Seventies Euro Specials – Ujpest Dozsa v Celtic, 1972

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The Celtic Star

·25 February 2026

Seventies Euro Specials – Ujpest Dozsa v Celtic, 1972

SEVENTIES EURO SPECIALS – UJPEST DOZSA v CELTIC, 1972…

Season 1971/72 started with Celtic in splendid form. They won FIVE of their six League Cup group matches, including two victories over Rangers at Ibrox in the space of a fortnight. The first of these was officially a home game for Celtic but the match was played at Ibrox due to continuing work on the Main Stand at Celtic Park. This game was also significant as Kenny Dalglish scored his first goal whilst playing in Celtic’s first team.

Kenny Dalglish, Celtic FC 1971

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The great form would continue into the first league matches of the season, when Celtic scored NINE against Clyde at Parkhead and then defeated Rangers for the THIRD time at Ibrox in a month with a hard-fought 3-2 win. The team was playing some great football and scoring goals freely. Which is precisely why the away result of the European Cup First Round, first leg tie on 15 September came as such a shock.

Drawn against the part-timers of B1903 Copenhagen, Celtic slumped to a 1-2 defeat after what Jock Stein later described as Celtic’s worst-ever performance in European competition. The Danes scored through Johansen after only 13 minutes but Lou Macari equalised seven minutes later. After 24 minutes, Johansen scored his second of the evening after a good cross from Nielsen.

Celtic tried hard to get back into the game but only Murdoch and Macari were playing at anywhere near their normal standards. The Bhoys were slightly better in the second half, but the game ended 2-1 in favour of the Danes, despite Celtic missing a few chances late in the match.

In the return match, Celtic played better and charged forward relentlessly. The Danish part-timers defended heroically, however, and even came close to scoring with a long range shot from Nielsen which hit the bar. Celtic’s sustained pressure at last paid off when Willie Wallace scored after 24 minutes but further goals just would not come.

John “Yogi Bear” Hughes was brought on in the second half and the pressure continued but without any further goals. Yogi then won a penalty in 68 minutes, took it himself but saw his shot saved by goalkeeper Jensen. The fans in the 53 000 crowd were becoming increasingly frustrated – and nervous- as one goal from Copenhagen would be enough to put them through.

The nerves were eased when Tommy Callaghan scored with a spectacular header from the edge of the area in 79 minutes. The tie was finally settled when Wallace scored his second with only five minutes remaining. Celtic had got the job done, but it had been far from convincing.

Tommy Callaghan and Evan Williams, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Had they been eliminated by the part-timers of B1903 Copenhagen, it would have gone down as one of the biggest shocks in the history of the European Cup at that time.

Celtic in Malta in 1971. Photo Malta and International Football Collection

The second round was a much more straightforward affair, a 5-0 win at home against Sliema Wanderers followed by a 2-1 win in Malta. This match was so one-sided that Celtic could easily have scored TEN or more.

Some observers suggest that the nature of this game helps to explain what happened next. Just three days later, Celtic produced a truly shocking performance in the League Cup Final by losing 1-4 to Partick Thistle on 23 October 1971.

Interestingly, two days before the final, both John Hughes and Willie Wallace had been sold to Crystal Palace for a combined fee of £50,000 as Jock Stein continued to break up his old guard. The incredible League Cup upset simply strengthened Stein’s determination to rebuild his squad, with Denis Connaghan and Dixie Deans signed a few days later.

The embarrassing result against Thistle was followed by away wins at Dunfermline and Ayr before the second leg on 3 November. Sliema shocked Celtic by scoring in the first minute of a match played on a surface with barely any grass and covered in bumps. However, goals just before and after half time by Hood and Lennox saw Celtic win the match 2-1 and qualify for their FIFTH European Cup quarter final appearance in SIX years.

Potential opponents in the quarter final were holders Ajax, followed by former winners Feyenoord, Inter Milan and Benfica. Making up the last eight were Arsenal, Ujpest Dozsa and Standard Liege, the only clubs in the group not to have won the trophy.

