Inter were an incredible side. They were top of the Italian league and aiming for their fourth title win in five seasons. The one time they lost was after a play-off. The European Cup had become as much their domain as the Italian title. Having won it in 1964 and 1965, they lost the previous season’s semi-final in controversial manner to Real Madrid after some debatable refereeing. Reigning champions, Real, would suffer retribution, losing home and away to Inter in the ’67 quarter final. No team in European history had been so dominant. Real won five European Cups in a row but could not combine that with the kind of domestic domination this Inter team enjoyed.
On the morning on 25 May 1967 they were truly the most formidable team in history.
The game has to be seen to be believed. We won the European Cup, you know that, but HOW we won it is the most startling thing. I was a teenager when the first ‘video recorded’ arrived in the house. Soon thereafter a copy of The Celtic Story was purchased. I knew the legend but nothing prepared me for the onslaught, I’d never seen a football team destroy opponents in this way.
A CQN’er kindly prepared the stats for us:
Total shots – Celtic 45, Inter 3
Shots on target – Celtic 16, Inter 3
Shots off target – Celtic 29 (3 against the woodwork), Inter 0
Possession – Celtic 64%, Inter 36%
Crosses into opponents box – Celtic 40, Inter 4
Corners – Celtic 10, Inter 0
Successful passes – Celtic 310, Inter 224
Misplaced passes – Celtic 49, Inter 79
Passbacks to goalkeeper – Celtic 7, Inter 20
Fouls Committed – Celtic 19, Inter 21
Offsides – Celtic 5, Inter 1
No prizes for guessing the top two passers, Bobby Murdoch (60) and Bertie Auld (51) but it surprised me that John Clark and Jim Craig came joint third with 43 each, considerably higher than Tommy Gemmell (27), next on the list.
Someone suggested to me that the European Champions tournament had been devalued by a team winning by ‘parking the bus’ in front of their own goal. I disagree. This is football, spoiling has always been part of the game and the Champions Final is not always pretty, which makes the special times all the more special.
Someone lifts that cup every year, but few have done so with such devastating style as the Lisbon Lions.
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BB
£16 for tickets for two people to Hamilton Park racecourse on either 13 July 2012, 30 August 2012, or 23 September 2012
Love
We all set out from Glasgow town, from London and from County Down
Cork, New York and Dublin from Boston and Chicago
We all got on the aeroplanes and all Italia’s greatest names
Landed up in Portugal to take on Glasgow Celtic
Everything was going to plan, when Glasgow Celtic beat Inter Milan.
It being on the 25th of May, the kids all had a holiday
The sun was shining down and all the windows they were open
Some listened on the radio some watched the famous TV show
Everyone was praying we’d be champions of Europe
We sang throughout the land, when Glasgow Celtic beat Inter Milan.
Celtic went out to attack, but soon got caught out at the back
Up stepped big Mazzola to slot away a penalty
Celtic rallied to the call but Sarti coped well with the ball
And Inter were so fortunate to be one up at half time
They said catch us if you can when Glasgow Celtic beat Inter Milan.
The second half got under way, the Celts put on a great display
Of attacking football that made Inter run for cover
Gemmell brought us level and the cup was surely settled
When a shot from Bobby Murdoch was deflected in by Chalmers
Now the score line read two wan, when Glasgow Celtic beat Inter Milan.
We all went out to celebrate, the bus came down the Gallowgate
Then on to Celtic Park to hail a lorry load of heroes
The European Cup displayed, the Celts they gave a victory wave
And everyone was singing we’re the champions of Europe
And Jock Stein is the man, when Glasgow Celtic beat Inter Milan.
When Glasgow Celtic Beat Inter Milan
When Glasgow Celtic Beat Inter Milan
Two Wan!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNLzrkS-dVM
I suffered a badly broken leg on May 24th 1992 and was in hospital on the 25th. BBC showed a replay of the full match, and whilst I’d seen extracts from the game, I’d never seen the full match.
The extracts I’d seen were, in my mind, typical in that they showed the Scottish teams highlights of a game in Europe (you know those highlights of the ‘odd attack’ etc).
It had not prepared me, at all, for one of the most one-sided football matches I have ever seen, either in the flesh, live broadcast or even as highlights.
When I got out, I orders a copy on VHS from Woolworths that I still have to this day (despite now not having, and never likely to obtain another, video cassette player). Every so often, I fire up my DVD copy just to sit and watch a breathtaking display of football. Highly recommended to any fan of football, not just Celtic supporters.
Just. An. Excellent. Game.
