Celtic's first jaunt into the Champions League had, in the eyes of most Celtic fans, begun in great fashion. A hugely creditable performance against Italian giants Juventus, where a well deserved draw was snatched from our grasp by Nicola " They got one so I want one" Amoruso, and his audition for the Italian diving team, a result followed up by steady home wins against both Porto and Rosenborg. Next on the agenda was a daunting trip to Oporto, to play a Porto team unbeaten at home in 3 years. However, going on performances in the competition to date, Celtic had nothing to fear. Having never seen Celtic on foreign soil before, tickets were organised and a hardy bunch of Celts made the journey to the Algarve for a bit of sun and a bit of singing!!
On arriving in Portugal, the obvious thing to do was to sample a couple of pints of the local brew, which at first seemed quite tasty and quite reasonably priced. By the end of the week, bottles of Bud were the order of the day!!! Stick with what you know is the best policy I think. With tickets almost secured ( more on that later ), next item on the agenda was organising a bus to take us on the 8 hour journey to Oporto. There was a rumour going around that a guy who runs an Irish bar was organising a bus for Celtic fans, so on the Monday morning we all piled out of bed in search of this bar. This is when our troubles first started. Booking a seat on the bus was no bother, and at first it was quite reasonable. It would cost us around £25 return, a fair price for the journey. However, when faced with the numbers involved, our new friend saw his chance to make a few quid, after we had booked our seats. The price had now risen to £40, but he was making no money from the deal ( aye, right!! ) However, in no mood to argue, places were booked and plans were made for Wednesday morning. The trip in itself was pretty uneventful, with people more interested in catching up on some much-needed sleep. We arrived in Porto at around 5 O' Clock in the evening, but nothing could have prepared us for what lay ahead.
Apparently, the Portuguese police had never heard of the good reputation of the Celtic fans, so in the nature of good humour, on leaving our bus we were met by riot police!! That was not the end of it though, as we were marched from our bus directly into an entrance to the stadium! And there we were to remain until they saw fit to let us into the stadium. The severe lack of beer was casting a bad shadow over the group, which was lifted by a few rousing choruses' of old Celtic favourites. I am not sure what the people of Porto made of it all, but they seemed generally interested in the fact that so many people could be so well behaved in such a small space. But then again we know what we are all about.
But that was not the end of our troubles - we still had our tickets to collect and we were not permitted to leave this confine!! After frantically trying to find someone who spoke English, we eventually managed to convince a policeman to stop a taxi for us so we could go to collect our tickets. Many thanks to the lady from 'Keane to Travel' who helped us out……..you're a diamond!! Having then faced some of the worst traffic I have ever seen, we managed to get to the hotel to collect the tickets at 6.55p.m. With less than an hour to go until kick-off, desperation sank in and we started to run through the streets of Porto back to the ground. We eventually reached our destination at 7.30, in good time for the start. So why did we only get into the ground at 8.10?? This is where my gripe with the organisers begins.
The volume of fans created huge problems for the authorities, who in their own words, had never seen a travelling support like Celtic before. Having been to Parkhead, both the old stadium and the newer version, I am well used to crowds. But on this night, I am not sure how a disaster was avoided. Crowds of people were prevented from entering the stadium, for reasons I am unaware of, and this resulted in a huge build up of people in a really small passageway. As the game begun, there was a huge push from the back by those fans desperate to see the game. They didn't miss much really, but that's not the issue here. This continued for around 20 minutes, until the police decided to open another pen for the Celts. Eventually, at around 8.10pm, we finally settled into our seats, only to find the Hoops one-nil down. On the face of things, the final score may have been worse. The team showed none of the characteristics that have served them so well both this season and last, and in my opinion, only Neil Lennon came away with any credit.
The one plus point of the whole night was the performance of the Celtic fans, who once again enhanced their great reputation on their travels. Signing in defiance is something that we've not had to do in a long time, but the home fans were outsung on the night by the 10,000 or so clad in green and white. It is nights like this that make me proud of the people we are, and the songs we sing. Even after the final whistle, the two pens of Celtic fans continued singing, with good-natured banter being fired at one set of fans as their gates were opened first. " We can see you sneaking out" On leaving the stadium, the reaction of the police and Porto fans was shocking, but in a nice way. Riot police, who had earlier had no contact with the fans at all, were now laying down their guns and applauding us as we made our way back to our coaches, despondent but still signing. Some things never change!!
Special thanks to John, Fergal and Brian for taking time to organise the tickets, and to Dan, Jenny, Chris, Max, Des, Jimmy, Kevin, Milko, Carl and Frankie for making it a memorable week.
By Sean Og