SEVENTIES EURO SPECIALS- ATLETICO MADRID v CELTIC, 1974…
In the two weeks before the second leg in Madrid, the Spanish press and media embarked on a propaganda war against Celtic and UEFA.
Incredibly, the Spaniards chose to completely ignore the inconvenient facts of THREE Atletico players being sent off and SEVEN more booked, violent and often dangerous tackles on Celtic’s players during the 90 minutes of the first leg, and the vicious assault on Jimmy Johnstone as the players left the pitch at the end of the game.
Instead, their whole focus was on the allegations of the Police brutality inflicted on the Atletico players at Celtic Park. For two weeks prior to the return game, the Spanish media entirely rewrote the narrative, with Celtic and the Glasgow Police portrayed as the aggressors and Atletico as very much the victims.
Nowadays, this scenario seems scarcely believable but Spain in 1974 was still under the dictatorial control of General Franco whose regime had continually used sport – and especially football – as a means of boosting Spain’s prestige and image abroad.
These were also the days before the internet and instant digital communication, which made it far easier for any regime to exercise rigorous control over the information available to the public.
As a result, Atletico fans and Spaniards in general were all too willing to accept the story presented to them. After an unopposed and very effective two-week propaganda campaign by the Spaniards, the atmosphere which awaited Celtic was one of pure hatred.
The Spanish aviation authorities also played their part in helping to disrupt Celtic’s preparations by insisting that Celtic’s flight to Madrid had to be re-routed through Dublin.
For many years, Celtic had chartered flights for European matches from Aer Lingus, the Irish airline, without encountering any administrative issues. In 1974, however, the Spaniards refused to allow Aer Lingus to arrive direct from any country outside Ireland, much to the consternation of everyone at Celtic.
The result was that the flight had to stopover in Dublin, adding an extra two and a half hours to the flight time to Madrid and disrupting Celtic’s travel arrangements.
Things were even worse when the Celtic party arrived in Madrid. Essentially, they were under an armed police and army escort from the moment they arrived.
In Celtic in Europe by Graham McColl, Jimmy Johnstone recalled:
“We had the army behind us and the army in front of us going to training. At the hotel, there were plain-clothes policemen walking about, gunned-up. We were told that they were there for our own protection.”
Even worse was to follow, with both Jock Stein and Jimmy receiving death threats. Stein tried to reassure Johnstone, joking with the player that at least he was a moving target on the pitch, unlike himself in the dugout!
On the night of the match, 24 April 1974, the Vincente Calderon Stadium was surrounded by an armed cordon of 1000 police, including a mounted division.
The atmosphere inside the stadium was toxic, with the Atletico fans finally having the chance to vent their fury at those whom they believed had wronged their players.
Celtic were unable to warm-up properly on the pitch before the match, nor go through their usual pre-match preparations. Jimmy Johnstone summed it up in Celtic in Europe: “It was just hatred”. Clearly, the anti-Celtic propaganda campaign had done its job.
No football team should have been required to play in an environment of such violent hostility, death threats and suffocating security.
As Graham McColl says in Celtic in Europe:
“It is…no exaggeration to state that UEFA’s insistence on Celtic travelling to Madrid….placed the lives of the Celtic players in serious danger.”
In such circumstances, any chance of Celtic producing a winning performance would be minimal. In the improbable case that Celtic were to win the match, the potential consequences would be unthinkable.
Yet, incredibly, despite the lack of any normal pre-match preparations and the menacing atmosphere within the stadium, Celtic started the second leg in a positive manner.
Bobby Lennox and Kenny Dalglish both came close to scoring in the first half. Shortly after the interval came Celtic’s best chance when Kenny Dalglish’s indecision allowed his effort to be cleared.
From that point on, Atletico grew stronger and took control of the match. However, it took until 78 minutes before Atletico scored with a goal by Jose Garate which looked suspiciously offside.
Again, remarkably, Celtic somehow recovered and threw everything into scoring a decisive away goal. In Harry Hood: Twice as Good, Matt Corr describes what followed: “Then, as so often happens, they were caught with a sucker punch. Madrid skipper Adelardo seizing on a loose ball to blast it high past Connaghan with four minutes to play.”
The Celtic players deserve great credit for their efforts in such a hostile, surreal and intimidating atmosphere.
One can only speculate what might have happened had Celtic won the tie that night in Madrid, but it would not be an exaggeration to argue that the physical safety of the Celtic party would have been at high risk.
As it was, the group was safely back in Glasgow within four hours of the final whistle. On the flight home, Jock Stein summed up the overwhelming sense of dissatisfaction: “The frustrating thing is that we’ll never know if we were good enough to win the European Cup for we were never given a chance in the semi-finals.” (Gerald McNee, The Story of Celtic: An Official History).
In the Daily Record the day after the match, Stein highlighted that, overall, football was the loser: “I have no complaints about tonight’s game on the field. We lost and that’s that. The damage was done in Glasgow- not just to Celtic, but to football.” (Daily Record, 25 April 1974).
This point was also recognised by commentator John Motson in his superb history of the competition: “Their persistent disregard for the laws mocked the spirit of international competition. In the city where Real Madrid lit a torch for the European Cup, Atletico did their best to extinguish it.” (John Motson, European Cup 1955-1980).
In the European Cup Final against Bayern Munich, Atletico’s skullduggery and cynicism came with seconds of being rewarded. Both sides appeared strangely hesitant, and Celtic fans watching could only wonder what the Bhoys might have achieved against Bayern had they been given a fair chance in the semi-final.
This echoed Stein’s sense of resentment expressed on the flight home from Madrid. A cagey 90 minutes ended at 0-0.
In extra time, the Spanish champions scored from a brilliant free-kick to put them ahead with only six minutes remaining. Thankfully, some sense of justice was restored when Goerg Schwarzenbech, with almost the last kick of the ball and only seconds left, equalised with a shot from 30 yards out.
Celtic fans celebrated Bayern’s late, late equaliser with the same joy normally reserved for goals scored by their own team. For Celtic fans, and for most football fans outside Spain, a sense of justice was fully restored in the replay, when Bayern won 4-0 to claim their first European Cup win.
April 1974 marked Celtic’s last appearance in a European Cup semi-final. It was the club’s fourth semi-final in seven years. European decline would set in from then onwards, apart from an appearance in the quarter-final in 1980, and the run to the UEFA Cup Final in 2003.
As for Atletico, they would go on to win the Intercontinental Cup later in 1974 after Bayern withdrew from the competition. They would win the Europa League in 2010, 2012 and 2018.
However, perhaps most significantly, Atletico Madrid hold the unwanted distinction of being the only team in the history of the European Cup/Champions League to have played in the final three times – 1974, 2014 and 2016 – without ever winning it.
Some might call it karma..
James McDevitt
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