*ordered
This one goes out to vmhan who never got his picture showed on Glen Michaels Cavalcade due to obscenity laws …. take it away Lulu
I don’t have a lot but with me that’s fine
Whatever I got, well I know it’s mine
I don’t go around with the local crowd
I don’t dig what’s in so I guess I’m out
I’m sayin’ these things so you know me, baby
So you understand what I’m all about
The boat that I row won’t cross no ocean
The boat that I row won’t get me there soon
But I got the love if you got the notion
The boat that I row’s big enough for two
Me and you
There ain’t a man alive can tell me what to say
I choose my own side and I like it that way
I don’t worry ’bout all the things I’m not
There’s only one thing I want I ain’t got
You know that I’m thinkin’ about you, baby
But you better know ‘fore you come along
The boat that I row won’t cross no ocean
The boat that I row won’t get me there soon
But I got the love if you got the notion
The boat that I row’s big enough for two
Me and you
I’m saying these things so you know me, baby
So you understand what I’m all about
The boat that I row won’t cross no ocean
The boat that I row won’t get me there soon
But I got the love if you got the notion
The boat that I row’s big enough for two
Me and you
The boat that I row won’t cross no ocean ….
“If you’re ever going to win the European Cup, then this is the day and this is the place. But we don’t just want to win this cup, we want to do it playing good football – to make neutrals glad we’ve won it, glad to remember how we did it.”
Jock Stein before the game 25th May 1967
lawrencedonegan @lawrencedonegan
Just read Jim Traynor’s column in the Record belittling mark daly’s 5* doc about Rangers . He’s illiterate. I’m speechless.
Och Jabba let it go, you’re gubbed, the huns are gubbed, it’s over R.I.P. your Cabal…
We’re the boys who shook up Lisbon
We showed Inter some of our tricks
MERSEYCELT 1105
Could be worse,you could be exiled in Swindon.
Or come fae Kilwinning!
ImissthatplaceCSC
Ten years they did pass so slow
To portugal we had to go
To play the team that Italy adores
Celtic went out to attack
They won the Big Cup and they brought it back
It was the first time it had been on British shores……….and they gave us……
WHITEDOGHUNCH 1106
Just seeing the way you put that brought a smile to my face!
Your friend’s Dad did that often too.
Marrakesh Express on 25 May, 2012 at 09:46 said:
I went to every home game and it wasnt untill we saw off Vojvodina (who were very good) that we felt that something big could be happening…
I had an argument with a hun in a pub about the merits of our victory. He said as per expected: “It wiz easier tae win it back then. Thur iz less games in maist irra teams wur crap anywie.” How was I to counter the sharp blazing scimitar like intellect of this hun? Sometimes in the face of such overwhelming ignorance & inveterate obtuseness you just have to accept you are up against insurmountable odds- what can you say? The thing such morons fail to understand is the demographics & topography of football in those days:
1) None of the biased protectionist seeding’s system (In fact did we not get Kiev in Ist Rnd the following season?).
2) The 60/early 70s was the true golden age of football when every great European club had their greatest players/teams: Benfica. Real & Atletico. Barca. Inter & AC. Ajax ( who beat Liverpool 5-1 in 67 then were put out by our semi opponents Dukla Prague). Anderlecht. Munich.
3) Playing the Eastern European clubs was effectively playing national teams: Kiev. Dukla. Vojvodina. Partizan. Vorwarts Berlin. CSKA. Gornick ( who had Lubanski- a Rangers fan once told me he had seen him at Ibrox & was possibly the greatest player he had ever seen). Russian clubs. Hungarians etc…who were all at that time very strong ( unlike now when they are ravaged by rich vultures from other leagues).
4) the old fashioned knockout system made it harder to win- one bad game & you could be out: unlike now when you can suffer numerous defeats and still win the Big Cup.
5) The inherent dignity of the tournament exclusively containing “true” champions- unlike in the example of Chelski.
PS
Still don’t think that was a penalty to Inter.
Decided to mention to my class that today was the anniversary of an incredible occasion, just in passing like!!
40 minutes later………..oops :-))
Interesting that you suddenly go back “on topic” with this article Paul. Are you, like me, getting secret delusions of grandeur about next season?
Ernie Lynch @ 11.10
Nice one buddy
HH
Awe Naw
No, I attended.
I just thought that my group consisted of a bunch of internet bampots, many of whom were using their smart phones whilst others were speaking..
Some of them hadnt even acheived a podium, FFS!
The quest goes on!
HH
I follow @whoscored on Twitter.Basically they give anorak type facts on the so called “Top 5 Leagues” in Europe.
