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Ten Glorious Goals Against Rangers

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The media is determined to turn the coming semi-final into a match between Celtic and Rangers; we all know it’s the second game between ourselves and an Ibrox Newco. The media’s obsession with this fixture, and their hope of restoring it (do they know a good necromancer?) might be annoying, but we ought not to let it get in the way of our honest-to-God pleasure at some of the great moments we enjoyed when that fixture was still being played.

As Celtic fans we’ve been fortunate to enjoy some incredible goals against that lot, and I could have selected dozens (easily) for this piece. Yet you have to draw the line somewhere, and in selecting these I’ve not gone back further than 1998, although there are numerous magical moments prior to that which could have easily made the list.

Why 1998?

Three reasons; TV being the first. We have footage of all these goals, something that can’t be send for many of the others I might have picked.

Secondly, these goals are those many of my generation grew up. I know that’s not fair to those who are older, but I’m sure they’ll not object to many of these being on the list.

The last reason is that we’ve enjoyed some exquisite moments of individual brilliance in the years since Lambert’s screamer, perhaps more of them than any other era. There are goals in here that would have lit up World Cup finals, moments that were so special they’ll be on the highlight reel of this club well into the future.

This isn’t to say that we’ve had more of them than other eras but that I could find so many, so quickly, is a testament to how great this era was.

I’ve put these in no particular order … as far as favourites go, there are three I can’t choose from anyway.

You’ll read that in the relevant sections.

Enjoy them.

They are special.

They are history, and as we’ll never score goals against that particular club again they are all we’ve got left.

Andreas Thom Hits A Screamer In A 3-3 Thriller At Ibrox

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When Andy Thom signed for Celtic for £2.2 million he was our record signing up until that time.

Although often mistakenly referred to as a forward, he was actually a cultured midfielder with a fearsome ability to hit a ball.

For a while at Celtic Park he made up one part of an explosive quarter with Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Paolo DiCanio and Jorge Cadete, at least until the Three Amigos departed amidst the bitterness and acrimony we all remember so un-fondly.

Thom was a model professional, but he was 30 when he arrived at Parkhead and so his powers were on the wane before he left.

But whilst he was at Celtic Park we were treated to frequent moments of magic.

This was one of them, and probably the most well-known and best loved.

The match itself was a genuine classic; a 3-3 draw which had high drama, controversy and some spectacular performances.

It was Thom’s goal that lives longest in the memory though, a thing of genuine beauty.

Simon Donnelly took a long pass on the left, and flicked the ball inside to Thom. He strode forward, purposefully, eyed the goal for a split second and unleashed a fantastic, dazzling, right foot shot that no goalkeeper in the world was going to get near.

The goal was the first of the six in that game, but it was not bettered.

Paul Lambert’s Screamer Seals A Massive Celtic Win In The Year That Stopped The Ten

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There was a time when Celtic fans defined the start of every year by how our team got in on in the New Year’s fixture with Rangers. These games were always important, but there was never one quite so vital to our club than the one that took place on 2 January 1998, as we fought valiantly to prevent Rangers winning a tenth title in a row, eclipsing our own record.

That game was unforgettable. The atmosphere was electric.

We were going into that game with confidence but without arrogance. Every player knew what was at stake. Craig Burley, who this site slated yesterday, was exceptional in that game, but Paul Lambert was better than that.

It was his first season in the Hoops; he was an excellent signing for us, a European Cup winning midfield who we got our hands on for only £2 million.

A bargain in anybody’s language.

He stayed with us for eight seasons, and scored some truly remarkable goals and was a player of the highest quality throughout, as comfortable in Win Janen’s midfield as he later proved to be in Martin O’Neill’s. This is the goal for which many still laud him.

Celtic had been peppering the Rangers goal with shots. A bad clearance by their defence broke to the midfield maestro outside the penalty area. Lambert hit it instantly, and the ball swerved beautifully into the back of the net.

It was his first goal for the Hoops, and he probably never scored one that was quite so important.

Our Captain Scores A Scorcher And Gives Diouf The Broony Treatment

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On 6 February 2011, Celtic travelled to Ibrox for a Scottish Cup tie.

