CELTIC goal hero Christopher Jullien hailed his winning header against Lazio as the greatest moment of his career so far – and the perfect way to silence his team-mates.
We were deep in the 89th minute when the giant French defender leapt highest to direct a Ryan Christie corner into the bottom corner of Thomas Strakosha’s net, completing a thrilling recovery from a goal down which consolidated Celtic’s position at the top of Europa League Group E. Jullien said it was the important goal of his career, not least because it also managed to shut up his team-mate and countryman Odsonne Edouard, who had been joking around in training with him to the effect that he never manages to get on the scoresheet.
“I would say that is my best moment [in my career] because it is my first one on a big European night here,” said Jullien. “Sometimes in France when I was scoring, we were not winning. So I would definitely rank it at the top. All week every week, I can’t joke because I am close to scoring and I don’t score.
“Every evening before every game, the team and the staff are like: It’s going to go in sometime. Keep focused. They keep saying they trusted in me and it was going to come and seeing their faces afterwards meant it was really good.
“Odsonne was the first person to me to say: I told you. He was joking with me on Wednesday night and saying we make so much space for you and you never score. I said: You can joke with me now, but don’t come to me if I score!”
Fraser Forster, meanwhile, one of Celtic’s other heroes on the night, cut an emotional figure on the night and said his two late saves from Marco Parolo and Danilo Cataldi had rekindled memories of the famous night where he helped the Parkhead side beat Barcelona here. “To be fair, he [Cataldi] caught it so sweet I didn’t have any time to think about anything,” said Forster. “It was purely a reaction save, I am just buzzing that I made it. To score so late to make it 2-1 it would have been heart-breaking to concede so late. That is what I came back for, to play in these games and have those moments again.
“Did it rekindle memories of Barcelona? Yeah, a little bit. Every match is different but having had the 18 months I have had and the low points I’ve had to go through which one day I’ll chat about, to have a moment like that was something very special. The fans at the end, I can’t put it in words. I could bawl my eyes out."
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