Celtic v Leeds. European Cup semi final 1970

Did an article on it there, if anyone wants to read about it.

http://www.talkceltic.net/forum/showthread.php?t=147935



Any of the older guys remember the game?, or better yet, were any of yous at it?

Would have been incredible! 136,000 people at it. And Leeds sent over half of their 10,000 allocation back to Celtic

The media made Celtic out to be major underdogs prior to the tie. And Celtic dominated both games. Tommy Gemmell described it as the easiest 2 games he played in European football.

Celtic became the first side in Britain to play in 2 European finals..... Must have been amazing, man.... Would love to have been about in that era. We were unstoppable!

 

The sad thing is after that game the players underestimated the final.

 

My Father went to the game in '70 unbelievable game , both great teams of their time.

 

Aye both teams were in their national cup finals 4 days before...

Celtic got beat by Aberdeen at hampden. And Leeds drew 2-2 with chelsea. The English media couldnt believe how good Jimmy johnstone was. Some printed that he was better than George Best.

 

he was

 

Aye, you could imagine how high a pedestal Best would have been on. After his man united side being the first English side to win the European cup 2 years before.

It seems they overlooked the Scots that played in Scotland.

 

I was lucky enough to have been at that game and quite right in my eyes that I was there as well.

When the tickets went on sale My Da, Uncle, and a fair number of us weans were all taken down the night before to join the queue. Little did us weans know at the time that we were being taken down with an ulterior motive. Aye my Da and the rest of the family adults went to the pub and we were left to keep their place.

After closing time they came back with their trusty, "carry oot," to see them stand sentry duty during the night and we were delighted to get fish and chips. We kids were then sent to go spend the night with my Granny who lived on Springfield Road right next to the now Lisbon Lions stand. We had to be back in the queue by about 8am and bring the 'night shift' tea and bacon rolls.

Day of the game was just one of pure excitement and the noise after Leeds had taken the lead was something I don't expect to ever hear again. It started with a loud Celtic...Celtic and with each repetition it became louder and louder until virtually everyone in the 131,00 crowd was one voice.

The so called 12th man must have done something because after that we dominated the game. Celtic were playing out of their skins and when we scored the first it was bedlam and when we went 3-1 up on aggregate everyone knew for certain we were on our way to another EC final -convinced our name was destined be on it once again as winners.

Quite how they made the crowd only 131,000 I don't know because believe me inside Hampden there was barely an inch of space left to move. Jam packed like sardines doesn't describe how it felt to be a part of it all.

Fond memories and happy days.

 

Nice one Lion!


[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nG_CVX3SGeA[/ame]

 

l was at the game too. No chance there were only 134,000 there. In these days a big percentage of under 16's got a lift over so there could have been another 30/40,000 at the game. My dad worked beside Jim Farry's (aye him ) mother at the time and always could get tickets for games at Hampden. We were in the south enclosure at the dug out side of the ground and although l was on the wall round the track there wasn't the same crush as the big European games at Parkhead.

As l've said before on here at that time l kind of expected that we would always just turn up and roll over these teams in Europe.

 

Aye that was just the official ticket sales. No doubt there were thousands more there.


Could only dream of being in an era, where Celtic were beating the Europe's elite for fun.

 

I was 9 at the time and remember it well.

In all the time I have been watching football this is the only game that really deserved that title Battle of Britain.

I have always lived in Essex but all my mates over the park wanted to be Celtic. They hated Leeds and that celtic team just had such a romance about them. Jinky was obviously the star that we all wanted to be. Celtic played the game how it should be played and Leeds earned their tag dirty Leeds for good reason.

 

Absolutely amazing ,never seen so many fans!!

 

Yeh we definitely should have two of the "big ones". Bobby Lennox talks about it with such pain in his book, although we should have been two up if it weren't for the officials (must of been Huns).

 

Celtic films used to do a CSC road show kind of thing and had the entire match. Not sure if it exists anywhere online or even video but if you ever get the chance watch it it's well worth seeing.

 

In my whole life I've NEVER heard anyone suggest we were hard done by in 1970.

 

I can only go on the opinion of other people, as I actually haven't read into how we played in the final. Rather ignorant. But I'm sure i will eventually.

My understanding is we were beat by the better side. The Dutch were just starting to come on to their game. And as far as I'm aware. Feyenoord were the best around.

 

I was at the game,and if I remember the official attendance was 137,000,505.
We left Springburn about 5 pm and got into Hampden 10 mins after kick-off,the whole transport system that night was a nightmare,we virtually walked the whole way,and then the crush to get in was crazy.

Aye what a game,Leeds were branded by the English press as being the best team of the century,and funny enough we beat them 4 out of 4.

Anyhoo,walking home that night I said to my pal "I hope that lap of honour dose'nt come back and bite us".

Yes a part of me has always thought,we took that unknown Dutch team a tad lightly,shame the Leeds game wasn't the final.

 

A lot of books written about it definitely say we under estimated Feyenoord including big Jocks.

The norm for crowds at European nights at Parkhead were 75,000+. My memory is leaving down Janefield street and my feet barely touching the ground.

 

You would have thought Jock would never have taken them lightly.... He would have known only too well not to. After all, he and the Lions were taken lightly in Lisbon.

He was taken lightly against Leeds.

They should have known better!

 

Ye your right,but I think beating the so called "team of the century" like we did,went to mostly everyones head,including most of our support.

I can still see the ball going over Billy's head,could'nt believe it.