See below tweet from them from 14th May:
Manchester City 3-2 QPR: City had 44 attempts at goal – 4 more than any other team in a single game in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season.
Doesn’t this put into perspective Celtic’s amazing 45 attempts on goal against one of the best teams in Europe with probably the best defence of that time-not against a team near the bottom of the league playing with 10 men for most of the 2nd Half!
Unbelievable stat,unbelivable performance,unbelievable team!
Awe Naw I’ve lost the thread…. CQN moves to quickly pour moi, CQN is a part of tbe fabric of Sottish society, it must be true or maybe my auld dad was correct never, ever trust the snp, i guess he seen enough of the nazis to recognise similar mindsets.
Party politicql boadcast on my behalf CSC
V
Hx2
Awe_Naw_No_Annoni_Oan_Anaw_Noo on 25 May, 2012 at 10:50 said:
Well done Alan Freeman…The Tremeloes were No.1 on that famous day.
I take it your running through the whole top 20?.
Lulu, Pet Clark and the Dubliners so far…
hh
So 10 years they had gone and so,
to Portugal we had to go,
to play the team that Italy adore,
Celtic went out to attack,
they won the big cup and they brought it back
it’s the first time it had been on British shores….
Morning all and Happy Lisbon day!
An unforgettable evening- I was not quite six and as the teams came onto the pitch I was not sure quite how significant the game was. I knew by the end – never saw my mum and dad so happy, never forget Big Tam running around in an Inter top , never forget Big Billy making his way to the podium. Nothing was ever quite the same again.
And school- St Matthews in Bishopbriggs – was even okay the next day!
H x 2
Even though I’ve seen the game so many times ( watching it even now ) I am always haunted by the same impression: the “spookiness” of the illusion that Celtic had an extra man. Every time I watch the game it seems as though we had more players than them…very strange.
Its like a weird sporting case of TS Eliot’s “Sensed-Presence Effect”.
Or maybe the Lions were just so much better than them.
One of the most impressively striking aspects of the performance in Lisbon is the very high tempo of the Celtic attacking ( the way I think all Celtic sides should play)- they must have been incredibly fit to play with such intensity- effectively wearing Inter down.
“After fifteen minutes, surely they can’t be time wasting already…Even now Inter won’t come out…how do you break down an eleven man defence?”
And this one has been requested by Bournesouprecipie, DBBIA who like their woman big …
While I’m far away from you my baby
I know it’s hard for you my baby
Because it’s hard for me my baby
And the darkest hour is just before dawn
Each night before you go to bed my baby
Whisper a little prayer for me my baby
And tell all the stars above
This is dedicated to the one I love
(love can never be exactly like we want it to be)
I could be satisfied knowing you love me
(and there’s one thing I want you to do especially for me)
And it’s something that everybody needs
While I’m far away from you my baby
Whisper a little prayer for me my baby
Because it’s hard for me my baby
And the darkest hour is just before dawn
If there’s one thing I want you to do especially for me
Then it’s something that everybody needs
Each night before you go to bed my baby
Whisper a little prayer for me my baby
And tell all the stars above
This is dedicated to the one I love
This is dedicated to the one I love
This is dedicated to the one I love
This is dedicated to the one I love
But somewhere out of the darkness must come light. My generation coincided with Celtic’s worst period. Yet they still occupied a special place at the edge of my imagination, as a powerful, strange force that always somehow held the promise of a sense of meaning.
And now, incredibly, that promise threatens to be delivered. So savour this moment. Remember this place. Remember the way it looks and sounds and smells. Remember the way the moment feels. Savour it when life gets tough. Because if this can happen – if a football team that contains Catholics and Protestants, a set of players who all hail from the Glasgow area, a club set up to feed the hungry children of despised immigrants – if they can become champions of Europe, then anything is possible.
===========================================
That is one of the most beautiful things I have ever read about Celtic.
I didn’t see the light of day until the early 70’s s I missed Lisbon. But I remember the very moment when I watched the ‘Celtic Story’ on video. There were three generations of my family in the room watching it. I was still at Primary school.
I had heard of Jock Stein, I had heard of the players who won the Big Cup. But for me, watching that video was the moment when it all became clear for me what I was a part of. I had always ‘supported’ Celtic before that. But from that moment on i ‘got’ it. I knew we were more than just the football. I have had the feeing since.
Celtic have broken my heart on many occasions but it never stays broken for long.
As one of the childrens children of the ‘despised immigrants’ perhaps I feel it all the more keenly, but the Celtic story (not the video, the story) has to be one of the greatest in the game.
