On Wednesday, 29 April 1964, nearly fifty years after that Burnley match, Celtic would return to the Hungarian capital on competitive business, defending a 3-0 lead in the semi-final of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup against MTK. In their second competitive, continental campaign, the Bhoys had bounced back from the previous season’s Inter-Cities Fairs Cup first-round exit by Valencia, to reach the last-four, overcoming Basel, Dinamo Zagreb and Slovan Bratislava in the process. A fortnight earlier, a first-half goal from Jimmy Johnstone and a double from Steve Chalmers after the interval took Jimmy McGrory’s young Celts to within 90 minutes of a first European final, in front of 51,000 at Parkhead.
I wrote about that painful night in the Nepstadion (now renamed the Puskas Ferenc Stadion, in honour of the great man) in Part 2 of my Valencia File series for The Celtic Star back in January and I have no desire to go through that story in any great detail again. Suffice to say that everyone believed the tie to be over, including perhaps the management team, and as the song says, ‘Celtic went out to attack’, despite a three-goal lead.
That naivety was punished in the cruellest possible way, as MTK, led by their returning skipper, Karoly Sandor, a Mighty Magyar colleague of Puskas, destroyed the Hoops in Budapest. The 35-year-old winger set up two goals and scored one himself, the tie levelled by the hour and the 3-0 lead overturned completely with twenty minutes still to play. 4-0. Over and out.
Just to twist the knife, the trophy would be won just a fortnight later by a side wearing green-and-white hoops, Sporting Lisbon beating MTK 1-0 in the Antwerp replay. Morais’ goal directly from a corner is, to the best of my knowledge, the only time a European final has been won in this way. Two days earlier, the teams had shared six goals in a near-empty Heysel Stadium, Sandor scoring twice.
Celtic didn’t enjoy much luck with Brussels finals. A decade later, I recall my dad and his Cairn CSC colleagues booking a minibus for the 1974 European Cup Final there, prior to the last-four tie with Atletico Madrid. The rest, as they say, is history, the Spaniards eliminating Celtic following a disgraceful exhibition in Glasgow and just seconds away from beating Bayern Munich in the Heysel to claim the prestigious crown of European champions, before the Germans levelled then struck a blow for football by cruising the replay 4-0.
Incredibly, Atletico would suffer exactly the same fate forty years later, ironically in Lisbon, this time Sergio Ramos’ 93rd minute equaliser crushing their hopes of a first-ever success in the competition which means most in European football, city neighbours Real scoring three more in extra-time to clinch an unprecedented ‘La Decima’. I guess Karma really is a bitch sometimes.
Between those two campaigns of 63/64 and 73/74, there had almost been a first competitive meeting of Celtic and Ferencvaros, the clubs drawn together in the first round of the 1968/69 European Cup. Then Warsaw Pact forces, including soldiers from Hungary, invaded Czechoslovakia on the night of 20 August 1968, Celtic chairman, Bob Kelly, subsequently sending the following telegram to UEFA;
‘In view of the illegal and treacherous invasion of Czechoslovakia by Russian, Polish and Hungarian forces, and in support of the Czech nation, we, the Celtic Football Club, do not think that any Western European football club should be forced to fulfil any football commitment in any of these countries.’
Despite UEFA’s reluctance to get involved in the delicate political situation, many other western clubs and nations lent their support to Celtic’s stance, the governing body eventually forced to come up with a compromise solution which involved a redrawing of the first-round ties only, to ensure that all of the Eastern Bloc countries were paired together, thereby buying some time.
Most of the sides from beyond the Iron Curtain subsequently withdrew, with Celtic matched up against French champions, St Etienne, in the revised draw. Ironically, having disposed of Les Verts on a magical night at Parkhead, the Bhoys then came out of the second-round hat with one of the only two remaining clubs from the Eastern Bloc, Yugoslav champions, Red Star Belgrade. Celtic would beat them before losing to eventual cup-winners, AC Milan, in March 1969, by which time the Parkhead chairman had been knighted.
It was a widely-held belief that Kelly’s moral stance on this issue was a major factor in that recognition.
Celts were Budapest-bound again in the spring of 1972, this time the purple-shirted Ujpest Dozsa were the champions of Hungary and our quarter-final opponents in the European Cup.
They were a decent side, having beaten Spanish title-holders, Valencia, both home and away in the previous round. I well remember rushing home from school in Sighthill to catch the first leg, a rare televised match on STV, a defender called Horvath memorably scoring at both ends before Lou Macari snatched a late winner.
The trip is best remembered for the after-match party involving Hollywood royalty, Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, the Welsh actor filming in the city following a lavish 40th birthday celebration for his wife and sharing a hotel with the travelling Celtic support.
Having had to decline an offer to attend the match due to his work commitments, Burton then put a £5k drinks tab on the bar for the Hoops fans, the celebrity couple later turning up for perhaps the most bizarre Celtic photoshoot ever.
