DON'T STOP BELIEVING

Massimo Donati recalls his most important, and most dramatic, goal for the Hoops

- JOE DONNELLY

IN the pantheon of last-gasp Celtic winners, Massimo Donati’s goal against Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Champions League group stages 13 years ago is up there with the best.

Over the years, the Hoops have clinched a host of monumental victories in the dying minutes (and sometimes seconds) of games, inspired by the players’ never-say-die attitude on the pitch and the unwavering enthusiasm of the fans in the stands. It’s no good for the nerves, but it is good for the history books.

Last year, for example, Olivier Ntcham’s inch-perfect 95th-minute chip against Lazio in Rome marked Celtic’s first-ever competitive win on Italian soil. Two weeks earlier, Christopher Jullien’s 89th-minute bullet header saw off the same opposition in Scotland.

With the last kick of the ball in the 2017 Scottish Cup final, Tom Rogic appeared to summon Zeus, master of Olympus, as his lightning-evoking strike secured the Invincibles Treble; while Georgios Samaras rose like a salmon in added time to record the Scottish champions’ first away win in UCL competition back in 2012.

Five years before that, the Paradise side overcame Italian giants AC Milan when Scott McDonald fired home a rebound with one minute of normal time on the clock – sweet retribution for the Hoops’ ill-fated last-16 trip to the San Siro the previous season. And Massimo Donati will be forever remembered for that goal against Ukrainian opposition on a cold November night in Glasgow during the same campaign.