It was 90 minutes of mayhem, 90 minutes in which the two sides went at each other hammer and tongs.

Celtic were particularly brilliant though, playing the second half with only ten men on the park after a resoundingly scandalous refereeing decision.

Jamie Ness had scored a fine goal for Rangers, Commons had equalised and then, with ten minutes of the half left, Naismith went through on the Celtic keeper. The ball was too far in front of the Rangers player and our keeper got his hands on it.

Down went the Scotland striker, and the ref couldn’t wait to give the penalty and get out the red card.

Few would have bet on us coming back in that one; 2-1 down at half time, ten men on the park, at the ground of our rivals with everything going against us. Yet they reckoned without one of the most spirited second half fight backs we ever mustered.

Indeed, I still think we had the beating of them that day.

Had that game gone on longer only one side was going to win.

In the 64th minute, Izzy took the ball down the left. His cross went right over the heads of the Rangers defence and landed with Wilson. He turned, fed it outside the box to Scott Brown and our captain – having one of the finest games of his career – controlled it and hit a magnificent and unstoppable left foot shot. The goal was beautiful. The celebration was poetry. The captain ran up to the foul creature Diouf and let him know who was boss.

A magical moment, tacked on to a wonderful goal.

A Left Foot Scorcher From Thommo Sends Them Homeward To Think Again

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Alan Thompson was one of my favourite players of the last 15 years.

On the day he was signed I thought it was a stunning piece of business, and the completion of the Martin O’Neill jigsaw at Celtic. He was a fantastic player, and he slotted right into our team instantly, and the memories we all have of him as a footballer are many.

He had a particular love of games against Rangers, even though he was sent off in a couple of them, most notably after a scandalous, theatrical piece of cheating from Peter Lovenkrands.

They hated him, and feared him.

And not without reason.

He terrorised them every chance he got.

On 29 August 2004 he scored a trademark screamer against them at Celtic Park, a goal that would have broken the bar had it been another inch higher.

A Celtic chance broke up against the Rangers defenders inside the box. Their clearance from Hutton was less than perfect. It broke to Thompson 30 yards out. He took one touch to get the ball just right and he unleashed a staggering, sweeping, swerving left foot shot which hit the top of the crossbar, bounced down and over Klos and into the net.

It was magical.

The King Of Kings Executes A Piece Of Messi-Style Magic In Another Six Goal Thriller

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It probably won’t surprise too many people that there’s more than one Larsson goal on this list.

He scored a mind-boggling 15 goals against them, and there were some absolutely beautiful goals amongst that lot. This is one of my favourite goals of his of all time, a piece of poetry in motion, balletic, sublime, a touch of sheer genius.

On 6 October 2002, Celtic were at home to a Rangers side that has just suffered one of its ritual, annual, European pumpings.

The match ended in a 3-3 draw, due in no small part to the deplorable performance of our own Rab Douglas, who was appalling throughout.

That cast a shadow over one of Henrik’s finest pieces of brilliance in a Hoops shirt.

Momo Sylla took the ball down the right and swung an inch perfect cross into the box. The King of Kings wasn’t even facing the goal, and he had a Rangers defender right on his shoulder. Another player wouldn’t have been able to find an opening, but Larsson was no ordinary footballer. He used his right to control the ball, and then deftly pivoted and hit it with the left.

It was astonishing, absolutely astonishing, leaving his marker for dead and giving the keeper no chance at all.

It was the kind of goal only he could have scored … and yet there were two other goals against Rangers that were even better than this one.

Incredible. What a player he was.

Chris Sutton Rattles Home A Last Minute Winner To Complete The Green & Whitewash

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I mentioned this one amongst my favourite last minute winners, because it’s a masterpiece of GIRFUY.

Their fans were celebrating securing a nil-nil draw when Chris Sutton popped up to score this goal, and I’ve rarely seen them leave Celtic Park so sick.

Yet it was also an absolutely majestic strike, reminiscent in many ways of the Alan Thompson goal and even Henrik’s sublime 6-2 opener. It was a beauty, the sort goalkeepers just don’t save, but it was also beautifully executed, a piece of technical brilliance that was an often overlooked aspect of Big Sutton’s game.

