Celtic travel to face Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Wednesday night on what will be the first meeting between the two sides in European Competition since 2003.
Quite a bit has changed in the sport since then, and not just in terms of transfer fees. Celtic were coming off the back of a UEFA Cup final appearance the season before, and Bayern still featured many of the stars that won the Champions League in the 2000/01 season, which meant that Celtic Park was absolutely jumping on that particular Tuesday night in November.
It was a tense game, 0-0 the final score as neither side could make the breakthrough but looking back at the match report we couldn't help but admire that Celtic lineup in particular.
The turn of the millennium was a magnificent time to follow Scottish football, and the side that Martin O'Neill sent out in green and white to welcome Bayern to Glasgow was about as good as it got.
[photo via The Celtic Wiki]
Magnus Hedman
Stanislav Varga
Bobo Balde
Jackie McNamaraDidier Agathe
Neil Lennon
Stilian Petrov
Alan ThompsonHenrik Larsson
Chris Sutton
John Hartson
Sensational.
It's no surprise that Roque Santa Cruz and Roy Makaay couldn't get anything from that back three. Alan Thompson was a major problem the full 90 minutes and John Hartson won everything that could have possibly won in the air.
Here is the Bayern side that played on that day:
Oliver Kahn
Willy Sagnol
Robert Kovac
Sammy Kuffour
Bixente LizarazuOwen Hargreaves
Michael Ballack
Jens Jeremies
Hasan SalihamidzicRoy Makaay
Roque Santa Cruz
Not bad either to be fair, Bayern had won the reverse fixture 2-1 in Munich with Celtic's goal coming through Alan Thompson.
The 0-0 result in Glasgow would set up a meeting with Lyon to determine who advanced to the knockout stages where Celtic would lose 3-2 in a thriller, but that did land them in the UEFA Cup where they knocked out Barcelona before falling to Villarreal to end another memorable season in Europe.
There may be a bigger gulf between the two sides these days than there was in 2003, but Brendan Rodgers' men will be hoping to learn from their mistakes against PSG at put it right up to the German giants on Wednesday night.
