EXCERPT FROM JOHN RAFFERTY’S MATCH PREVIEW, 24 MAY, 1967
For a long time now Jock Stein has kept Celtic going by telling them “the next game is the big one.” Now fact has caught up with him and the next one is indeed the big one and no less than the Club Championship of Europe. That is precisely what is involved when Celtic play Inter Milan in the final of the European Champions Club tomorrow evening.
When Celtic play Inter Milan on the plush stretch of turf in the hollow between the hills in Lisbon and Estoril it will be the climax to a season which has bordered on the unbelievable. They will be attempting what no club has ever carried off – the treble of National championship, National Cup and European Cup. Not even Real Madrid or Inter Milan or Benfica have been able to do this.
And who is to say that these young men who have so spectacularly raced to the top in world football would not be successful?
There was more evidence today of their excited standing in world football when they were invited to take part in the Malaga Rose Bowl tournament at the beginning of August and asked to play two exhibition matches in South America in addition to playing Real Madrid on June 7. Their popularity stems from the fact that in the dull football world of method and theory they think positively and go for goals. They are the equivalent of the dashing Real Madrid of the Di Stefano, Puskas era, they are the new cavaliers of football.
Today in Estoril in Celtic headquarters Jock Stein accepts the new adulation with sound commonsense. In a shop today he was trying on a hat. It was too small and he told the sales girl: “This one would have fitted me last year.” The team, too, can still joke about success .
Today as they stayed in the shade and dodged the fierce sun the players radiated confidence. Inter will know they have been playing whatever the result. Inevitably one looks on Inter as the fading champions as were Real Madrid three years ago, and there could be no brighter and popular successors than this Celtic.
Jock Stein said: “I think the advantage has moved to us. They are now worried about us.” Indeed Inter are and have been since they beat Real Madrid in the quarter-final of this tournament. Helenio Herrera [Inter coach] said then: “The only team that gives me much concern is Celtic, they are very fast and robust.” Today there was a strange confirmation of
f act. Three youths who had hiked from Dundee asked Stein for his autograph. One of them said: “Don’t worry Jock, no team could stand up to Celtic’s speed.”
Stein started to answer: “You canny look at it like that, son.” And then he turned to me and finished: “We will beat them with speed. Maybe some teams could stand up to Celtic’s speed but I don’t think Inter can.” And so in this great final Celtic’s normal drill will be cut. In other away matches on the continent they have played a tight defence for 20 minutes and then turned the runners loose. There will be just ten minutes for nerves to settle, and the speed and more speed will be called for.
Today, after Inter trained, Herrera announced his team and there was no mention of Suarez. Herrera said that Mauro Bicicli, 32 years old and balding, would take his place and be asked to do the same job.
Herrera handled an impromptu press conference with equal ease in three languages yesterday. Asked to name Celtic’s weaknesses, he said: “I’ll tell you after the game.”
“The preparations that the team have made have included for dealing with Suarez. It might be better for us if he did not play, for he cannot be fully fit, and there are no outfield substitutes allowed. It does not matter one way or another.”
We would humbly suggest that it does matter a good deal. Suarez cost Inter Milan £214,000 and he is one of the greatest midfield players in the world. An undistinguished 32year-old who was sent to Genoa five years ago on loan can hardly be an adequate substitute.
The loss of Suarez along with the fact that Inter, twice winners of the cup, must be past their best, does throw the advantage to Celtic, Wewouldadd,too,thatwhenwesawmazzola at training this morning he looked pale and drawn as would anyone who last week was laid low by tonsillitis. There is much encouragement for Celtic.
Since training this morning Celtic have relaxed. The watched England v Spain on television tonight and will relax again tomorrow. They have been brilliantly prepared physically and mentally, and today the green and white hordes have been pouring into Lisbon to give them encouragement.
Tomorrow the stadium will be filled and over 6,000 will be from Scotland. We can but guess at the jollifications if Celtic win.
“In a shop today he [Stein] was trying on a hat. It was too small and he told the sales girl: “This one would have fitted me last year”