He like his English counterpart, enjoyed these games.

His double in the 6-2 game was special.

This one was the sweetest of them all.

It started with a long ball up the field. Sutton himself got on the end of it and chested it down to The King. Then he moved, making a run into space. As I said in the previous piece, their partnership could be astonishing at times and this was a sterling example of it at its very finest. Sutton took Larsson’s wonderful pass and then weaved past the defender, using his power to get in front of him, and then he executed a chip the Swede himself would have been proud of.

This goal belongs on a highlight reel because it was a great mixture of those traits for which Big Chris was renowned, but it also showed that he had a lovely first touch and great awareness off the ball. It’s hard to believe this guy didn’t succeed at Chelsea; at Blackburn I thought he made Shearer the player he was, and his partnership with the King frequently produced magic.

This was just one of many of those occasions.

Shaun Maloney Scores The Greatest Goal Of His Career With A Celtic Park Screamer

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Rangers came to Celtic Park for a League Cup Quarter Final on 9 November 2005 with Alex McLeish’s job hanging by a thread.

By the time his team left that night, on the end a 2-0 defeat, he had one foot in the abyss.

The goal that sent him on his way there is one of the greatest ever scored in the history of the fixture, and I say that with no worry of contradiction at all. It was a strike so sweet we’ll be seeing replays of it in 100 years.

Shaun Maloney always had a neat little box of tricks, and was always capable of long-range efforts, but this one was such a pile driver that it doesn’t matter how many times you watch it, it still makes you catch the breath a little bit.

He took on a pass almost on the halfway line, and he went on a little darting run inside the Rangers midfielders.

Most people expected him to keep on running or to look for a pass. Instead, Maloney chose to strike the ball in the hope that the Rangers keeper couldn’t get across to it.

It had to be hit with power.

It had to be accurate.

Fortunately for the Celtic fans – who went absolutely mental – it was both.

It’s almost hard to believe that a Celtic player executed an even better version of this goal some years later … but of course they did.

Larsson Scores His Finest Celtic Goal In A Hampden Semi-Final With Another Beautifully Executed Chip

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The Lesser Known Larsson Masterpiece.

Everyone of a Celtic persuasion has seen, and enjoyed, the 6-2 goal over and over and over and over again.

It is a moment of brilliance, and, of course, I’m going to cover it shortly.

But in my estimation his Lesser Known Masterpiece is the better goal, the one he scored at Hampden in the CIS Cup semi-final on the evening of 8 February 2001.

Let’s talk about the pass first.

It was a cracker; a long, high ball hit from inside Celtic’s own half. Larsson had a power of work to do to get on the end of it, but his pace and awareness were incredible and he was running before the ball was even hit. He breezed by Rangers players and as the ball came down he was virtually one on one with the last defender.

The ball bounced in front of Bob Malcolm, and Larsson used his strength and determination to go past him. Klos came out, obviously having learned nothing from the 6-2 experience. He must have thought he had this one, because Larsson didn’t seem to have the space or the time to do it to him here, but the King of Kings had both.

He flicked the ball up and over the keeper’s head and towards the net.

It would have been a special enough goal, for the technical brilliance it took to execute that moment, but the best was still to come. Larsson danced around the keeper with the ball still in the air, he ran towards the goal, caught it on the line and tapped it into the net.

That goal is extraordinary.

It is a moment of sheer unequivocal genius.

Those few who might try to argue that Larsson wasn’t the greatest foreign player ever to grace these shores need only watch one highlight from his Celtic career and it’s this one. It was another goal that had Messi scored it we’d be watching again and again and again and I don’t think it was ever as talked about as it ought to have been, nor as appreciated as it ought to be.

But for one goal it would be the best I’ve ever seen scored in one of these games.

The Unforgettable Moment When Larsson Brought The House Down On The Demolition Derby

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I am absolutely certain that this is the goal most people would choose as their number one against Rangers.

It’s got the lot; the execution of it was perfect.

