IS DAIZEN MAEDA’S OVERHEAD KICK THE GREATEST GLASGOW DERBY GOAL EVER?
- BY LIAM CARRIGAN
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
There’s been a lot of debate over the past 48 hours on Celtic fan social media. For once though, it hasn’t been about another faux pas by the board, or an unnecessary merch drop or any of the various other points of needless aggravation Celtic’s custodians have thrown our way this season.
The debate online has been: Just how good was that Daizen Maeda goal on Sunday?
Does it ranks as the greatest ever scored against Rangers?
Well, if we’re talking about this incarnation of Rangers, I’m inclined to say yes. However, if we decide to include the pre-2012 Rangers (Requiescat in Pace) then I think there’s a much greater debate to be had.
Daizen Maeda’s Overhead Kick is the Greatest Goal in a Derby Since Rangers Were Born
Of course, everyone will have their own take on this, and some goals, whilst not perhaps the greatest goals in a technical sense will hold special emotional resonance for some of us. It might be the timing of the goal, what it meant in terms of the championship that year, or perhaps because we saw how much it utterly shattered the spirit of the opposition.
So, in keeping with this spirit, I am going to present for you today, a list of my personal top 5 Celtic favorite goals against both clubs that called themselves Rangers.
To keep things straightforward I will only be discussing goals that I either saw in person, at the game, or that I remember watching live on TV. For context, I was born in the early 80s.
Anyway, here’s my personal top 5.
5: Chris Sutton: Celtic Park 2004
This goal was a thing of beauty, not just for the combination of skill, grace, and sheer arrogance in the finish, but the fact that it game in the last minute of a game against Rangers where Celtic had come under sustained pressure for extended periods. In hindsight, most of us would probably have taken a draw that day. Chris Sutton however, had other ideas.
Latching on to a deft layoff from Henrik Larsson, Sutton just casually stroked the ball into the top corner of the net from about 25 yards, leaving Stefan Klos in the Rangers goal rooted to the turf, unable to even react.
I was privileged enough to see this one in person, the fact that I was standing right next to the Rangers end as the goal went in, and was almost immediately hit with a despondent crescendo of “ah, fur f*ck’s sake!“ just made my memory of that day all the sweeter.
4: Paul Lambert: Celtic Park 1998
Any Celtic fan who is old enough to remember the 90s will tell you with little prompting what a dark and desperate time it was for Celtic. After nearly going out of business in 1994, Fergus McCann and a number of other prominent supports with financial clout stepped up and saved Celtic.
The late, great Tommy Burns soon came in as manager and got the team back to winning ways on the park too. However, by season 1997-98, Rangers were on the verge of a record-breaking 10th league title in a row, Tommy Burns had left the building and Celtic seemed powerless to stop Rangers march forward.
Then came another great manager who is sadly no longer with us, Wim Jansen. He then made Henrik Larsson one of his first signings.
Things were slowly coming together but Celtic still couldn’t quite pull ahead in the title race. By New Year, the “Old Firm” Derby (as it was called back then), was framed as one that Celtic had to win, but also that Rangers didn’t want to lose.
Midway through the second half, Craig Burley, another Jansen signing that previous summer, latched onto a beautiful reverse pass from Jackie McNamara to put Celtic 1-0 up.
Still the game was on a knife edge, and then up stepped Paul Lambert.
Meeting a lose ball about 30 years out, he struck it first time, leaving Andy Goram, still one of the best goalkeepers I have ever seen in person, utterly helpless in the Rangers goal.
2-0, the tide turned, and I don’t think I need remind any of you how that particular season ended!
3: Daizen Maeda: Celtic Park 2026
So, here we are, recency bias notwithstanding, I place Daizen Maeda’s sublime overhead kick at number 3. The next week or so will go a long way to determining whether or not it attains the immortality it deserves.
Great goals from seasons where Celtic don’t win the league tend to be forgotten. Hopefully, that won’t happen this season, and if Daizen does indeed move on in the summer, he does so having left us with a performance and a goal that will be long remembered in Celtic’s history.
2: Shunsuke Nakamura: Celtic Park 2008
For all his brilliance, particularly in Europe, Shunsuke Nakamura hadn’t done all that much against Rangers in the first couple of years of his stay at Celtic. The 2007-2008 season was a nail-biter. Celtic were trailing, and badly needed a win in the derby to rejuvenate their flagging title challenge. 20 minutes into the game, still no goals, but plenty of Celtic pressure, you could forgive the fans for thinking that it was a case of “same old story”. The Rangers team of this era had made a habit of absorbing Celtic pressure then hitting us with the proverbial sucker-punch.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man, as they say, and this was Shunsuke Nakamura’s moment. He seized it in the best way possible.
Latching onto a through pass just beyond the center circle of the Rangers half, he took one touch, then two strides before unleashing a swerving, dipping, Exocet missile of a shot that seemed to change direction multiple times before flying past the flailing Allan McGregor into the Rangers net.
Celtic left it late to seize a winning goal that night courtesy of the biggest name in our club’s history; Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink. However, that 2-1 victory proved to be the spark that led to us ultimately emerging from the final day of that season as champions. It was, in some ways, a sombre occasion, with Tommy Burns having passed away just a few days prior to that crucial final league game away to Dundee United. Celtic did Tommy proud though, with a battling display and an eventual 1-0 win reminiscent of the tenacity and guile the great man himself so often showed during his playing days at Celtic.
1: Henrik Larsson: Celtic Park 2000
I think we all knew it would come down to this, one of the greatest moments in Celtic’s history, and one that has taken on newfound poignancy this season with the return of Martin O’Neill to the dugout.
O’Neill arrived at Celtic Park to a cavalcade of cheers and celebrations in the summer of 2000. His statements that day were, as we have come to expect from him over the following quarter century, humble almost to the point of self-deprecation.
“I will do everything I possibly can to bring some success to this football club.” O’Neill said as he was paraded before the thousands of fans gathered to welcome him.
He later cautioned however that “Rangers are the benchmark”.
Few knew what to truly expect going into that first derby of the 2000/01 season. I remember thinking that Celtic could just as easily win 3-0 as lose 3-0.
Then, something truly magical happened.
Within 11 minutes, goals from Chris Sutton, Stan Petrov and Paul Lambert put us 3-0 up.
Still the game was far from over. A Rod Wallace header made it 3-1 shortly before half time.
It would take a moment of true genius to put Celtic properly out of sight in this game. As would be the case so often that season, Henrik Larsson answered the call. He scored 53 goals that season, but his first of the two he scored in that eventual 6-2 demolition of Rangers (The subsequent VHS release was literally called “The Demolition Derby”), was undoubtedly the greatest, not just of that season, but of Henrik’s entire Celtic career.
Latching onto a powerful knockdown from Chris Sutton, The King of Kings effortlessly nutmegged the hapless Bert Konterman before gliding an exquisite flick over the despairing Stefan Klos into the goal. Almost as memorable as the goal itself is the image of two ball boys behind the goal celebrating as the ball hit the net. In doing so, they reflected every joyous emotion that went through every Celtic fans heart in that moment. A singularity of sensational joy that still resonates today, over 25 years later.
So, that’s my top 5, but did I miss your favorite? Let us know. Perhaps this could be expanded to a top 10 or even a top 20 someday soon.
