Celtic’s fortunes had also soared and dived over the years following their all-conquering 1966/67 season. They had continued to dominate in Scotland under Jock Stein, the two initial titles becoming an incredible nine-in-a-row, before finally conceding the 1974/75 flag to Rangers. The last continental campaign of the sixties had ended in a second European Cup Final appearance, this time in Milan against Dutch champions, Feyenoord.
The Rotterdam side had eliminated the holders, AC Milan, and were the second successive side from the Netherlands to appear in the Final, following bitter rivals Ajax, who had lost to the Rossoneri in Madrid the year before. Surprisingly, for a side managed by Stein, there was a popular feeling that Celtic had under-estimated them, after enjoying their own thrilling route to the San Siro, which included victories over Benfica via a coin-toss, Italian champions, Fiorentina and then Leeds United, in the so-called, ‘final before the final’.
Despite Celts opening the scoring, a second European Cup Final goal from left-back Tommy Gemmell, with the referee bizarrely appearing to run across the flight of his shot, Feyenoord equalised minutes later, with a looping header from their skipper, Rinus Israel, then deservedly going on to win the Cup with an extra-time goal from Swedish striker, Ove Kindvall, with Celtic just seconds away from securing a replay. On such fine margins is history won and lost.
The next three years would further illustrate just how misplaced Celtic’s over-confidence had been, Cruyff and co destroying the Bhoys in Amsterdam in the 1971 Quarter-final, on their way to a victory over Panathinaikos at Wembley. And the following year, Ajax made the short trip to Rotterdam, for a Final meeting with Inter-Milan, Semi-final conquerors of Celtic on the night of Dixie’s agonising penalty miss.
Two goals from Cruyff gave the Dutch side a second successive trophy win, one which must have tasted even sweeter, having been achieved at De Kuip, the home of Feyenoord. In 1973, a header from Johnny Rep in Belgrade sealed a 1-0 victory over Juventus, Ajax becoming the first team to win Europe’s premier competition three seasons running since Real Madrid in the late 50s. As an aside, Rep would later leave Amsterdam to spend two seasons plying his trade in La Liga with Valencia.
There would be one final serious assault on the European Cup for Stein’s Hoops. The 1973/74 Semi-final saw a first meeting with Atlético Madrid, although, sadly, the tie will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.
The 73,000 crowd at Celtic Park watched a brutal first leg, three Madrid players seeing red, a number which could easily have been doubled. The match finished goalless, Celtic having their work cut out to reach the Brussels final even before the death threats were received. Atlético won the tie with two late goals in the Vicente Calderon but football was the real loser on this occasion. The Spaniards actually then led the Heysel Final until the dying minutes, the injury-time equaliser from Bayern and subsequent 4-0 replay hammering by the Germans can be filed under ‘karma’.
That Semi-final defeat in April ‘74 would be the last seat at the big table for Celtic for some time. Indeed, they would play European football after Christmas just twice more that century.
In 1976, East Germans, Sachsenring Zwickau knocked the Bhoys out of the Cup-Winners’ Cup in the Last Eight then four years later, victories over Albania’s Partizani Tirana and Ireland’s Dundalk took them through to a Quarter-final meeting with Real Madrid, still the only time the two clubs have played competitively. Celtic shocked the Spanish champions with a 2-0 win at Celtic Park, with goals from McCluskey and Doyle. However, it would be a different story in the Santiago Bernabeu, the 110,000 crowd willing Real to a 3-0 victory over Billy McNeill’s young Celts, thus ending our dreams of a second European Cup.
The re-match between Valencia and Celtic finally took place in November 2001, in the Third Round of the UEFA Cup, with Celts due to visit the Mestalla for the first leg. Their paths to this stage had been very different. Valencia had finished the 2000/01 La Liga season level on points with Barcelona, denied fourth-place and the accompanying Champions League qualifying slot on the basis of their head-to-head clashes with the Catalans.
In one of those fixture quirks which takes football to a different level, the final round of La Liga games saw Valencia visit the Camp Nou, only requiring to avoid defeat to finish ahead of the Catalans. Twice they fought back to equalise after stunning Rivaldo strikes and we entered the final minute at 2-2. Then came one of the most incredible goals ever seen, the great Brazilian taking a cross down on his chest then slamming it past Canazares with the perfect bicycle-kick from outside the box, for a wonderful hat-trick. It was the cruellest of endings to a season where Valencia had gone all the way to a second successive Champions League Final before the shootout misery in Milan, just three weeks earlier. Instead, they would enter the UEFA Cup at the First Round.
Their biggest challenge there would have been pronouncing or spelling the name of the opposition, the Russians of Chernomorets Novorossiysk losing both games, including a 5-0 defeat in Valencia. There was another huge home win in the next tie, Valencia securing a 1-1 draw in Warsaw before Legia were put to the sword at the Mestalla, by the 6-1 scoreline which would become infamous in a later era with the Spanish club’s next opponents, Celtic.
Hector Cuper had joined Inter Milan during the close-season, to be replaced by Rafael Benitez. With a star-studded line-up, including Canizares, Carew, Ayala and Aimar, the Spaniard would be confident of going further in the tournament.
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