Nevertheless, more than 43,000 rolled up to Celtic Park two weeks later, hoping for the unexpected. They would be disappointed, Barcelona comfortably containing the eager young Celts, thanks mainly to a masterclass from the legendary Hungarian veteran, Sandor Kocsis.
He was in the final season of a superb playing career, which included six years in the magnificent Honved side of the early ‘50s. There, he teamed up with fellow ‘Mighty Magyars’, Puskas, Czibor and Bozsik, to form the nucleus of the best club and international sides in world football.
He was the top goalscorer at the World Cup of 1954, when the Hungarians lost a two-goal lead and the Final to West Germany in Berne, the only game in which he failed to score. His scoring rate was akin to that of McGrory’s at Celtic, 153 in 145 games for Honved and 75 in 68 appearances for Hungary, more than a goal per game.
In November 1956, Kocsis and Honved were in Spain for a European Cup tie against Athletic Bilbao, as the uprising kicked off in Budapest. Many of the players refused to return to Hungary, the second leg going ahead in Brussels. But whilst Bozsik eventually returned to Honved, both Czibor and Kocsis moved to Barcelona, and Puskas found fame and Alfredo di Stefano, at the home of the new European Champions, Real Madrid.
Kocsics’ spell at the Camp Nou was successful, twice winning La Liga and the Copa del Generalisimo, plus the 1960 Fairs Cup, however, the two major prizes would elude him. In 1961, seven years after that World Cup Final defeat, he returned to Berne’s Wankdorf Stadium with Czibor and Barcelona, for the European Cup Final, having been part of the side which finally defeated the five-time winners Real Madrid in the First Round, then scoring the injury-time goal in Hamburg, which forced a Semi-final play-off.
But whilst he opened the scoring and Czibor added a second goal late on, Benfica managed three of their own in between, to become Real’s successors as European champions.
In Glasgow, December 1964, by now in the twilight of his career, Kocsis was ensuring that Celtic fans would have to wait a bit longer for their own taste of European glory.
The second-leg finished goalless, a disappointing and frustrating night summed up by the sight of Chalmers being stretchered off with a nasty ankle injury. It would be difficult to foresee how such a yawning chasm in class could be closed.
