Celtic goal hero Christopher Jullien: Clinching BetFred Cup glory was better than winning the World Cup

The 26-year-old was part of a victorious French Under-20 squad alongside Paul Pogba which were crowned the best in the planet in Turkey in 2013 but he said even that couldn’t hold a candle to steering in the winner as ten-man Celtic made it ten domestic titles in a row against their historic rivals Rangers.

“It was unbelievable - one of my best days ever,” said Jullien. “This goal gave me a trophy and there’s no words for it. It’s hard to describe how good it felt rushing towards the fans at the end.

“It’s been a long, long time since I had a medal around my neck. Probably the Under 20 World Cup with France, and I didn’t play in the Final.

“Was this better? For sure. To play, to score, everything was perfect.”

Replays showed that Jullien, Odsonne Edouard and Kris Ajer had all failed to re-establish themselves from offside positions when Ryan Christie swung over the free-kick but the controversy didn’t make the moment any less sweeter for the former St Etienne player.

“Sometimes I start offside then come back on,” said Jullien. “My reflex was to look at the referee and I saw that it was good, and that I could enjoy the moment.

“But the feeling in my head was balanced because the first half I really wasn’t proud of and I knew I had scored early in the second half so I knew there was a lot of time still to go and I had to stay focused and that I couldn’t relax too much.”

As he showed his emotion at the final whistle, perhaps one of Jullien’s main emotions was for not mucking up his team-mate’s proud record of nine previous domestic trophy wins.

“This has been one of the hardest moves of my life, but at the same time the simplest,” he said. “The club is unbelievable from the players, the staff to the fans.

“But this is a team that has won everything and it’s difficult. You don’t want to be the one who messes up.

“But I’ve listened a lot to the likes of Broony, Callum and they have taught me a lot. I didn’t need to be told before I signed. I saw they won a lot and I also talked with Odsonne. This is the first and I hope there is many more to come.

“The first half was really bad and we wanted to come back in the second,” he added. “We got in front but the red card changed everything.

“We had to show strength of character, mentality, all of our qualities,” he added “Of course, Fraser was unbelievable.

“But we kept our order. We were not too happy defensively in the last couple of games but when you are down like in this scenario it is very difficult. It just makes it all the more enjoyable.

“You could see the emotion at the end. I don’t get many of my family coming over for games but there was so many there and I was just so happy to win the trophy. This is why we play football – for these moments.”

By contrast, Rangers cut an understandably disconsolate lot as they trooped off at the end – having conspired to lose a game which they largely dominated. Not that Jullien was losing too much sleep about that as he left this stadium yesterday.

“How will this affect Rangers?” said Jullien. “I don’t know. I don’t play for Rangers. If I did I wouldn’t have this medal around my neck!

“It’s their problem and none of my business. But this final will stay with us forever. We know there are a lot of games left and more trophies to play for, so we will see what happens.”