By Chris Wright
Having signed from Borussia Dortmund after winning the Champions League (with a man-of-the-match man-marking job on Juventus’ star man Zinedine Zidane in the final) with the German side the previous season, Paul Lambert found himself deployed mainly as an impact sub during his first few months at Celtic – though all that changed in the New Year’s fixture against Rangers on January 2nd 1998.
Celtic managed a 2-0 win at Parkhead with Craig Burley nabbing the first goal, before Lambert popped up and put an emphatic seal on the Old Firm victory with a sweet 25-yarder walloped in off Andy Goram’s stanchion – thus booking himself a regular starting berth in the Bhoys’ first string for the rest of the season…
Celtic went on to win the Scottish Premier League title with Lambert helming the engine room, with the current Aston Villa boss going on to win four Scottish Premier League titles, two Scottish Cups, two Scottish League Cups, a UEFA Cup runner-up medal and a Scottish Football Writer’s Player of the Year (in 2002) in the space of seven years at the club – most of which he served as captain.
With Villa currently firmly entrenched in the doldrums and Lambert cutting a forlorn figure of late, it’s easy to forget that he could definitely play a bit back in the day.
More random great goals on Pies…
Patrick M’Boma (Gamba Osaka) vs Shonan Bellmare
Lothar Matthaus (Bayern Munich) vs Bayer Leverkusen
Ian Wright (Arsenal) vs Swindon
Roberto Cabanas (New York Cosmos) vs Tulsa Roughnecks
Steve Bull (England) vs Czechoslovakia
Thierry Henry (Arsenal) vs SC Wiez
Muzzy Izzet (Leicester) vs Grimsby
Darren Barnard (Barnsley) vs Huddersfield
Juan Roman Riquelme (Boca Juniors) vs Corinthians
Hugo Almeida (Porto) vs Inter Milan
Paulo Wanchope (Costa Rica) vs Uruguay
Youssef Safri (Norwich) vs Newcastle