30 November 1966, European Cup, Nantes 1-3 Celtic…

On approach to the Nantes match, Jock Stein’s men had competed in 27 competitive matches across four different competitions in the 1966/167 season and had won 26 of them.

The soon to be Lisbon Lions had already bagged two trophies – the Glasgow Cup and the League Cup – and it was only late November Easing their way past FC Zurich in round one of the European Cup, Celtic had been firm favourites for the Nantes clash.

Our opponents had been struggling on the domestic scene and had not won in four matches upon Celtic’s arrival. 500 Hoops supporters made the journey from Glasgow to Loire-Atlantique.

Despite going behind in the encounter, Joe McBride, Bobby Lennox and Stevie Chalmers made sure that Celtic had a comfortable lead heading into the second leg a fortnight later in Glasgow’s East End. L’Equipe were full of praise for Stein’s men – the French newspaper had described Jimmy Johnstone as ‘The Flying Fea’ and dubbed Joe McBride ‘Marlon Brando.’

Of course, Celtic would convincingly defeat Nantes in the second leg, and then travel to Yugoslavia to face Vojvodina in the quarter-final of the competition in March. Anyone know what the outcome of the European Cup was that season? Bonus points for whoever is quickest first!

Conor Spence