Could Joanna Lumley be the cover girl or the figure head for the just say “NO” to Newco ( should that be New Club?) campaign?
And….hun lurkers need to remember that Jock Stein was a Protestant and abhorred bigotry.
I got all choked up reading this :
http://www.thecelticwiki.com/page/Jock+Stein+-+Quotes
Will there be a change of the guard at the SFA and could this be a black Friday for R****** finally as the pressure starts to mount. When will HMRC say everything must go as their patience stretches to the limit.
There’s been a lot of dirty work at both organisations for as long as we can remember but I’ve every confidence that the pressure brought to bear , in spite of the MSM,RFC , Duff and Duffer etc, will eventually bear fruit.
R******, everything you did is now coming right back at you and the right royal scam you’ve perpetrated on football, not just in Scotland, should see you heavily punished for some seasons to come.
The Celts will be kings of Europe again, and, on this special anniversary of winning the only cup that counts, I fervently hope that we can do it again.
I remember well at my old school, the day after winning the cup, all us boys running round the pitch doing a lap of honour, before the bell went to summon us in.
I’m sitting here typing this and reeling in the years just thinking about it.
wonkyradar on 25 May, 2012 at 11:15 said:
Marrakesh Express on 25 May, 2012 at 09:46 said:
I went to every home game and it wasnt untill we saw off Vojvodina (who were very good) that we felt that something big could be happening…
=======================
Went to see the play ‘The Road to Lison’ a few years back. In it the characters agreed that the best team we played on the way to the final were Vojvodina. They said if we hadn’t beaten them that there was every chance Vojvodina would have gone on to the final.
Is that a true reflection of how the support felt at the time?
Marrakesh Express on 25 May, 2012 at 11:17 said:
Well done mate
Going through the whole top 30 of May 25th 1967
HAil HAil
“And now it’s known as the Celtic way…”
Attack! Attack!, Attack! Attack! Attack! Attack!
’67… In the heat of Lisbon
Happy Libon Day. It was brilliant to check the blog this morning and get the updates from the European Cup Final. I felt like jumping up and down when Stevie scored the winner! More than a club are Celtic.HH.
And a special request for all the clever clog Moroccan Celtic fans living in CQN land
Dirty old river, must you keep rolling
Flowing into the night
People so busy, makes me feel dizzy
Taxi light shines so bright
But I don’t need no friends
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise
Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is evening time
Waterloo sunset’s fine
Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station
Every Friday night
But I am so lazy, don’t want to wander
I stay at home at night
But I don’t feel afraid
As long as I gaze on Waterloo sunset
I am in paradise
Every day I look at the world from my window
But chilly, chilly is evening time
Waterloo sunset’s fine
Millions of people swarming like flies ’round Waterloo underground
But Terry and Julie cross over the river
Where they feel safe and sound
And they don’t need no friends
As long as they gaze on Waterloo sunset
They are in paradise
Waterloo sunset’s fine
STARRY PLOUGH 1111
Thanks for bringing that article to my attention.
A really cheap ‘n’ nasty pice,tawdry even,full of low digs.
Shoooooorly the National Union of Journalists should move to withdraw his card?
A journalist he ain’t……
Although he can probably spell piece……
How to sum up that achievement , the style of football , the philosophy ?
In four simple words from the genius himself – my all footballing time hero, a man so far ahead of his time that its just about impossible to measure the scale of what he achieved with us , for us.
“Pure, beautiful, inventive football”
This is true : my dad was born in the middle of a storm on The Irish Sea as his ma & da travelled from Dundalk to start a new life in Gladgow,1913.
57 years later he died,in the middle of a storm in Scotland.
He was old school,tough as nails,but with a lovely musical heart and soul.
He was loved by many,respected by all,disliked by none.
And he taught us our history,and lifted us up.
Almost 42 years on and I still miss him. I wish he was here today.
I suppose it’s a day for remembrance of great men.
CUP
walter myth the worst manager ever to take a team into Europe’s premier tournanment.
I’m sure some of our excellent stat guy’s will post his embarassing results in the Champion’s League.
WGS destroyed his win percentage in only 3 season’s.
I’m pretty sure the myth has had the most campaign’s / to least win’s ratio of ANY other manager to take a team into the CL.
Along with his stat of Henke scoring more goals on the way to Seville than all the hun’s on the way to the Manchester riot’s.
Surely the myth takes the award of the most embarassing disgraceful manager ever to play in Europe…..and to think he CHEATED in every season!!
walter myth a Stupid Hurtin Hun!!