EXCLUSIVE: Red Imps aiming to prove Celtic's shock of Gibraltar was no one-off

As the famous quote from Monty Python states ‘Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition’. It’s fair to say that nobody expected what happened six days ago at the Vittoria Stadium on the Rock of Gibraltar either, in front of 5000 people who couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

In a Champions League second qualifying round match Lincoln Red Imps beat Celtic, one of the members of the nobility of European football having lifted the European Cup in 1967, securing an historic 1-0 win. After a summer defined by underdog stories it perhaps trumps them all and it’s one of the aspects we all love about this sport. David can beat Goliath, and does so more often than anyone would imagine.

In this particular story Lincoln Red Imps are a team made up of semi professional players who use their spare time to train. Plumbers, waiters and drivers that, on a hot July night, found themselves in a football stadium, playing a Champions League match and winning against Celtic.

“It was a magical feeling, that’s all I can say about what I felt after having scored that goal”, says Lee Casciaro, the match winner. He works for the defence police in Gibraltar but is already accustomed to being a football hero. Before the match against Celtic he had already ensured his place in the history books having scored the first goal in an official match for the Gibraltar national team after their admission to UEFA.

Casciaro’s brother Kyle – a shipping agent - is a part of the Lincoln Red Imps side that started against Celtic too and remembers the night well: “It must have been the best match of our lives, or one of the bests, and even better with the result! We always believe we can win, if not there’s no point in playing the game. We knew it was going to be difficult but nothing is impossible”.

Liam Walker, meanwhile, is one of the few professional players in the squad. He has even worn the jersey of Portsmouth in 2012/13 and Bnei Yehuda in Israel. “We were definitely the underdogs and I would say 90% of people wouldn’t have thought we would manage that outcome, but that remaining 10%, part of the whole Lincoln family, we knew that if we went out with the right game plan and didn’t make any mistakes, we were in for a chance of getting a good result and that’s what happened”.

Family is the keyword to describe this side. Everyone uses it when they speak about the team: “Lincoln Red Imps is like a big family for everyone, most players have played for Lincoln all of our lives. We are friends on and off the pitch and have known each other all our lives”, stated goalscorer Lee Casciaro. “We are like a family, we are not just any other team. We have been together many years”, echoes his brother Kyle.

“Lincoln Red Imps – Walker explains – have always been a team full of local players that have grown up like a massive family and it’s only since Gibraltar joined UEFA that they signed in some foreign players, which is obviously needed when you want to compete at the level we are. But as you see in the starting line-up there were 7 local players out on the pitch from the start (against Celtic) which is a good percentage and makes it more of an achievement really. Like I said at Lincoln we are like a massive family and we all fight for each other and won’t let anyone walk over any of us.”

It’s a very particular and important moment, in general, for the state of Gibraltan football. Having recently been admitted into UEFA, FIFA have now opened their doors to the nation, allowing the national team to take part in World Cup Qualifiers.

“Hopefully we can develop the children and hopefully one day we’ll have full professional players aboard.” That’s the dream of Lee Casciaro. “Things are happening bit by bit in Gibraltan football – Walker says - the results are getting better, so hopefully not too far in the future Gibraltar’s league will be more recognized and more respected in Europe”.

Tomorrow the league’s champions – retaining the title each year since 2003 - will meet with Scotland’s finest at Celtic Park in Glasgow, a 60,000 seater stadium, with the team managed by Brendan Rodgers having the very real intention of taking revenge after their humiliation. But Lincoln Red Imps have every intention of progressing to the next round for the first time in their history, where another Goliath may lay in waiting.

“We have a good chance of getting through, we respect Celtic as the club they are, but we won’t respect them any more than we respect any other team: we will go out to play our game and hopefully, at the end of it, we can celebrate going through to the next round” states Walker, and Lee Casciaro assesses how to obtain the outcome they are all dreaming of: “Probably the way is to play against them at their home in the same way we played here in Gibraltar. Play very compact and leave them with the least possible space between the lines to hit them on the break."

"If we are lucky enough to get a goal that would be really good for us, but most importantly we must enjoy the game and help each other out”. Like a family does: the chances are they will be a happy one regardless of the result on Wednesday.

Can the Lincoln Red Imps pull off another shock against Celtic? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below