| Match Pictures | Matches: 2001 – 2002 | 2001-02 Pictures | European Cup |
Trivia
- Champions League Qualifiers: Second Leg match
- First Leg: Ajax 1-3 Celtic
- Second Leg: Celtic 0-1 Ajax
- Agg: Celtic 3-2 Ajax
- Celtic practically seal a place into the group stages of the CL for the first time. Second leg to come, where Celtic lose 1-0 at home, so 3-2 aggregate victory.
- Bobby Petta (2013):
- "For me it was exciting because being from Holland, and having played for Feyenoord, it was my old rivals. It was exciting news and it gave me the opportunity to go back to Holland. People were wondering how I was doing, but it was a chance for me to show my friends and family, and people back in Holland that I was still playing.
“It was a very strong Celtic team. Almost every player was an international player, so there was experience and quality there. Martin O´Neill and his coaches got the best out of the players and it was a great time to be at Celtic.
“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.
“ I remember the goal 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.”
- "For me it was exciting because being from Holland, and having played for Feyenoord, it was my old rivals. It was exciting news and it gave me the opportunity to go back to Holland. People were wondering how I was doing, but it was a chance for me to show my friends and family, and people back in Holland that I was still playing.
Review
Celtic pulled off the near unthinkable. Having not achieved much in Europe (let alone the European Cup) for a generation, then this tie-up against Ajax (who only a few years back were European Cup winners) was thought to going to be a one-sided affair. It was, but for Celtic.
Fabulous performance with stand-outs from unexpected sources like Petta.
This match finally brings Celtic respectability sorely lacking for the club having once had an illustrious European pedigree, and now it's time to get that rebooted.
(albert ein-jock-stein of KDS forum, 2013)
It is astonishing how well we played. Not only did we score 3 goals but we could have score at least another 3.
Arguably Didier Agathe's and definitely Bobby Petta's finest ever performances for the club. Henrik at the top of his game and Sutton bullying their defence like the arrogant bassa he was.
I believe it's Celtic's finest away performance in a European game since we beat, you know it, Ajax away back in '82 with a late George McCluskey goal. Although the aulder ones on here can make a more informed judgement on that.
Happy days and just a sign of what a fine team we'd become under the management of Martin O'Neill.
Teams
Ajax :
Grim; Chivu, Trabelsi, Mido, Arveladze, Pasanen, Machlas,Yakubu, Van der Vaart, Ikedia, Cruz.
Goal: Arveladaze 40
Celtic:
Douglas; Boyd, McNamara, Valgaeren, Larsson, Sutton,Lambert, Petta, Agathe, Lennon, Mjallby.
Goals: Petta 7, Agathe 20, Sutton 55
Att:
Referee: A Lopez Nieto (Spain).
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Highlights
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Articles
Fighting fans mar Celtic success
Arveladze 40 | Petta 7, Agathe 20, Sutton 55
- guardian.co.uk, Thursday August 9 2001 22.54 BST
First-half goals from the wingers Bobby Petta and Didier Agathe in the seventh and 20th minutes gave Martin O'Neill's inspired side the perfect opening and, although Ajax pulled one back through Shota Arveladze close to half- time, Chris Sutton restored Celtic's merited advantage with a great header 10 minutes after the interval.
Sutton's was an imposing performance, yet he was over shadowed by Neil Lennon. If the latter is in similar form in the return then Ajax's hopes of a fightback are already forlorn.
During the afternoon there were looks ranging from dismay to amusement from the locals at the green tribe that had colonised the city centre. But there was little hint of the sporadic, unpleasant scenes outside the ground later, when Celtic and Ajax fans clashed on the stairs into the stadium. Police held off initially and it was the stewards who bore the brunt of the fighting.
The trouble did not appear widespread, though once inside the Amsterdam Arena the looks of dismay and amusement continued. At least this was at the football.
Petta was at the centre of these, much as he has been throughout his two years at Parkhead. When John Barnes brought him from Ipswich in 1999, it was to a background of "who?" Petta subsequently lived down to all expectations.
Under O'Neill, however, Petta has blossomed, to the extent that he is a certain starter every week. Thus he was encouraged by O'Neill to forget the knee injury that restricted himagainst Kilmarnock last Saturday to 18 minutes. How quickly both men were to feel the benefit of that decision.
It had been an understandably tentative beginning and when Lennon played a seventh-minute pass into the feet of Sutton, few expected little more than a safe lay-off. Sutton instead turned and hit a fairly weak, curling shot. It seemed soft enough for the Ajax goalkeeper Fred Grim to catch but he chose to punch. Grim miscued. The ball fell conveniently to Petta who, from a narrowing angle, beat the goalkeeper and the back-pedalling Hatem Trabelsi.
