It’s almost 50 years since Celtic’s first competitve game in the Nou Camp. On 18th November 1964 a relatively inexperienced Celtic team (Simpson, Young, Gemmell, Clark, McNeill, Kennedy, Johnstone, Cushley, Chalmers, Murdoch, Hughes) went down 3-1 in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in Barcelona before a crowd of only 25,000. The Celts were two down after 22 minutes but John Hughes pulled one back early in the second half and they made a game of it before Rife (he was all over the place) grabbed a 3rd two minutes from the end.
In the return leg at Celtic Park before 43,000 a 0-0 draw was played out with Barcelona enjoying the bulk of the play thanks in the main to their Hungarian veteran Koscis.
Here’s hoping Neil Lennon’s men put on a good performance against the Catalans tonight. Intae them!
the shamrock 