Celtic’s first experience with the European Cup was a very happy one. It was the 1966-67 competition it would go on to lift the trophy in Lisbon. The competition was a lot different to how it is now and Celtic only needed to get past four teams on its way to the final. In the first round was Zurich who Celtic defeated 5-0 over two legs. Following the Swiss were wins against Nantes and Yugoslavia’s FK Vojvodina. The semi-final saw Celtic take on Dukla Prague. A 3-1 win in the first leg saw Celtic sail through to the final where it would meet Inter.
Inter had won the final two of the three previous years and had the experience for this type of occasion. When Inter went ahead via a seventh minute penalty, many feared that would be it for the young Celtic side. It didn’t give up though and equalized on 63 minutes thanks to Tommy Gemmell. The winner from Stevie Chalmers came seven minutes from time.
Celtic’s title defence didn’t go as planned and it was eliminated in the opening round by Dynamo Kiev. Kiev won the first match 2-1 and would draw the second leg.
The following year Celtic did better. It made it as far as the quarter finals until AC Milan eliminated them.
The omen of starting off against a Swiss side worked in 1966-67 and maybe it would be a good one again in 1969-70. It looked like it was going to be Celtic’s year when it drew 3-3 after two legs with Benfica and progressed through to the quarter-finals, courtesy of a coin toss.
In the last eight, Celtic came out in the first leg and blasted Fiorentina off the pitch with a 3-0 thumping. A 1-0 loss in Florence in the second leg was good enough to see Celtic progress. The semi-final was the Battle of Britain with Celtic facing Leeds for a place in the final. The opening leg was at Elland Road and Celtic left with a 1-0 win. Celtic won the second leg 2-1 to seal a place in the decider.
The final was to be at the San Siro in Italy with Celtic taking on Feyenoord. Once again Tommy Gemmell scored only for Rinus Israel to equalize two minutes later. The scores would stay level until three minutes from extra time - Ove Kindvall scored the winner to break Celtic hearts everywhere.
It was a case of Double Dutch for Celtic with Ajax knocking Celtic out from the competition the following year.
In 1971-72, Celtic were taking it slowly. It got past the Danish Boldklubben 1903 before knocking out the Maltese Sliema Wanderers in the second round. Celtic eliminated the tricky Hungarian Újpesti Dózsa to meet up in the semi-finals with their old rivals, Inter.
The final four were a high quality group with each of Ajax, Celtic, Inter and Benfica having won the title before. Celtic played out two tough scoreless draws with Inter and then saw its luck dry out when it lost a penalty shoot-out 5-3 to miss out on the final.
The next year, Újpest FC got its revenge when it knocked Celtic out in the seond round.
In 1973-74, Celtic made it as far as the semi-finals until Atletico Madrid knocked it out. The Spanish side won the second leg 2-0 after a 0-0 draw.
1979-80 is the last time Celtic made it as far as the quarter-finals. It was knocked out by a resurgent Real Madrid side.
Celtic learned the hard way about the brave new world of the Champions League when it was knocked out of the 1998-99 tournament in the second qualifying round. It defeated Croatia Zagreb 1-0 in the opening match at home before losing 3-0 in Zagreb.
Celtic finally made it to the group stage of the Champions League in 2001. It made it at the expense of long-time foe Ajax who it defeated 3-2 on aggregate. Celtic found itself in a group along with Juventus, Porto and Rosenborg. It was to be a familiar story for Celtic – it won all three of its home matches and lost all three of the away one’s. The final match of the campaign was an incredible 4-3 win over Juventus.
In 2003-04, Celtic came close to making it past the group stage. In the final match, it just needed a point against Lyon in Lyon but went down 3-2 to miss out.
In 2004-05, Celtic found itself with a very tough group. It drew AC Milan, Barcelona and Shakthar Donestsk and finished last after the six pool matches.
The following year Celtic finally made it past the group stage. It finished second in its group to Manchester United at the expense of Benfica and Copenhagen. Its three home wins and three home losses were enough to see it through.
In the round of 16, it played AC Milan. A scoreless game at Celtic Park was followed by a scoreless 90 minutes at the San Siro. Kaka scored in the third minute of extra time to once again see Celtic leave the San Siro in tears. Celtic’s ability to take Milan to the brink would turn out to be even more of an accomplishment when Milan would go on to win the final.
In 2007-08, Celtic made it to through the hard way. It needed penalties in the third qualifying round to advance at the expense of Spartak Moscow. In the group stage, Celtic face a reunion with familiar friends; AC Milan, Benfica and Shakhtar Donestk. Again the formula of three home wins and three home losses was enough for Celtic to get past the group stage.
Celtic was drawn to play Barcelona and things were looking good in the first leg at 2-1 up but two second half goals gave the Spaniards a handy 3-2 lead. When Barcelona scored in the third minute of the return leg, Celtic would have to score at least three to stay in the tie. It didn’t score once and so were out.
In 2008-09, Celtic was in a group with Manchester United, Villarreal and Aalborg. At home it could only win once and draw twice. Suffice to say it lost all three away matches.
Given its lack of off-field firepower, it is going to be a struggle for Celtic to replicate its feats of 1967.