| Match Pictures | European Cup 1969-70 | Matches: 1969 – 1970 | 1970 Pictures |
Trivia
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First Leg match at home to Benfica. Following the weekend defeat by Hearts at Celtic Park the squad prepared at Seamills. Bobby Lennox was undergoing intensive physio on his ankle but by Tuesday it was clear that he had no chance of making the game. Jock Stein had left Celtic immediately after the Hearts game to travel to Lisbon and watch Benfica play against Sporting Lisbon on the Sunday.
- Tommy Gemmell faced the SFA over his sending off in West Germany on the Monday. He was fined £60 and banned for three internationals.
- This was an all-ticket match.
- Benfica based themselves in a hotel at Troon for the duration.
- When the team was announced it was clear that Stein had gone for experience, recalling Harry Hood, John Clark, Willie Wallace and Bertie Auld – all veteran heads.
- Should have been 4-0 to us, but a good goal by John Hughes was wrongly chopped off!
- The great Eusebio is put in the shade as Celtic tear Benfica apart.
- Artur Jorge came on as a sub for Benfica. In 1997 he was has Portugal manager and was heavily tipped to become Celtic manager. Hugh Keevins, then of the Scotsman, was so convinced of this that he announced that Jorge was the new Celtic manager in that newspaper and his reputation as a journalist was never the same after the event when Wim Jansen was paraded at Parkhead.
- Celtic ended up losing the second leg 3-0, to make it 3-3 on aggregate, we won on a coin toss!!!!
Review
Celtic 3-0 Benfica (Att: 76,000)
At a lunch given by Celtic on the eve of the match Benfica director Joaquim Marques Alexandre announced, “We are looking forward to a beautiful game of football.”
It was certainly that for Celtic and their fans.
A sold out crowd packed into Celtic Park to see the side nicknamed “O Glorioso”, five times European Cup finalists. With only two minutes on the clock Celtic had a free kick just outside the Benfica penalty area. Bertie Auld surveyed the wall, but with the Portuguese expecting a shot Auld flicked the ball back, as Tommy Gemmell came storming forward. The defender hit it with all he had from 30 yards out. Henrique in the Benfica goal flapped helplessly as it flew into the net.
A few minutes before half-time a lucky bounce put the ball in Willie Wallace’s path. He shrugged off a tackle and lashed the ball home from a narrow angle.
In the 70th minute Harry Hood glanced a header into the net from a Bobby Murdoch cross. Unbelievably it was 3-0 Celtic. Although a lot of fans in attendance now say the only unbelievable thing about the result was that it wasn’t by more goals.
The man Benfica were looking toward to turn the tie in their favour, Eusebio, pulled a muscle in the first half and he was replaced at the interval by Augusto. A disappointing Diamantino was also replaced by Jorge.
When the Portuguese side did threaten to get back into the game, John Fallon in the Celtic goal kept them out with a string of fine saves.
The main talking point after the match was why Italian referee Concetto Lo Bello chalked off an apparently perfectly good headed goal by Celtic’s John Hughes midway through the first half. Everyone on the pitch seemed to think the goal was a good one.
The referee, who had taken charge of Benfica’s 1968 final with Manchester United, attempted to clear up the confusion. “There was no offside,” he said. “But a Celtic player fouled a Benfica man before the ball was netted”. Oddly, he could not elaborate upon who the guilty Celtic man was.
The capacity crowd at Celtic Park roared Celtic home from kick-off to final whistle. “They were absolutely magnificent,” Jock Stein said of the fans. “Their support was fantastic and it was worth an extra man to the team. I thought they were just great”.
Of the result Stein said, “It is good to be going to Lisbon with three goals to the good, although you can never really get enough goals. But naturally I am confident that we can win through”.
The victory suddenly had many people talking about Celtic winning a second European Cup.
Teams
Celtic:
Fallon, Craig, Gemmell, Murdoch, McNeill, Clark, Johnstone, Hood, Wallace, Auld, Hughes Subs: Williams, Callaghan, Connelly, Brogan, Hay .
Goals: Gemmell 2, Wallace 14, Hood 70
SL Benfica:
Henrique, Malta Da Silva, Humberto Coelho, Zeca, Humberto Fernandes, Jaime, Graca, Coluna, Simoes, Torres, Eusebio (Jose Augusto 46), Diamentino (Artur Jorge 46)
Referee: Concetto Lo Bello (Italy)
Attendance: 74,894
Articles
Evening Times 13th November 1969
- Match Report (See Below)
Pictures
Match Report
From A Newspaper Report
Celtic at their greatest, ripped proud Benfica to tattered shreds in one of the greatest nights Parkhead has ever known.
