Celtic on this Day – The “howling banshees” in the Jungle help see off St Etienne who arrived in Glasgow with a 2-0 first leg lead…
2 October 1968, Celtic 4-0 St Etienne. Jock Stein’s side overturned a 2-0 deficit following a shock defeat in France. It was 15 months since Celtic’s immortal win in Lisbon, all the talk was about if the Hoops could reclaim the trophy they had lost in the 67/68 season. Celtic did not wear their home strip and instead wore an all white strip which was specially designed for this game. Gemmell, Craig, Chalmers and McBride were all on target. Jim Brogan, Joe McBride and Yogi Hughes were the three players who played in the match who did not start in Lisbon. After the game, St Etienne captain Robert Herbin described the noise of the 75,000 Celtic fans as “howling banshees.” Serbian side Red Star Belgrade awaited Celtic in the next round.
2 October 1985, Celtic are beaten by Atletico Madrid 2-1 at an empty Celtic Park. The game was played behind closed doors as a punishment by UEFA following supporter misbehaviour at Old Trafford against Rapid Vienna. Playing in front of no crowd hurt the pockets of the club by about £250,000. Coupled with limited TV and radio access as well as kick off starting at 2:00pm, majority of supporters were at their work and missed the game. Murdo MacLeod had a Van Vossen esque miss early in the match which really set the tone for Celtic’s entire afternoon. Roy Aitken pulled one back at 0-2 but it was all too late. Atletico ended up reaching the final of the competition in 1986 only to be beaten by Dynamo Kiev in France.
12 years ago today, Celtic win 3-2 in Russia against Spartak Moscow. A memorable Champions League campaign for so many reasons and this match was one of them. It was Celtic’s first ever away win in the competition. It came in injury-time thanks to a wonderful header from Georgios Samaras. Aiden McGeady started for Spartak Moscow that night. Winning the game meant that Celtic made it unbeaten in seven European and five European away matches which is a club record to this day.
37 years ago today, Frank McAvennie signed for Celtic, for a then club record transfer signing fee of £750,000. McAvennie lived up to expectations on his second day on the job, scoring on his debut for his boyhood club. Despite McAvennie scoring, Celtic were held to a 1-1 draw with Hibs at Parkhead.
Conor Spence
