| Match Pictures | Matches: 1982 – 1983 | European Cup | 1982-83 Pictures |
Trivia
- European Cup, 1st Round, Second Leg
- Aggregate Celtic 4-3 Ajax, 2-2 first match; Celtic go through.
- Celtic wear new away strip of white pin striped green jerseys, white shorts and green socks in Amsterdam.
- Ajax move game to the Olympic stadium to accomodate huge crowd. First full house Ajax have had since 1974.
- 3,000 Celtic fans travel to Holland and are praised for their beaviour. Celtic supporters association sent representatives to assist Dutch authorities with great success
- McCluskey scores dramatic last gasp winner.
- No TV highlights permitted in Scotland because Ajax had JVC advertised on their jerseys.
- On a notable night for Scottish football Rangers defeat Borussia Dortmund, Dundee United knock out PSV Eindhoven and Aberdeen go through against Dinamo Tirana.
- George McCluskey (2013):
- “We were extremely disappointed to lose the two goals in the first leg in Glasgow,” he said. “I think they were happy to go back home with the draw, and we were a wee bit cautious of losing a late one and going over there with the disadvantage. At least when it´s a draw you´re in with a shout, I think going over there 3-2 down would have been a thankless task.
“I was carrying a wee injury and it was debatable whether I would travel or not. But Big Billy asked me to go, because at that time it was any two from me, Frank McGarvey and Charlie Nicholas to play up front, and between the three of us we scored over 100 goals that year – we were scoring a phenomenal amount of goals.
“The last 10 minutes of the game suited us because we were out of it so we had nothing to lose. My goal was one the three of us were all involved in – Charlie got it, passed it to Frank, who passed it to me. I drew the centre-half out and went by him. I struck it with my left foot and it went right across the box. I caught it sweet as a nut.
“I remember going into their dressing room after the game trying to swap my jersey but every one of them had their heads down. They all said no, and told me to get out, but as I was going out Cruyff was lying having a massage on the table.
“He shouted on me, took his top off and said he would swap with me because I scored a great goal. I didn’t want any of the other tops after that, I got the main man´s.”
- “We were extremely disappointed to lose the two goals in the first leg in Glasgow,” he said. “I think they were happy to go back home with the draw, and we were a wee bit cautious of losing a late one and going over there with the disadvantage. At least when it´s a draw you´re in with a shout, I think going over there 3-2 down would have been a thankless task.
Review
Nicholas scored the goal of his career in the Olympic stadium, beating two defenders and gloriously chipping the keeper.
Bonner had the game of his life in goals by defying the Ajax forwards and was only beaten by a deflection.
With Cruyff withdrawn through injury after a long, slow departure from the field in 85 minutes to a rapturous ovation, Celtic took advantage of his absence by nicking the winner through George McCluskey. The players and fans celebrated wildly in the late Amsterdam night.
All four Scots teams went through with notable results. Aberdeen beat Dinamo Tirana, Rangers beat Borussia Dortmund and Dundee United knocked out PSV Eindhoven.
Teams
Ajax:
Galje, Monenaar, Van Veen, Molby, Boeve, Shoenaker, Vanenburg, Cruyff (Molenaar), Lerby, Olsen, Kieft
Ajax scorer: Vanenburg (65)
Celtic:
Bonner, McGrain, Aitken, McAdam, Reid, Provan (McCluskey 72), Sinclair, McStay (Moyes 78), MacLeod, McGarvey, Nicholas Subs:Latchford Sullivan Crainie
Celtic scorers: Nicholas (33), McCluskey (88)
Referee: Agnolin (Italy)
Att: 52,326
Articles
- Match Report (see below)
Pictures
Links
Articles
Evening Times 30th September 1982
The man who stopped Johan Cruyff
By: Mark Henderson on 12 Jun, 2012 09:43
Official Celtic site
WHEN Celtic announced a pre-season friendly match against Dutch giants, Ajax,for thisJuly, it evoked fond memories for Graeme Sinclair.
Back in September, 1982, just six weeks after signing for the Bhoys from Dumbarton, ‘Sinky’ delivered the performance of his life to shackle the threat of Johan Cruyff and help the Hoops progress in the European Cup at the expense of a gifted Ajax side.
