let’s go.
THE FIRST HALF
2.35
Ronaldinho is faced by Stan Petrov in the middle of the pitch. He hops backwards twice, rolling the ball with his studs, and then gives a six-yard, no-look pass to Xavi, who is six yards behind him. It’s all completely unnecessary and we need a lot more of this sort of thing.
Scoreflash! Bordeaux 3 Club Brugge 1
This might not be a big deal in 2004, but now this would be one of the greatest ever upsets of European football, a fourth-tier French team beating a Champions League perennial.
4.31
Even without Sutton and Hartson, there is a clear physical mismatch here. Celtic have Stanislav Varga and Bobo Balde at the back, and Larsson is majestic in the air. As is Carles Puyol, despite not being the biggest centre-back, but in general, Barcelona are going to be outmatched at corners. So… here they are with two inventive variations in succession. Xavi rolls it to Ronaldinho as he comes off the near post, he slips to the bye-line, cuts it back and Olegeur’s shot is blocked by Balde for another corner. This time, Xavi pings a flat one to the edge of the box, where Luis Garcia should do better than slash it over the bar. Clever stuff.
6.43
It’s great to see Xavi pass the football again. Here he finds Javier Saviola, El Conejo or The Rabbit if you prefer. Balde has seen it coming and slides in and Saviola… just steps out of the way! Balde sliding in is about the same height as Saviola standing up, so perhaps what is on its face an act of despicable cowardice has some justification.
11.09
We need to talk about Stephen Pearson. Six weeks before this game, he was at Motherwell, where his form had been rewarded with a first Scotland cap. Here he looks to the manor born, driving at Michael Reiziger and Puyol as though he’s been doing it all his life. This time he catches a long ball on his chest and just as Puyol thinks he can pounce, Pearson nudges it forward with his thigh and unleashes a cracker of a drive that zips just past Victor Valdes’s right-hand post.
18.02
We’re live on the BBC for both legs of this tie, thank goodness. As well as Rob MacLean and Sandy Clark on commentary, we have intermittent updates from touchline reporter Chick Young. “Frank Rijkard is so laid-back he’s almost horizontal” may not be an entirely original line, but as we cut to Rijkard leaning on the side of the dugout as if he’s waiting for Mrs Rijkard to come out of the changing rooms at Marks, it does make sense.
20.39
I love football because it gives us both Ronaldinho and Bobo Balde. Ronnie bamboozles Alan Thompson with a flick and a spin before setting Garcia free for a cutback which Balde intercepts and clears. When the ball is returned to Gabri, Balde slides in with full force and no regard for consequence; Gabri ends up 10 yards behind Balde, it’s like the aftermath of a motorcycle accident.
24.57
What a move! What a miss! It goes Xavi-Ronnie-Thiago Motta so fast that Celtic defenders are spinning around, trying to work out where the ball is. It’s at the feet of Saviola, burrowing (ahem) into the box. He takes two touches, the ball is on his right foot and Rab Douglas has advanced to the edge of the six-yard box when Saviola side-foots well wide with his right foot.
29.53
Comedy gold from Rob MacLean. “News that Valencia have been beaten…”
Scoreflash: Genclerbirligi 1 Valencia 0
“… by that well-known Turkish team.”
32.37
Balde breaks up a Barcelona attack and follows the counter upfield as Larsson picks things up. He jinks Puyol and looks for a pass, before realising that the best option is his giant centre-back. Screw it, thinks Larsson, this’ll be a laugh, and rolls a ball into the box. Balde lumbers after it like Robocop, Reiziger glides across to kill the danger. The Dutchman gets there first but Balde launches into a sliding tackle that turns into the game’s first shot on target, pinging across goal and forcing Valdes into a save.
35.21
Xavi side-foots a first-time volleyed pass from a deflected Celtic clearance right to Saviola, he finds Ronnie who is suddenly in the box faced only by Douglas. The great Brazilian drags a right-footed shot across goal and wide. Two big let-offs for Celtic. “Martin O’Neill is raging,” says Chick Young.
