Larsson gives Celtic Euro vision

Henrik Larsson had waited all evening on Thursday for the one fragment of space that would allow him to inscribe the most important goal of his career, but he could not pull off the same trick twice.

The Swede ran out of room when he touched down at Glasgow airport. It may have been 3am, but very few people had gone to bed on Celtic's greatest night in 33 years. When the striker emerged into the arrival hall, the roar that greeted him could have punctured the ceiling.

It was like Roller-mania all over again. Larsson was swamped. He diligently tried to supply as many autographs as he could until a police escort was needed to smuggle him and his wife, Magdalena, out of the building. Undaunted, hundreds of fans followed to the car park, unable to resist the spell of Celtic's pied piper.

Larsson has led Celtic all over Europe this season, but his 10th goal of the current Uefa Cup campaign, which secured the club's first continental final since the European Cup final in 1970, is the one that will be remembered most. There were only 12 minutes left in the Estadio do Bessa, and Boavista seemed to have suffocated Martin O'Neill's team; then, with a single burst into the box and one composed finish, Larsson put Celtic and their fans into dreamland.

When the final whistle came, many of the 3,000 supporters who had travelled to Portugal were in tears. It was the same in Glasgow, where celebrations spilled out into the streets. Boavista joined Blackburn Rovers, Celta Vigo, Stuttgart and Liverpool among those who had been conquered, and now more than 30,000 Celtic fans are set to besiege Seville for the final with FC Porto.

Such passion makes the 7,000 who have tickets for Ibrox Stadium today the lucky ones. They will get the chance to acclaim their heroes on to the pitch for the crucial Scottish Premier League game with Rangers, and no chance will be lost to remind their Old Firm rivals of the different agenda each group will have on 21 May. "You'll be watching The Bill, while we're in Seville," is the Celtic fans' new song.

The Uefa Cup has been so overwhelming that it has anaesthetised Celtic to the prospect of losing their League title. They have to win the final Old Firm game of the season – this will be the fourth screened live to the whole of Britain by the BBC – to claw themselves back into title contention.

While Alex McLeish has had all week to prepare Rangers for what is a potential title decider, O'Neill's team were left with just 58 hours from the moment they touched down in Glasgow on Friday morning. However, metaphorically speaking, most will still be flying on the strength of Larsson's goal.

"The players will have to be ready," O'Neill reflected on Friday afternoon. "There is nothing else for it because it is a big, big game. The adrenalin, as much as anything else, will see us through it and that will give us a head start because of the fact that we won in Portugal.

"We have to win today's game because of the points we dropped against Hearts and Dundee recently. Rangers you must remember, still have to go to both of those places, which will be very difficult, but a draw is of no use to us now. It wouldn't matter if there was nothing at stake – both teams would still want to win – but there is everything at stake."

Larsson, who was on the scoresheet when he earned Sweden third place at the 1994 World Cup, described the goal against Boavista, his 40th of the season, as "the most important of my life – so far. We kept at them and we never gave up. That is our strength. We do not believe it is finished until it is finished." Such words hint that Celtic are ready to use the same philosophy to hang on to their crown in Scotland. Even McLeish paid tribute. "I admire what Martin and John Robertson have done in three years at Celtic. In fact it inspires me. Celtic have shown that Scottish teams can make an impact, and I think their achievement reflects well on Rangers, because we've led the League this season."

O'Neill said simply: "It has not sunk in yet. We got a bit of respect from England after beating Blackburn and Liverpool and now we have taken that on another step by reaching the final."