Fans of German side FSV Zwickau have displayed a commemorative Tifo for their win over Celtic.
The coming Tuesday (St Patrick’s Day) will mark 50 years since the Saxony side defeated Jock Stein’s Hoops in the second leg of the European Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-final.
Whilst it was far from the Lisbon Lions turning out for Stein, it was still a major shock, given that Celtic had made the European Cup semi-final just two years earlier.
Zwickau were eliminated in the following round, losing 5-0 on aggregate to eventual winners Anderlecht.
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Celtic win remembered in German side FSV Zwickau’s tribute Tifo
It remains the club’s best-ever run in European football, and fans still following today haven’t forgotten.
The Tifo translates to “Nobody beats BSG”, and shows the Celtic badge in a drawing remembering the match.
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The “BSG” refers to BSG Aktivist Steinkohle Zwickau, as the club were known at the time. This form was taken by the club in the aftermath of World War II, during which the club had been part of the football sphere in Nazi Germany.
In East Germany, the club underwent several name changes, claiming “BSG Aktivist Karl-Marx Zwickau” as part of its lineage.
They were the winners of the first ever East German Championship, and qualified for this storied Cup Winners’ Cup campaign with the last of their three triumphs in the FDGB-Pokal, the national cup of East Germany.
Since the reunification of the country in 1990, the club has never played in the Bundesliga. They presently play in the regional fourth tier, where they have been since their relegation in 2023.
No Lisbon Lions were in the Celtic team that lost that day, but Kenny Dalglish, Danny McGrain and Roy Aitken all started.
Stein would leave Celtic two years later, having won the league and Scottish Cup double in 1977.
When Celtic became the first British side to win the European Cup
Kenny Dalglish on training with Celtic’s Lisbon Lions
Like all members of the Quality Street Gang of the 70s, Dalglish benefitted from breaking through after the all-conquering Lions.
Reflecting on this on talkSPORT recently, the Scotland icon said: “I was hugely fortunate, being 16, 17, 18, with Jock Stein, the Lisbon Lions just won the European Cup.
“Everyone who played that day lived within 25 miles of Glasgow. For me, to be given the opportunity to train with those people when I was 18 was unbelievable.
“The people who were a part of that team were very humble, and that suits me down to the ground.
“When we trained they had enough time and they had enough success to bring us young boys to train with them, the players were very welcoming, assuring and understanding, even if you made the worst mistake ever, they’d encourage you.”
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