Calum1916 Search: from McCluskeys magic moment in Amsterdam By: Laura Brannan on 20 Oct, 2013 10:31 WHEN Celtic travelled to Amsterdam to take on Ajax in the second leg of their first-round European Cup tie in 1982, it was as underdogs, given that the Dutch side had come away from Celtic Park with a 2-2 draw. Johan Cruyff was back in their ranks, and Ajax were confident of progressing to the next round of the competition. However, Celtic produced a superb performance on the night, and goals from Charlie Nicholas and George McCluskey gave the Hoops a 2-1 win on the night and a 4-3 aggregate victory. Speaking to the official match programme for this Tuesday’s UEFA Champions League match with Ajax, McCluskey recalled a famous European victory for Celtic. “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.” To watch highlights of that memorable 1982 Celtic victory over Ajax in Amsterdam, click HERE
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 09:44:53 +0000
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