I drew the
centre-half out
and went by him.
I struck it with
my left foot and
it went right
across the box.
caught it sweet
as a nut
George McCluskey scored a last-gasp winner in Amsterdam
to give Celtic a memorable European triumph over Ajax
A WONDERFUL last-minute
European winner, scored by
a product of Celtic's youth
system, securing a memorable
victory... no, not James Forrest's
recent strike against Shakhter
Karagandy, but George McCluskey's
wonderful goal against Ajax back in
1982.
It was the first round of the European
Cup in the 1982/83 season and the Hoops
had been drawn against Dutch giants, Ajax.
Remarkably, within 27 minutes of the first
leg, at home, both sides had scored two
goals,
Celtic travelled to Holland knowing that a
victory was required to progress to the next
round, Charlie Nicholas put Celtic ahead
with a superb goal, but Ajax equalised on
65 minutes, And as the game neared 90
minutes, and with it Celtic's elimination,
McCluskey struck a wonderful winning
goal.
Looking back on a remarkable clash
with the Dutch giants, McCluskey shared
his memories with the official matchday
programme.
What was Celtic's status in Europe at
that time?
We felt we could go quite far in the
tournament as we were a strong team
at that time. It was only a couple of
years before that we had got to the
quarter-finals against Real Madrid and
were really unlucky to lose, We thought
we were quite a strong team, and we were
going into the season as champions as well.
We were disappointed we conceded two
goals at Celtic Park but we went to Holland
confident of getting a result over there,
What about Ajax? Were they a strong
side at that time?
They had quite a strong side. They had
Johan Cruyff back playing with them
again, and even though he was about
35-years-old at the time, he was still able to
have a big influence over them. They had a
lot of internationals playing for them as
well so they were a strong side, Q
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: LAURA BRANNAN
GOLDEN GOAL
Celtic v Ajax 51
