Fifteen years ago tonight Celtic fans were going through one of the most agonising nights in their life.
Thousands of holidays had been booked across Spain and Portugal covering the 22nd of May but one vital factor had still to be settled- getting Celtic into the UEFA Cup Final.
For the first time in a generation Celtic were still in Europe beyond Christmas, after knocking out Stuttgart and Liverpool ‘only’ mid table Portuguese side Boavista stood between Martin O’Neill’s side and the final in Seville.
No Celtic fan had the faintest idea about Seville but it was in Spain, reachable through budget airlines and sounded like the best way possible to spend a week.
A 1-1 home draw put a spanner in the works but unusually for Celtic this run had been fashioned on the back of performances away from Celtic Park.
Less than 2,000 Celtic supporters were inside the do Bessa Stadium which was in the middle of renovation work for the following year’s European Championship Finals.
It was an awful match, utterly honking, nothing was going right with players struggling to keep the ball on the park. Fortunately Boavista were just as bad and ultimately paid the price for trying to get a 0-0 draw.
John Hartson played in Henrik Larsson, with 12 minutes left the ball was in the net and Celtic were on the verge of a European final.
Four long minutes of injury time followed but at the final whistle all thoughts turned towards Seville and a week that none of the 80,000 fans present will ever forget.