Celtic had managed to earn a 2-2 draw at home in the first leg of the European Cup first round tie, with Charlie Nicholas and Frank McGarvey on target.
However, in truth, the Hoops had been fortunate to escape with a share of the spoils, with Ajax, inspired by the likes of Cruyff, Jesper Olsen and Soren Lerby, the superior team on the night.
That led manager Billy McNeill to turn to Sinclair, who had forged a reputation as a formidable man-marker, to negate the threat of the influential Cruyff.
For someone who had been starring in a Stirlingshire Cup tie a matter of weeks earlier, it was certainly a daunting task – but one he was determined to accomplish. And it was one of the few occasions that the great Johan Cruyff came out second best.
“As far as highs went, it probably was the greatest game I had every played in. It was just an incredible experience,” reflected Sinclair, speaking exclusively to the official Celtic website.
“Big Billy was speaking about the tactics before the game. He came to me and said ´Sinky´s going to be marking Cruyff´, and I think everyone must have thought: ‘What!?’ – as I had only been there six weeks.
“He said, ‘Even if he walks back to the goalkeeper and realises what´s happened, I just want you to walk beside him. Or even if he goes off the park to the toilet – I want you to go off the park with him!´
So I knew specifically what I had to. I was nervous but I was thinking, fair enough I have to do it. Before the game when all the teams were lining up and there was all the music before the game, it makes you get more nervous. You just wanted to get started.
“Big Billy justtold me tostick tothe task. There are times where it wouldn’t work. ButI knew how to man-mark people so I justwent outand did it.
“I had a good start to the game. I got a couple of good tackles in. I always tried to get the ball before people – to anticipate it. I got a wee bit of confidence from it and the team started playing really and I actually made some positive runs. Not everything was negative.”
In the 33rd minute, the visitors stunned the home side by taking the lead through a tremendous individual effort from Nicholas. This wasn’t in the script. Sinclair was involved in the build-up.
“I made a run up the left hand side and I lost the ball and it eventually broke to Charlie and he scored, and everyone was going daft as that was us in the lead and we had the away goal,” he said.
However, Ajax restored parity, and went ahead again in the tie in the second half, through a fortuitous strike from Gerald Vanenburg.
Celtic now required another goal to progress. However, their performance up to that point fuelled a belief that they could still succeed in that endeavour. And so effective was Sinclair in shadowing Cruyff that the Dutch master departed the game prematurely.
As full-time approached substitute, George McCluskey, collected the ball inside the box anddrilleda shotinto the far corner to earn Celtic one of the greatest ever European results.The final whistle brought a feeling of sheer elation, which Sinclair never experienced again in his career.
“Everything was going really well, and they scored a terrible goal,” he said. “It was shocking. I don´t think the guy, Vanenburg, meant it. It was a like a cross to nothing which he hit with the outside of his foot, and I think Packie was unsighted and it just crawled into the net. That was just into the second half.
“But we weren´t really deflated. I remember big Roy saying, ‘We’ve done well anyway, so if we go out we will go out with our heads held high,’ and the game just went on and on.
“I had a run down the right-hand side and Frank McGarvey hit the bar. We brought on George McCluskey. He got the ball on the left hand side – I can´t remember who passed to him – and he hit a good shot, a daisy-cutter, and it went in.
“There was only a minute to go, and I haven´t experienced anything like that in my life. It was just unbelievable. No one ran to anybody. You know how normally players will run to congratulate the guy who scored. No one seemed to do anything – well I certainly didn’t anyway.
“And then the whistle went and all the players were running about the park.Ajax were an incredible side withthe likes of Soren Lerby who was the Danish captain, Wim Kieft and Jan Molby.
“It wasn´t we didn’t believe we could win. It was just the way we won that was incredible. Collectively we never really got together. I was running about daft. If someone could have pumped you up, you would have just floated away.
“Big Billy was going nuts as well. I seem to remember going to the Celtic fans and the whole back terracing was heaving and I think they were was a cage there.And we were standing up on the cage and all the Celtic fans were going wild. I have never experienced anything like that in my life.”
The full interview with Graeme Sinclair will be shown on Celtic TV at the start of the new season.