It was cheeky and at least two of their players look like absolute mugs, wee boys trying to play a man’s game.

It came on a day when we didn’t just beat them, we routed them and so the goal has somehow become symbolic of the larger achievement itself.

It’s an iconic goal.

It came on 27 August 2000. Martin O’Neill had promised to “bring a little bit of success back to the football club” upon taking over. He had signed some great players. He had changed the playing style dramatically. He had also inherited two geniuses, in The King and in Lubo. That was to prove momentous in the events that followed.

There were few Celtic supporters who doubted we had a genuine class act in Henrik Larsson.

Few outside Parkhead would have called him world class.

This was the game where he proved it, and cast aside all doubt as to what magic he was capable of.

He scored twice that day – and the second is worthy of mentioning on its own, a bulleting header, one of many he scored and which belied his stature; Henrik was phenomenally good in the air.

But it’s the first of the goals, our fourth of the game, that will never be forgotten and will be talked about and analysed over and over and over again.

Once again, it was the Sutton-Larsson partnership; he took a wonderful ball from the Englishman and went on a run with it. He had already outpaced one Rangers player when Konterman ventured forward to meet him. The King put the ball through his legs and danced around him in the same move. Sheer genius in itself. Having gotten past the last defender, he could have hit the ball left or right, blasting it to be sure it found the net. The Rangers keeper had come off his line. Either of those options would have been dangerous, but he had the skill to pull it off anyway. What he did was even more outrageous, of course. He chipped Klos instead.

To me, when I think of it, it always plays in slow motion, especially that last moment when Henrik decided what he was going to do with the ball.

The chip is so absolutely flawless.

The moment seems frozen in time.

I remember being there, holding my breath, and then letting it out in an explosion of joy.

It’s as close to a perfect moment as I’ve had in a football ground.

And yet, as you know, it’s not even my favourite Larsson goal, far less my favourite goal in a Celtic – Rangers match.

That accolade belongs to another.

The Strike That Helped Seal A Comeback And Sent Rangers Tumbling Towards A Late Season Collapse. Nakamura’s Wonder Goal. The Best Ever In A Celtic – Rangers Match

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When I look back on the great players I’ve seen in the Hoops I realise I’ve been blessed to see three of the greatest individual talents we’ve ever enjoyed in the famous shirt. Larsson was the greatest. Lubo was the second. Nakamura, to my mind, was the third.

He had everything in abundance.

I believe that he was, for a time and whilst at Celtic Park, the greatest dead ball specialist in the world.

His free-kicks were his calling card, his trademark, and their impact on our club and the teams we played could be astonishing. They won leagues. They sunk giants. They made history. Yet I always considered them but a part of his arsenal of tricks, flicks, feints and subtleties which, combined, made him such a fantastic player to watch.

I don’t think we’ve ever adequately replaced him in our team; he brought that incredible knack for opening up packed defences that we so desperately miss today.

If his iconic moment was the free-kick goal at Celtic Park against Manchester United (and his goal at Old Trafford was just as good, and is slightly over-shadowed as Larsson’s Hampden chip is) then surely his best moment was on 16 April 2008, the game that swung a title race in our favour and which was one, in the final minute, by Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.

The goal itself has often been compared to Shaun Maloney’s wonderful strike from a similar distance.

It came in the 20th minute of the game. Gary Caldwell hit a long pass to him, he used his left foot to control it (watch the video; at first it looks like a mis-hit but actually it simply puts the ball right where he means his foot to go) and he volleyed it on the bounce.

The ball actually bends majestically. It looks as if it’s on a right-side trajectory when he hits it, but when you watch it, the goalkeeper has actually judged it correctly, but he’s expecting perhaps a minor swerve that puts it in the centre of the goal. Nakamura has put far more bend on the shot than that though. It curls left away from the keeper, leaving him helpless, and hits the back of the net like a bullet from a gun.

There are handful of players in the world who could pull that shot off.

It’s possible for someone to just hit the ball and fluke one like that, but to actually hit it and mean it and know where it’s going – as was clearly the case here – requires a special skill.

It is simply the finest goal I’ve ever seen scored in one of those games.

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