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37.22
“The referee has been conned there,” says Sandy Clark on co-comms, as a replay shows Varga sliding under Saviola and knocking him into the stands with his hip. Yellow card for Varga.
40.07
Ronaldinho! That’s more like it. Isolated with Didier Agathe on the left, he flip-flaps the full-back, taking out both Agathe and Pearson and popping up with the ball glued to his laces on the bye-line. Ronnie fizzes one in between Balde and Douglas at the near post and it looks like a tap-in for Garcia before Jackie McNamara steams in from left-back to save the day. Three replays of the Ronaldinho move, and I could have gone for three more.
41.38
Larsson comes alive. He pins Olegeur at a throw in, and back-heels the ball to Petrov on the edge of the box. Petrov hits a first-time pass to Thompson as he charges the area but it’s on his right, which is the difference between a half-time lead for Celtic and a sharp save by Valdes, down and to his left.
44.31
Mark this down. Motta challenges Balde for a header by jumping into the defender and throwing a fist at his face. Bobo is holding his mouth and looking around, evaluating what has just happened and what may happen next as a direct consequence.
“Bobo’s gonnae get ye!” sings Celtic Park.
Half-time. 0-0.
MacLean: “There’s news from the tunnel. There’s been a bust-up. Punches flying.”
Chick: “A right Barney… Motta in the middle of it all… the police were there, too.”
We see the tunnel area, with Rijkard trying to keep Motta out of trouble. David Marshall, the Celtic substitute goalkeeper, is emerging onto the pitch, with a strange look in his eyes, as if he has just received life-altering news.
Now we are live with Chick.
This is exactly like Walter Cronkite, the legendary anchorman once known as ‘the most trusted man in America’ breaking the news of the Kennedy assassination in 1963. Exactly the same.
Chick tells us that Motta and Celtic goalkeeper Douglas have been red carded after a fight in the tunnel. However, just like in ’63, that’s only the starting point to a web of mystery, claim and counter-claim. From post-match interviews later this evening all the way to podcasts some two decades later, the facts will slowly emerge from the fog of war. Or, to put it another way, Balde leathered Motta in the tunnel, there was a multi-player melee, Douglas tried to break it up and the referee sent off Douglas and Motta on the somewhat misguided advice of another official.
Beattie’s evening is over. On comes Marshall, just turned 19, to keep goal against Barcelona and it’s 10 against 10.
THE SECOND HALF
46.45
Ronaldinho pops a long ball over the top to release The Rabbit. McNamara smells the danger and seems to get there in time, but Saviola does a stop-start move to get a yard and a clear shot from inside the box, but again a Barcelona forward misses the target with a big chance.
48.05
Red card for The Rabbit! Saviola is just outmuscled by Thompson, there’s nothing else in it, but the wee Argentinian takes the huff as the ball bobbles away and takes a good old kick at the back of the Celtic midfielder’s leg. It’s an auto-red. What a nutter. “Ten v nine, is that right?” asks Clark. Yes, Sandy. That’s right.
54.54
Pearson lures Reiziger in by slowing down when receiving the ball on the left, then moving off just as the full-back commits to a sliding tackle. Pearson takes a sore one, Reiziger takes a yellow. Take note.
58.58
Celtic are in front and it’s a goal containing the DNA of this team. Everyone does their thing. Agathe tests his opposing full-back with a sprint down the right. Petrov spots the space this has created and has time to ping a deep cross into the box. There is no Sutton or Hartson, so Larsson does No.9 things, getting between Puyol and Reiziger for a perfect knockdown. Finally, into the box rushes Thompson, who spears a left-foot volley into the ground and past Valdes. Celtic Park is rocking.
61.30
Well, Wolfgang, you’ve made a howler there. Reiziger takes out Pearson high and late after Celtic’s dynamo robs him of the ball. The referee realises a second booking for the Barcelona man will leave ten v eight and decides to give a free-kick and nothing else. A more plausible course of action would have been to penalise Pearson for getting his thigh flesh on Reiziger’s studs. Rijkaard immediately withdraws Reiziger for Gerard Lopez.
