Teemu Pukki was the unlikely Brondby hero scoring a hat-trick to knock Hertha Berlin out of the Europa League.
Trailing 1-0 from the first leg the former Celtic striker netted in the 3rd, 34th and 52nd minutes to take the Danish side through on a 3-2 aggregate.
The night wasn’t entirely plain sailing for the Danish side, when Vedad Ibisevic scored on the half hour mark it put the Germans ahead on away goals but when Pukki completed his hat-trick there was no further reply from Hertha.
After needing penalties to see of Hibs in the previous round the result represented quite a transformation as Brondby move into the play off stage.
There were no tears shed by Celtic fans when the Finnish internationalist joined Brondby for ‘an undisclosed fee’ a year ago following a loan spell with the Danish side.
Celtic paid a fee reported as between £2m and £3.5 in August 2013 to Schalke as they attempted to find a replacement for Gary Hooper.
“VI ønskede så inderligt at komme videre til næste runde. Alle er bare glade” #Brøndby #bifher pic.twitter.com/qJ9PTa5UzY
— Brøndby IF (@BrondbyIF) August 4, 2016
Unfortunately that summer transfer window will go down as one of the worst in the club’s history with Virgil van Dijk the exception from a transfer batch that included Amido Balde and Derk Boerrigter.
Pukki’s stats of seven goals from 14 SPL starts and seven substitute appearances appear reasonable but the detail beyond that is less impressive.
A scoring debut as a substitute in a 3-1 win at Tynecastle offered promise but there was only four more goals before the league split in a disappointing season that included home cup defeats to Morton and Aberdeen with just three points picked up in the Champions League.
Pukki started the following season as first choice striker for Ronny Deila but despite scoring twice against KR Reykjavic he was soon on his way on loan to Denmark.