THEY had a night of differing personal fortunes but John Guidetti, who scored the late equaliser, and Craig Gordon, who made a horrible mistake at Inter's third goal, could share an appreciation of an extraordinary night at Celtic Park and the anticipation of a thrilling climax in Milan to this Europa League tie.
Guidetti , who scored in time added on after coming on as a substitute, ended a goal drought of almost two months.
He admitted: "It's about time I scored and I'm glad it was in a big game. I thought we were good and I don't think Inter Milan is a better team than we are. We have a great travelling support and I hope we can do the business in Italy."
Guidetti's goal completed a Celtic comeback after the Scottish champions were 2-0 down after 13 minutes and 2-3 in arrears with the referee looking at his watch.
The Swede, on loan from Manchester City, was glad to be finally on the score sheet. "I never lost my confidence," he said. "Much better players than me have gone a long time without scoring and it didn't bother me. I just knew I had to keep working and listen to the manager and the goal would come. You'll need to ask the gaffer if I start next week - I just work hard and try to do my best."
He said of the atmosphere at Celtic Park: "I want to thank the fans - I've never experienced anything like this before and all I've heard about Celtic on a European night are all true. To score a goal is the best feeling in the world - to score in front of 60,000 is unreal."
The crowd were never more supportive than when chanting Gordon's name after the Scottish internationalist had blundered to allow Rodrigo to put Inter 3-2 ahead in a sensational first half.
"I misjudged the through ball, I couldn't keep a hold of it and presented it to the striker's feet," said Gordon.
"It's the life of a goalkeeper I suppose. I was standing talking about a match-winning save after the St Johnstone game and now I am talking about an error."
However, Gordon maintained his composure to make a great save from Xherdan Shaquiri at the end of an enthralling game.
"I pressed the reset button at half-time and went back out there to do the same things I had been doing. I bounced back and didn't let it worry me," he said.
"Errors will happen, I won't be the only one to do that. That won't be my last of the season. I will lose bad goals again."
He praised the support, saying: "The fans didn't chant my name for the reasons I wanted them to do it. But in terms of getting on with the game and putting it behind me, and make sure it was the last goal I conceded, it was a great reaction from the fans. I need to thank them for that - and my team-mates as well.
"They were fantastic and that kind of unity and togetherness will take us far and hopefully lead to us having a successful season."
That season could be enhanced with a result in Milan. "John's goal gives us a chance. We have lost the away goals but it's now more do-able as we have only to win by the one goal," he said.
He said the plan to surprise Milan had backfired with the Italians scoring twice in 13 minutes. But that late goal from Guidetti and the save from Gordon gives Celtic a chance.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article