A dream opening, and 10 minutes later things almost got better for Celtic. Agathe, like Petta having a fine game on the opposite wing, swung in a corner that Henrik Larsson met first. The ball flicked off Larsson's forehead, struck the bar and dropped to Sutton. He just failed to make the connection.
Scottish optimism was not hurt by that minor seback. Four minutes later a potential Celtic breakaway was turned into definite danger by Sutton's cute nudge to Larsson. The Swede slid the ball into the path of the flying Agathe. Cristian Chivu was left stranded and Agathe pounded on and placed a firm shot low past the exposed Grim.
Robert Douglas was forced into a sturdy block from Mido and five minutes before the interval the Dutch pulled a goal back. Douglas was again asked to make a save. Again he did so, from Nikos Machlas, but the rebound landed at the feet of Arveladze and the Georgian does not miss from seven yards.
There was still time before the interval for a superb Celtic move featuring Lennon, Joos Valgaeren, Larsson and Sutton to bring a brilliant save from Grim. Celtic derived deserved confidence from that.
After the re-start Larsson nearly scored immediately after a flick from Sutton. That was close, as was a terrific 20-yard shot from the Ajax substitute Zlatan Ibrahimovic that required a flying save from Douglas.
In the 54th minute Sutton delivered what should be the tie's decisive blow. Lennon won possession against the odds in midfield. From there the ball was ferried to Agathe via Sutton and when Agathe's tempting cross came in, Sutton met it on the run from six yards. With Grim nowhere the ball cannoned in off the bar.
Ajax : Grim; Chivu, Trabelsi, Mido, Arveladze, Pasanen, Machlas,Yakubu, Van der Vaart, Ikedia, Cruz.
Celtic: Douglas; Boyd, McNamara, Valgaeren, Larsson, Sutton,Lambert, Petta, Agathe, Lennon, Mjallby.
Referee: A Lopez Nieto (Spain).
Champions League: Petta sets Celtic on the path to glittering prize
On the way: Didier Agathe scores Celtic's second as they cruise past Ajax
Telegraph
By Roddy Forsyth
10:01PM BST 08 Aug 2001
Ajax Amsterdam (1) 1 Celtic (2) 3
DAZZLING Celtic took a mighty stride towards qualifying for the group stage of the Champions League for the first time when they outdistanced a clever but callow Ajax side in the Amsterdam ArenA with goals from Bobby Petta, Didier Agathe and Chris Sutton.
Ajax flickered briefly into menacing life late in the first-half when Shota Arveladze, the Georgian forward, netted from a rebound but Celtic finished the stronger side, with Sutton forcing Fred Grim into an acrobatic save to keep the score within bounds.
One of the alterations was forced by the suspension of Alan Thompson, who was replaced in midfield by Jackie McNamara, while the other was a matter of preference, with the eccentric Olivier Tebily dropped and Tom Boyd called in to take his place on the left side of Celtic's back three.
After only six minutes Celtic took the lead through Petta, a former Feyenoord player to rub salt into the Ajax wound, after Sutton had attempted a curled shot to the back post.
Grim flapped at the ball, pushing it out only as far as the Dutchman, who took a touch and struck the ball high past the goalkeeper as Yakubu Abubakari frantically tried to intervene. Hatem Trabelsi, an Ajax debutant, had been absent without leave.
Ten minutes later, from a cleverly worked corner by Petta and McNamara, Henrik Larsson came within a fraction of extending Celtic's lead as he headed against the bar and watched the ball bounce down just on the wrong side of the line.
However, the second goal was only postponed for a short interval and when it arrived it was created by Larsson and finished by Agathe, who gathered possession and left Cristian Chivu trailing as he bolted into the box, drew Grim and placed the ball between the goalkeeper and the far post.
Celtic were bound to draw breath after such a start and Ajax, shaken but also stirred by their setbacks, began to press. A cute move linking Pius Akedia and Daniel Cruz let Mido in for a shot which Rob Douglas beat out impressively.
Ajax did break through five minutes before the interval when Akedia's cutback reached Nikos Machlas, whose shot was parried by Douglas and the rebound turned into the net by the previously anonymous Arveladze.
Still, Celtic had another outstanding chance to increase their advantage in first-half injury-time when Sutton came across the Ajax defence for a shot which cannoned back from Grim's chest from no more than a yard out.
And to emphasise their hunger to kill the tie in the first leg if possible Celtic saw Larsson come within a foot of scoring when he killed the ball on his chest and struck it just beyond the far post.
Ajax replied in kind when Machlas forced Douglas into beating the ball behind two handed. But Celtic romped back upfield and when Agathe hoisted a swirling cross from the left it was met by Sutton with a full-blooded header which crashed in off the underside of the crossbar.