And now magnificent Celtic go back in triumph to Lisbon in two weeks time for the 2nd round European Cup tie with a three-goal lead that looks unassailable.
Big Tommy Gemmell was the wonderful hero of the night. Not just for a fantastic blockbuster that almost burst the Benfica net in the second minute to give Celtic a glorious start – a start from which Benfica never fully recovered.
Gemmell came back from the shadows of a transfer request to his greatest night in a Celtic jersey since that glory final in Lisbon.
And indeed, this was the “Lisbon Lions” roaring again – roaring at their loudest.
Gemmell showed them the way. And from the never-to-be-forgotten thunderbolt that put them into the early lead they treated the mighty Benfica with contempt, tearing them apart with some of the most wonderful football that Celtic have ever played.
On a night filled with memories, the Gemmell goal must take pride of place. It out-Lisboned Lisbon.
It screamed into the net like a white jet-propelled blur, bulging the rigging before a Benfica man could blink.
It came from a cute square free-kick by Auld which beat the defensive line-up, leaving a gap.
Gemmell thundered upfield to meet it and crashed the most fantastic shot this Benfica defence had ever seen, past a completely bewildered goalkeeper.
What a start! Almost too much to be hoped for. And it was only the beginning. Celtic, with every man reaching the heights that made them a name to be feared throughout the world, set about this big-time outfit with a power, pace and tenacity that left the Portuguese gasping and floundering.
Jimmy Johnstone turned on a glittering show that put Eusebio, Torres and others right into the has-been class. Willie Wallace came out of the suspension wilderness to probe and harass the Benfica defence into trouble.
Bobby Murdoch and Bertie Auld, with cool cheek and confidence, took over the middle of the field as though the red-shirted Benfica men had no right to be there.
McNeill handcuffed the lofty Torres, John Clark slotted in as if he had never been missing and cleaned up everything that got past the others.
Gemmell and Craig roared into attack along with their forwards. And the bewildering interchanges and powerful non-stop running lifted Celtic to a magnificent peak.
This was a joy-night, a night that will rank along with the famous night of Lisbon. For Celtic have rarely played better.
They turned it on, making a falsehood of some of their recent form. And with sureness and determination, they made a place in the last eight of the European Cup a virtual certainty.
Some did more than others, but all did a glorious job for Celtic and Scotland. Gemmell, the pathfinder, had shown them the way, and with joyful purpose the rest got into the act fast.
If there was a disappointment for the 80,000 crowd, it was Eusebio. He limped off at half-time never to return. But long before then he had been tossed aside by a cocky Celtic defence, in which John Fallon must be mentioned for three wonderful saves. One of them came from a header by Eusebio at a time when Celtic could least afford to lose a goal. Another in the dying minutes from a Torres header when a goal would have cut Celtic’s lead to a less safe-looking margin.
Eusebio…Torres….Coluna…Simoes…the all-time starts of Portugal looked very ordinary materials against the effervescent Celts.
Celtic’s blistering pace was more than Benfica could cope with. Shots rained in on Henrique. The ball moved from one Celt to another with a precision that was a joy to watch. And more goals just had to come.
The second, when it arrived in the 41st minute, rivalled the spectacular Gemmell effort. Wallace made it by his persistence when he challenged Humberto, won the ball on the bounce, and went through. And he finished the job with a devastating shot from an angle on the run-in…a wonderful effort that the keeper had no hope of stopping.
No Eusebio and no Diamantino for the second half. It looked as if Benfica had given up the fight. In fact, they got more adventurous at times, but finally folded when Harry Hood brought Celtic’s total to three with a wonderful header from a Murdoch cross in the 69th minute.
Hood rose above the defence as Murdoch beat his man and crossed into the middle, and the ball flew high into the roof of the net.
Celtic were coasting home, and it was the Jimmy Johnstone was seen at his greatest. Apparently tireless, he took on Benfica on his own, roving all over the field, beating man after man, holding it when it needed to be held, parting at the right time. He gave his tiring pals a break and Celtic survived a Benfica pressure spell to come back, and come close time and again to another goal.