Misplaced Pages

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

The Lisbon Lions is the nickname given to the Celtic team that won the European Cup at the Estádio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal on 25 May 1967, defeating Inter Milan 2–1.

Name

The name is likely due to the fact that the Lisbon-based Sporting football club's mascot is a lion, and the club wear green and white striped jerseys like Celtic.

Event

All but two members of the 15 man squad were born within 10 miles of Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland (Bobby Lennox, who was born 30 miles away in Saltcoats, and Tommy Gemmell, who was born in Motherwell 11 miles away). 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".

In the stadium where his father Valentino played his last match, Sandro 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 Stevie 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. Having already triumphed in the Scottish top flight, Scottish Cup, and Scottish League Cup, the Lisbon Lions became the first winners of the European Treble and remain the only winners of the fabled Quadruple. Celtic are also one of just three European clubs to have won five trophies in a single season, thanks to their Glasgow Cup triumph over Partick Thistle. They reached the European Cup final again in 1970 but were beaten 2–1 by Feyenoord after extra time in the San Siro Stadium in Milan.

Celtic's results in the 1966–67 European Cup

Celtic team in the final

1. Ronnie Simpson
2. Jim Craig
3. Tommy Gemmell
4. Bobby Murdoch
5. Billy McNeill (captain)
6. John Clark
7. Jimmy Johnstone
8. Willie Wallace
9. Stevie Chalmers
10. Bertie Auld
11. Bobby Lennox
12. John Fallon (substitute goalkeeper, not used)

• Jock Stein (Manager)
• Sean Fallon (Assistant Manager)
• Neil Mochan (Trainer)

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. The other members of the squad who played in Europe during that season were Charlie Gallagher, John Hughes, Joe McBride and Willie O'Neill.

Awards

• BBC Sports Team of the Year:

1967

• SPFA Special Merit Award:

1992 (awarded to Lisbon Lions)

• Scottish Football Hall of Fame:

2017 (Lisbon Lions inducted)

• The Loving Cup (Lord Provost's Awards):

2017 (the 50th anniversary)

References

1. ^ "BBC 'On this Day 1950–2005' May 25 – 1967: Celtic win European Cup". Archived from the original on 5 November 2012. Retrieved 17 August 2006.
2. "Celtic win European Cup 1967". Archived from the original on 24 September 2013. Retrieved 10 May 2013.
3. Hunt, Chris (19 February 2015). "In their own words: How Celtic's Lisbon Lions shocked 'unbeatable' Inter in 1967". Four Four Two. Archived from the original on 19 July 2016. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
4. The Day Lisbon Belonged to Celtic, Stuart Spencer, Scottish Football Museum, 25 May 2017
5. Memories of the day 'Wee Jinky' got his teeth into the European Cup, by Robert Philip Archived 15 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
6. "The last game of Grande Torino at Lisbon, May 4th 1949". Fox Sports. 12 August 2018. Retrieved 10 May 2022.
7. "Who has won a treble, including domestic league and cup titles, plus the European Cup or UEFA Champions League?". UEFA. 10 June 2023. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
8. Jensen, Neil Fredrik (1 June 2022). "Celtic 1967 – the only quadruple winners". Game of the People. Retrieved 14 June 2023.
9. "Past winners: 1963–1967: 1967 Winner". BBC Sport. BBC. 27 November 2003. Retrieved 4 March 2009.
10. "PLAYER OF THE YEAR 'DOUBLE' FOR MCCOIST". Dundee Courier. 11 May 1992. Retrieved 21 April 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
11. "Lisbon Lions inducted into Scottish Football Hall of Fame". Herald Scotland. Glasgow. 16 October 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
12. "Glasgow Honours in Lord Provost's Awards". glasgow.gov.uk. Glasgow City Council. 10 April 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2023.

External links

• Local Heroes: The story of the Lisbon Lions, by Chris Hunt, published in FourFourTwo magazine, June 2007
• Year of Triumph a scanned-in commemorative magazine from 1967.
• Lisbon Lions site in Norwegian.
• Match report from the Guardian, 1967.
• Celtic 67 more recent picture of two of the Lisbon Lions.
• Football's Greatest Teams - Celtic

• Celtic F.C.
• Nicknamed groups of association football players
• 1966–67 in Scottish football
• Scottish Football Hall of Fame inductees
• 1966–67 European Cup