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Hl Cruyff's talents as a player were just beginning to gain
him the recognition of a potential superstar but that didn't
deter Hay from the task given to him by Jock Stein ahead
of their double-header in March 1971.
A versatile but key member of the Hoops starting XI in
the early 1970s, Hay had been given the specific challenge
of marking the No,14 when the sides met in Amsterdam all
those years ago.
In the first leg he managed to largely subdue the attacker
and limited his influence on the game for the first-half, but
a flash of pace from Cruyff on 62 minutes freed him from
the shackles of Hay and the Celtic defence, allowing him to
run on to a lobbed pass and flash a brilliant shot past the
helpless Evan Williams,
The moment was over in what felt like a second but was
enough to give Ajax the platform to go on and dominate
the game,
Cruyff's talent and skills are still at the forefront of the
former Celt's mind now, however, and they were none
more prominent when the Bhoys were drawn against the
Dutch side in this season's UEFA Europa League.
"Cruyff's profile was high already, even then," he
explained, "It wasn't as high as it was by the time Holland
got to the 1974 World Cup but even then people knew him.
"In those days we didn't have the same coverage of
foreign football as we do now, but we knew from the
minute we played him that he was an exceptionally
intelligent player, a quick player and someone who was
difficult to mark, not just by me,
"He wasn't the only reason but he was one of the main
reasons as to why Ajax were so great. As a team they were
top drawer."
The football world tends to view the success of that Ajax
side, and subsequently the Dutch national team, as the
advent of what has come to be known as 'Total Football',
but Hay believes there wasn't much difference between
the style of play the Dutch were using to the free-flowing
attacking football that had seen Celtic crowned champions
of Europe in 1967,
"I don't think their style was totally different, it's just that
they were exceptionally gifted players," he said. "They
proved too good for us, which can happen when you're
playing against a team at that level though we still got to
a couple of semi-finals after that, In those days we tended
to do well.
"The biggest disappointment of my career was losing to
Feyenoord in 1970 but we still managed to compete at that
level but, again, that first-leg against Ajax had a period of
maybe 15 minutes where they just proved they had a bit
of quality over us on the night,
"In the second leg we scored in the first-half and
certainly felt we could have done it. We curtailed Cruyff a
bit more but it was probably just a hurdle too much.
"On reflection they probably felt they got through,
maybe not comfortably, but the three goals were a lead
that gave them the assurance that they'd get through
over two legs,"
Although both Cruyff and Hay have long since hung up
their boots, the Celtic legend believes there are still some
parallels between their meeting in 1970 and tonight's
European clash between the sides in the Europa League.
There is no aggregate score for the Bhoys to overcome
but there is the same feeling of a need for victory at
Paradise.
"We basically have to win the game - that's where the
similarities are," said Hay, "And it's not a case of pegging
back an aggregate score, so the task is less difficult than
it was in our time, but the one thing they have to do is
defend and play with a greater intensity of game if they
have any hope of getting that result,
"If they show the form they showed against Ajax over
there then there is hope. Until Emilio Izaguirre was sent
off, Celtic were the better side but after he was gone it was
a bit uphill and they did well to come away with a draw.
"I'm hoping we'll get the result. My prediction would be
to expect to see a more spirited performance from what
we saw against Molde, eradicate the defensive errors they
made and then there's a chance."
