THE IMPOSSIBLE MATCH
by Jock Stein
I don't think Celtic would have been good enough to win the 1974 European Cup. . .But there is no real guide-line, for even although that is the way I felt in my bones about it I still don't know how it might have turned out. We never got a chance to find out because we took part in what must qualify for the title of one of the most impossible football matches ever played.
I mean, of course, the European Cup semi-final against Atletico Madrid, and especially the match in Glasgow which the Spaniards turned into a disgrace to the name of their city which has always been revered wherever football is played. The world saw a cynical South American attitude by Atletico which, if it is allowed to continue, must pose a threat to the future of these competitions which I, and thousands of others, have always enjoyed so much.
There were certain players selected by Atletico to make sure that some of our players would not be involved in the second game. These Atletico players did not care how they carried out their objective, whether Celtic's players were carried off or sent off. But my players took credit from the tie. Apart from a booking for Dixie Deans - for an incident made ten times worse by the play-acting of the goalkeeper - none of the Celtic players got into trouble. . . and they were all available for the second leg.
Certainly I would not like to be involved with any club in a game of that nature again. But looking back now on the tie, when the passions have cooled, I can only hope some good may come out of it.
That will be a forlorn hope unless the European Union are ready to clamp down. Sadly, by only fining Atletico for their behaviour, and carrying out the statutory suspensions, they made it clear they are not prepared to put the sanctions where they will be most effective. . . against teams on the playing field.
There are supposed to be two legs in each of these European Cup ties. But anyone who was at Parkhead, or the millions watching on TV, will know that Celtic were deprived of that. . . there was only one leg played in that semi-final and the Spaniards made sure it was the match in Madrid.
They sniped for long after the game at the Turkish referee, and claimed he was incapable of handling the fixture in Glasgow. I thought he was an extremely able referee. But he made one mistake, he showed respect to the fixture as a European Cup semi-final by not ordering players off the park early in the game.
Sadly it only proved again that if a team is determined on these tactics you cannot be lenient with them right from the beginning or they will take all the liberties possible. I was not motivated by any feeling of revenge against Atletico when they went into the final. We might have met them again if they had won the competition, and qualified for the next competition as holders, but that would not have frightened me at all.
However I was pleased that the German side, Bayern Munich, won the final. . . because they were the better team. And I think for the European Union it was a good thing Bayern were the victors, otherwise the competition would have been reduced to a farce. As I have said earlier I can't say how we would have got on against Bayern. Certainly our form against teams such as Vejle of Denmark and the Swiss champions, Basle, in two of the earlier rounds swung crazily between very good at times and also very bad.
We met comparatively easy opposition, on paper at least, and I didn't relish that because I wanted to meet one of the big glamour teams to really test us. It's no use tip-toeing through Europe kidding yourself on the team is capable of winning if it's not really up to it. Sadly the first really formidable team we met were Atletico, and no one could judge that in a tie when we should have been fitted with boxing gloves instead of football boots.
Now, as we enter our ninth consecutive European Cup competition we have to find an answer to one main problem. We have got to be more consistent in striking power . It's the easiest thing in the world to contain teams, but trophies are only won by sides who can pressure the opposition and score goals. We can only be regarded as potential European Cup winners again if we make more of our chances. We might still have been in the European Cup last season if we had taken our chances and made more of a contest of it in Madrid.