2003 UEFA Cup Final

Event

2002–03 UEFA Cup

Celtic	Porto

2	3

After extra time

Date

21 May 2003

Venue

Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla, Seville

Man of the Match

Derlei (Porto)

Referee

Ľuboš Micheľ (Slovakia)

Attendance

52,972

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2004 →

The 2003 UEFA Cup Final was played on 21 May 2003 between Celtic of Scotland and Porto of Portugal. Porto won the match 3–2 in extra time thanks to a goal from Derlei. This was also the first game to use the silver goal rule, although it did not affect the outcome of the game as Porto scored in the second half of extra-time, thus meaning the game had to be played until the end of extra-time.

Prior to this game, no club from Scotland or Portugal had ever won the UEFA Cup.

The game had what UEFA described at the time as "the largest travelling support to have assembled for a single game" – around 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to Seville for the final. For this turnout and the manner with which they conducted themselves, Celtic fans received an award from FIFA and UEFA, winning the FIFA Fair Play Award that year and being presented with a formal recognition from UEFA at a home match the following season.

The game was played at Estadio Olímpico de Sevilla on 21 May with kick-off at 20.45 local time. A team of officials was selected from Slovakia.

A rash challenge led to Joos Valgaeren of Celtic getting a yellow card in the eighth minute. After this it was a stoic affair, until 32 minutes into the first half when Nuno Capucho played in Deco, but he could do no more than fire his shot straight at Robert Douglas. Straight after this attack, Celtic broke on the counter with Henrik Larsson putting Didier Agathe through on the right but his cross was too high for Chris Sutton. Larsson had a chance to make it 1–0 in the 35th minute but was unable to get enough contact on the ball. Porto came close in the 41st minute when Deco moved past Bobo Baldé to go one on one with Douglas, who saved Deco's shot with his legs.

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