Fifty-two years after facing Valencia in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup Celtic will play their 300 European tie tomorrow night away to Astra Giurgiu.
Without doubt European football has defined the club with the fresh challenge of continental action contrasting with the many issues that blight the game in Scotland.
The clubs European history can generally be split into three distinct periods covering the glorious Stein years highlighted by the 1967 European Cup win in Lisbon, a twenty year ‘blip’ when European football seemed something for other clubs followed by the Champions League era sparked by Henrik Larsson with 80,000 fans enjoying a never-to-be-forgotten trip to Seville for he final of the 2003 UEFA Cup.
Until the arrival of Jock Stein in 1965 the despair of a 4-0 Cup Winners Cup semi final defeat away to MTK Budapest following a 3-0 win at home had been typical of Celtic’s European fortunes.
The following season a controversial 2-1 aggregate defeat to Liverpool in the semi-final of the Cup Winners Cup served notice of Celtic’s intentions before Zurich, Nantes, Vojvodina and Dukla Prague tumbled on route to the final with Inter Milan in Lisbon.
Over 90 minutes against the Italians took a pounding as the ultimate benchmark was set with a performance that shaped the modern history of the club and gave other British clubs something to emulate.
Two finals and two other European Cup semi-finals were enjoyed over a seven year period as the best of the continent toiled to cope with Stein’s side with Leeds United, St Etienne, Fiorentina and Benfican found Celtic too hot to handle.
Following the 1980 European Cup quarter final defeat from Real Madrid there was a long bleak 23 year winter before Celtic were to rediscover European football beyond the festive period.
After one campaign in the new look Champions League Celtic found themselves in the UEFA Cup where they saw off Sudova, Blackburn Rovers, Celtic Vigo, Stuttgart, Liverpool and Boavista before going down 3-2 after extra-time to Porto in the final with Larsson scoring twice.
Over the last decade or so European football has become more and more of a feature of Celtic’s season with Neil Lennon’s side notching up 24 matches between July 2012 and December 2013.
Tomorrow night marks Celtic’s 300th European tie and Ronny Deila’s tenth tie in UEFA competition. Extending the Europa League campaign into the new year with John Guidetti available is expected of the Norwegian as the club embarks on it’s fourth century of European action.
