Lisbon Lions

We did it by playing football. Pure, beautiful, inventive football.

Jock Stein on Celtic's triumph in Lisbon [1][2]

The Lisbon Lions is the nickname given to the Celtic team that won the European Cup at the Estádio Nacional near Lisbon, Portugal on 25 May 1967, defeating Inter Milan 2–1. All but one member of the 15 man squad were born within 10 miles of Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland (Bobby Lennox was born 30 miles away in Saltcoats).[1] Celtic's style was the antithesis of the cynical, but highly effective, defensive style of Inter. Jimmy Johnstone described the team's style as "like the Dutch speeded-up."[3]

Alessandro Mazzola opened the scoring for Inter with a 7th-minute penalty after Jim Craig had brought down Renato Cappellini. The Italians then retreated into their famous 11-man defence. Inter did not win a single corner and forced Celtic goalkeeper Ronnie Simpson to make only two saves. Celtic had two shots off the crossbar, and 39 other attempts on goal, 13 of which were saved by Italian goalkeeper Giuliano Sarti, seven were blocked or deflected, and 19 were off-target. Craig made amends for his penalty mistake on 63 minutes, when he laid off the ball for Tommy Gemmell to fire home for the Celtic equaliser. With 83 minutes on the clock, Gemmell was allowed space, and he played the ball to Bobby Murdoch, whose long-range shot was deflected by Steve Chalmers past Sarti into the net.

Celtic were the first British club to win the European Cup, and still the only Scottish club to have reached the final. Celtic are one of only three clubs to have won a "Quintuple", the others being Barcelona (2009 and 2011) and Inter (2010). They reached the final again in 1970 but were beaten 2–1 by Feyenoord after extra time in the San Siro Stadium in Milan.

Celtic's European Cup results 1966–67

1966–67 European Cup
Date Venue Opponents Score Round Celtic scorers
28 September 1966 Celtic Park, Glasgow (H) Fußball-Club Zürich 2–0 First round, 1st leg Gemmell, McBride
5 October 1966 Letzigrund, Zurich (A) Fußball-Club Zürich 3–0 First round, 2nd leg Gemmell (2, 1 pen.), Chalmers
30 November 1966 Stade Marcel Saupin, Nantes (A) FC Nantes 3–1 Second round, 1st leg McBride, Lennox, Chalmers
7 December 1966 Celtic Park, Glasgow (H) FC Nantes 3–1 Second round, 2nd leg Johnstone, Chalmers, Lennox
1 March 1967 Stadium of Vojvodina, Novi Sad (A) FK Vojvodina 0–1 Quarter-final, 1st leg n/a
8 March 1967 Celtic Park, Glasgow (H) FK Vojvodina 2–0 Quarter-final, 2nd leg Chalmers, McNeill
12 April 1967 Celtic Park, Glasgow (H) Dukla Prague 3–1 Semi-final, 1st leg Johnstone, Wallace (2)
25 April 1967 Stadion Juliska, Prague (A) Dukla Prague 0–0 Semi-final, 2nd leg n/a
25 May 1967 Estádio Nacional, Lisbon (N) Internazionale Milano 2–1 The Final Gemmell, Chalmers

The team

  1. Ronnie Simpson (Goalkeeper)
  2. Jim Craig (Right back)
  3. Tommy Gemmell (Left back)
  4. Bobby Murdoch (Right half)
  5. Billy McNeill (Captain, Centre half)
  6. John Clark (Left half)
  7. Jimmy Johnstone (Outside right)
  8. Willie Wallace (Inside right)
  9. Stevie Chalmers (Centre forward)
  10. Bertie Auld (Inside left)
  11. Bobby Lennox (Outside left)
  12. John Fallon (substitute Goalkeeper, not used)

Notes: Celtic did not wear numbers on their shirts at this time. The numbers shown were sewn onto their shorts.

A second goalkeeper was the only substitute allowed at the time.

Squad 1966–67

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
1 Scotland GK Ronnie Simpson
2 Scotland DF Jim Craig
3 Scotland DF Tommy Gemmell
4 Scotland MF Bobby Murdoch
5 Scotland DF Billy McNeill (Captain)
6 Scotland DF John Clark
7 Scotland FW Jimmy Johnstone
8 Scotland FW Willie Wallace
9 Scotland FW Stevie Chalmers
10 Scotland MF Bertie Auld
11 Scotland FW Bobby Lennox
12 Scotland GK John Fallon
Scotland FW John Hughes
Scotland FW Joe McBride
Scotland MF Willie O'Neill
Republic of Ireland MF Charlie Gallagher
Scotland DF Jim Brogan
 

See also

References

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Monday, March 14, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.