Magnificent Bhoys showed heart of Lions

Tarcisio Burgnich couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

It’s into the closing minutes of the 1967 European Cup final, the score is 1-1 and Celtic are absolutely battering away at the Inter defence.

Indeed, by that point, Jock Stein’s team had already managed over 40 shots on goal — the kind of stat that was exceptionally rare in the 60s, let alone now.

It was all to result in something even rarer, however. The Inter Milan defence, one of the greatest the game had ever seen and the foundation of a dynasty, was about to buckle.

The right-back that day, Burgnich, explains: “At one point, [Armando] Picchi turned to the keeper and said: ‘Giuliano [Sarti], let it go, just let it go. It’s pointless. Sooner or later, they’ll get the winner.’ I never imagined my captain would tell our keeper to throw in the towel. That shows how destroyed we were.”

It is to Celtic’s eternal credit that, under an arguably even greater barrage on Wednesday at Parkhead, they admirably held together and essentially outlasted one of the finest backlines ever.

Because, for Celtic’s ultimate 42 shots on goal in 1967, read Barcelona’s eyebrow-raising possession as well as all the miraculous saves Fraser Forster had to pull off.

Of course, given that Celtic ultimately beat Inter 2-1 in 1967 and actually had a European Cup to their name for 25 years longer than Barca, it would be hugely disrespectful to the Glasgow club and their past to describe Wednesday as the greatest night in their history.

Lisbon remains unparalleled, with the 1970 semi-final win over Leeds United following close enough behind.

But, when you consider the dimensions of Wednesday’s match and how the game has changed since Barca’s maiden 1992 win, let alone 1967, it is by no means drastic to say it runs both nights pretty close.

In fact, whatever about Celtic’s history, the 2-1 win over Barca was one of the most remarkable results in the modern Champions League.

Given the notorious commercialisation of the competition, the most obvious explanation comes down to economics.

Whereas Barca’s bench cost over €125m, Celtic FC PLC is only worth around €44m in total assets.

The team that started on Wednesday cost €7.2m; the ultimate match-winner, Tony Watt, €62,000.

The most telling explanations, though, lie in the statuses of the individual leagues.

Quite simply, since the Champions League was created in 1992-93, there has never been an upset which has seen such a difference in the coefficients of the two leagues.

At present, for example, Spain is ranked number one in Europe. Scotland, by contrast, is 26th.

When BATE Borisov beat Bayern Munich recently, it was 20th against third. Even when APOEL got to the quarter-finals last year, the Cypriot league was still rated way above Scotland’s.

Indeed, to put Wednesday’s result into some kind of perspective, the SPL is more than twice as close to the League of Ireland in Uefa’s rankings than it is to Spain.

Obviously, there is also the argument that Celtic are a level above the average Scottish side and that such rankings don’t reflect their quality.

Just as relevant, though, is the fact the league also prevents the club fulfilling their potential in terms of TV money, commerce and even attracting players.

On the other side of it, too, Barca aren’t just playing in the best league in Europe. They’ve just come off the back of one of the best eras in the history of the game.

Even more impressively, then, Neil Lennon has succeeded where so, so many great managers and clubs — not least Alex Ferguson and Manchester United — have failed.

Although everyone knows the only way to really try and beat Barca is to pack the defence, crowd Leo Messi and the midfield and force them onto the wings, exceptionally few have actually pulled it off.

Lennon is now one of them, and the fact he came painfully close to doing it twice illustrates it was down to more than just fluke and a good night.

To be fair, although it still takes nothing away from Celtic, the result does perhaps illustrate a few other things too.

There remains the distinct possibility that Barca have lost a slight edge since the departure of Pep Guardiola. Similarly, given other surprising results elsewhere, this does look like one of the more open Champions League campaigns in some time.

Ultimately, though, Celtic did enough to take advantage of all that. They played the percentages. By allowing many of these same Barca players such freedom in Gdansk in June, it was exactly what Giovanni Trapattoni didn’t do. There is a lesson there.

Differences in quality should not always outweigh sheer belief.