There were almost 50,000 inside Celtic Park, as FIFA President Sepp Blatter presented Celtic fans with the FIFA Fair Play Award for 2003. Fantastic recognition for the OFFICIAL greatest fans in the world.
Didier Agathe returned to the starting line-up, Paul Lambert took the suspended Neil Lennon's place in midfield. John Hartson had to settle for a place on the bench.
The famous European atmosphere was in the air, and the crowd got right behind the team from the kick off. They were soon rewarded with a goal, and it came after only 3 minutes. Alan Thompson was the provider of a great through ball, and Larsson nutmegged the Czech 'keeper to give The Bhoys a dream start.
Celtic had clearly done their homework on Teplice - long balls seemed to baffle the Czech defence, who looked in dissaray.
Chris Sutton chased a dodgy back-pass on 12 minutes, to round the goalkeeper and put Celtic 2-0 infront and it then looked as though the game would be dead and buried in the first half.
It wasn't to be though, and the scoreline read 2-0 at half time, despite several Celtic chances. Stephen Pearson had a couple of attempts at goal, and Celtic were looking a dangerous side.
Teplice had little to offer as far as chances are concerned, but Celtic's defence seemed unusually shakey. Bobo Balde still appears to look uncomfortable since returning from the African Nations Cup.
Teplice seemed a different side in the second period. The chased Celtic down, and looked far more physical and dangerous on the attack. Some of Celtic's players looked to be thinking that the job was done, and The Hoops' performance in the second half was dull.
Teplice should have had a man sent off after two or three nasty challenges were unpunished by the incompetent referee. Alan Thompson displayed more of the stupidity he showed in this season's Champions League, picking up a stupid booking, this time for mouthing at the referee.
It was Thompson who had Celtic's first attempt at goal in the second half, with 12 minutes to go. His long range effort went just over the bar.
The Celtic fans began to realise that 2-0 was not exactly a great result to take away to Prague next week, and made themselves heard for the last 10 minutes. Once again though, there were far too many 'fans' leaving with plenty of time remaining, this is simply not good enough for Celtic supporters.
Stan Varga's header from a last minute corner was well touched away by the Teplice goalkeeper, and it was in injury time when Celtic netted the third goal. It was Henrik Larsson who popped up from a corner, to head home his 34th European goal.
3-0 is a decent result to take over next week, but there will be no room for bad performances in the second leg. Tonight has been a job almost well done - we aim to complete that job on Wednesday.
Celtic:
Douglas - 7
Balde - 6
Varga - 9
McNamara - 7
Agathe - 6
Pearson - 7 (Sylla - 6)
Lambert - 7
Petrov - 8
Thompson - 7
Larsson - 8
Sutton - 8
Celtic-Mad Man of the Match: Stan Varga