Ajax were the team which everyone wanted to avoid and Arsenal were the unlucky club. Celtic were drawn to face the Hungarians,“a squad that some felt was emerging as Hungary’s best post-war club side.”(Tom Campbell and Pat Woods, The Glory and the Dream).

The Glory and The Dream

In 1969, Ujpest defeated Leeds home and away in the Fairs Cup quarter final, before losing to Newcastle in the final. On the way to meeting Celtic in 1972, they had eliminated Spanish champions Valencia in the second round, winning 1-0 in Spain and 2-1 in Hungary. The Hungarians would present Celtic with a formidable challenge.

The Hungarians decided to play the first leg at their compact Megyeri uti Stadion rather than moving the match to the larger Nepstadion. The opening part of the match was played in a thunderstorm, with driving rain and treacherous conditions underfoot. Celtic adapted quicker than the hosts and, with Murdoch, Hay, Dalglish and Hood controlling the midfield, took the lead after 20 minutes. Horvath attempted to deflect a long range shot from Jim Brogan with a spectacular diving header, only to see it fly past his own keeper.

The goal gave Celtic huge encouragement, and they continued to press forward, gaining four corners and coming close to scoring again through Hay and Lennox. Then, just before half time, Kenny Dalglish narrowly failed to meet Hood’s low cross. The few chances Ujpest created were dealt with comfortably by a defence superbly commanded by Billy McNeill. The first half ended with Celtic a goal ahead and in control.

Ujpest continued to be frustrated in the early part of the second half and needed something special to get back into the match. After 60 minutes, Dunai came very close, only to be foiled by an incredible save by Williams. The equaliser came after 64 minutes when Horvath, the own-goal villain of the first half, became a hero in the second with a fantastic left foot shot from more than 30 yards which gave Williams no chance.

Graham McColl’s Celtic in Europe

The Hungarians then enjoyed their best spell of the match and Celtic’s defence came under sustained pressure for the first time. Evan Williams, in one of his best-ever performances for Celtic, made two outstanding saves to keep the score level. In Graham McColl’s Celtic in Europe, Williams recalls: “That night, every time I went for the ball it stuck to me.”

Celtic regained their confidence and composure, and during the last ten minutes they were again the better side. They forced a succession of five corners and then, with five minutes remaining, scored a glorious winner. A cross from Dalglish into the penalty area was breasted down by Lou Macari, who had the cool awareness to quickly spin and calmly lob the ball over the Ujpest keeper. It was a fittingly superb winner to what had been an enthralling match.

Celtic’s victory was rightly hailed as a fantastic result. Arthur Montford, writing in The Scotsman, declared it “a magnificent victory…on this form, Celtic can again go all the way in Europe.”

Raymond Jacobs in the Glasgow Herald described it as “one of their finest performances on the Continent…when their play rose above all expectations.”

Unusually, Jock Stein went even further, saying: “At this level, and when you consider the age of this team of ours, it is probably Celtic’s best European Cup display since Lisbon.”

Celtic’s Quality Street Gang. Photo The Celtic Wiki

Stein was referring to the remarkable maturity shown by the FIVE members of the Quality Street Gang who played in the match – Danny McGrain, George Connelly, Davie Hay, Lou Macari and Kenny Dalglish. He would later admit his surprise at the progress of the side and confess that he had not expected them to be serious contenders for the European Cup so soon.

Also in Budapest at the time of the match were Hollywood’s original superstar couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. Filming commitments meant that they could not attend the game but the couple invited Celtic and their fans to an after-match party which they were hosting at the Intercontinental Hotel.

The Celtic players and officials were unable to attend, as the team had a crucial top-of-the-table clash against Aberdeen just a couple of days later. As the game had kicked off in the afternoon, Celtic flew straight back to Glasgow after the match.

Evan Williams, Celtic FC. Photo The Celtic Wiki

“We came back from Hungary,” recalls Evan Williams in Celtic in Europe, and Stein “trained us at Celtic Park at 11 o’clock at night so that we didn’t have to come in for training in the morning.”

The Celtic players and officials would miss out on an unforgettable party that was to become the stuff of legend….

James McDevitt

Celtic in the Thirties by Matt Corr. Click on image to order