65.01
Motta has tried to sneak out to the mouth of the tunnel, but Celtic Park grasses him up like it’s a panto. Soon he is surrounded by suits and police, but instead of retreating into the dressing room, he establishes a beachhead several metres down the tunnel. His field of vision must be minute, but he is taking his stand and adding to the evening’s drama and for that we must thank him.
71.32
Garcia is replaced by Ricardo Quaresma, the Portuguese Stephen Pearson.
Scoreflash: Liverpool 1 Marseille 1 (Drogba)
Must keep an eye on that lad.
76.51
Ronnie is now playing an entirely different game to everyone else on the pitch, waiting in the centre circle for opportunities to do his thing and impact the match, while conserving energy. Now he takes the ball in front of Balde, taps it with his right foot onto his left toe so it zips away from the defender. Celtic Park lets out a loud, collective ‘Ooooohhh!’
82.33
Thompson is replaced by Momo Sylla and so I think of 2 Unlimited.
86.07
Sandy gives Man of the Match to Pearson. Balde was the only challenger, but I think he got it right. Now all we need to find out is which lucky viewer who agreed with Sandy has called in at 25p per minute and won the Man of the Match competition…
88.38
Ronaldinho bids Celtic Park farewell and is replaced by Marc Overmars. Andres Iniesta! Andres Iniesta is on the bench! If only Rijkaard knew what he had.
90.26
Sean Connor from Inverness! Sean Connor from Inverness has won the competition and receives a DVD player. If we factor in three weeks for the BBC to get the prize to Sean and assume he had enough disposable income for one new title every two weeks, here are the No.1 selling DVDs in the UK for the first month of Sean’s new home cinema regime: Master and Commander: Far Side of the World; Kill Bill, Volume One; The Last Samurai. That’s a pretty good run for Sean straight off the bat.
91.53
Marshall has the ball in his hands as the final whistle blows. How must he feel? Has it dawned on him that Douglas will now be suspended for the second leg in Catalonia, two weeks from tonight?
THE AFTERMATH
The second leg finished 0-0 and is one of two folkloric performances that bookend Marshall’s career, such were his heroics that night at Camp Nou. Celtic progressed to a quarter-final against Villarreal, which ended in defeat, a 2-0 loss in Spain following a 1-1 draw at home.
In Scotland, O’Neill’s team won the double, taking the league flag by 17 points, including a 25-game winning streak that set a British record. They won the Scottish Cup with a 3-1 victory over Dunfermline. Larsson scored two that day and 41 in 58 games across the season. A year later, O’Neill resigned to care for his wife, Geraldine, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma.
Larsson moved to Barcelona in the summer of 2004, under freedom of contract, and was a key figure in their 2006 Champions League win, a pivotal moment in their rebirth as a European superpower. Neither Marshall nor Pearson spent the meat of their careers in the Celtic team. Pearson played in England, most notably with Derby, and in India and back at Motherwell. Marshall, too, spent most of his time across the border; his other bookend, of course, was the penalty shoot-out against Serbia which qualified Scotland for Euro 2020 (actually 2021).
Barcelona made progress under Rijkaard, but it was under his successor, Pep Guardiola, that they became a superpower. The coach and the emergence from their academy of one of the greatest footballers of all time, Lionel Messi, were key components of that success, but four players who made the trip to Glasgow in 2004 were vital to Barcelona’s most glorious era, and that of the Spain national team. They are Xavi, Puyol, Valdes and Iniesta, who warmed the bench at Celtic Park.
Ronaldinho? He finished third in voting for the Ballon d’Or in 2004, nine months after this game, despite Barcelona ending the season with nothing. He was that kind of player. Think of Xavi or Iniesta, as great as they were, and you see too the team around them. Ronaldinho takes up the screen all by himself. And it’s impossible to look away.