Celtic had started their European Cup Winners’ Cup campaign of 1963/64 in superb fashion with a 5-1 demolition of Swiss side Basle in the Stadion St Jakob, the goals coming from John Divers, Bobby Lennox and John Hughes, who notched a hat-trick.
Three weeks later, on this day in 1963, the two teams ran out at Celtic Park for the second leg. The home support obviously though the tie was in the bag as only 8,000 turned up to watch, one of the poorest attendances ever for a European night at Parkhead.
And those who stayed away might have been right as Jimmy Johnstone scored in only three minutes to put the hammer on any possible Basle come-back.
The rest of the goals came in the second half, through John Divers (42, 88), Bobby Murdoch and Steve Chalmers, which gave a Celtic a 5-0 win on the night and a 10-1 aggregate victory, putting them through to the second round, where they would face Dinamo Zagreb.
The team that night was Haffey, Young, Gemmell, McKay, McNeill, Kennedy, Johnstone, Murdoch, Chalmers, Divers and Hughes.
Many Happy Returns to Mark Viduka, born on this day in 1975.
Jim Craig
Have you been over to the new Celtic fans forum Celtic Noise yet? It’s a great place to chat to fellow Celtic supporters and signing up is easy…
