On Wednesday, 18 October 1967, the now-deposed champions of Europe began their quest for a world club title by facing Racing Club before 91,000 spectators at Hampden, the venue changed from Celtic Park to allow the huge crowd entry. In a tousy, bad-tempered match, Billy McNeill would grab the only goal with a towering header with 20 minutes remaining.
The next day, Willie Wallace travelled with the Scotland party for the European Championship qualifier in Belfast. The annual Home International tournaments of 1966/67 and 1967/68 had been ‘doubled up’ to serve as a qualification group for the finals to be held in Italy in the summer of 1968. The wonderful 3-2 win secured at Wembley in April 1967 had put Scotland in pole position to win the section, with both Wales and England still to come to Hampden.
There were 55,000 noisy spectators packed into Windsor Park on the afternoon of Saturday, 21 October 1967, to watch the following Scotland side take the field for Willie’s sixth full cap.
Ronnie Simpson (Celtic)
Tommy Gemmell (Celtic)
Eddie McCreadie (Chelsea)
John Greig (Rangers)
Ron McKinnon (Rangers)
Ian Ure (Arsenal)
Willie Wallace (Celtic)
Bobby Murdoch (Celtic)
Jim McCalliog (Sheffield Wednesday)
Denis Law (Manchester United)
Willie Morgan (Burnley)
Although Ronnie Simpson would receive some plaudits for saving a Johnny Crossan penalty, that afternoon would belong to George Best, the Irish superstar very much in the mood and running through the Scottish defence at will. The only surprise on the day was that it was Dave Clements of Coventry City who scored the winner rather than George, his drilled finish with 20 minutes remaining the only goal of the game, as the Scots slumped to a costly defeat.
Seven days later, the Celtic contingent were back on the Hampden trail for the season’s first domestic showpiece, Dundee the opposition for the Scottish League Cup final.
John Hughes would replace the suspended Jimmy Johnstone in the only change to the Lisbon line-up, Yogi adding to Steve Chalmers’ early goal to put Celts 2-0 up within 10 minutes in front of 67,000. Former Rangers striker George McLean, an Ibrox casualty from the shock Scottish Cup defeat at Berwick Rangers earlier that year, pulled a goal back for Dundee midway through the first half, the score then remaining at 2-1 until a goal rush in the final 17 minutes of the match.
Chalmers added his own second, before future Dundee United manager Jim McLean struck to make it 3-2 in the 77th minute, Bobby Lennox then immediately restoring Celtic’s two-goal advantage. The Hampden goal spree continued, as George McLean notched his own double for 4-3 before Willie Wallace had the final say, his late strike sealing a third successive League Cup win for Celtic and a second winner’s medal in the competition for his personal collection.
Celts would then immediately head out to South America for the ill-fated clashes with Racing Club, a real low point in our history. Having worked so hard to reach the pinnacle of world club football, it was a crying shame how events would pan out there. Ronnie Simpson would be felled by a missile BEFORE the second leg kicked off in Buenos Aires, on Wednesday, 1 November 1967, Celts losing 2-1 despite taking the lead through a Tommy Gemmell penalty midway through the first half, as the football became secondary to a series of shocking fouls.
With no ‘away goals’ rule in force, it would then all kick-off in the play-off, three days later in neutral Montevideo, with a number of scores being settled throughout a torrid 90 minutes. The Paraguayan referee would send off four players from Celtic and two from Racing Club, although Bertie Auld refused to leave the pitch as, bizarrely, what play there was, continued. Ironically, the only goal of the match was an absolute screamer from Cardenas, which flew past John Fallon into the top corner of the net.
Repercussions would be costly and prolonged.
Whilst Willie had remained on the field throughout all three Racing Club bouts, he was not so fortunate at Celtic Park on Saturday, 2 December 1967. Six minutes from time, he got involved in some ‘handbags’ with Dundee United’s Davie Wilson, the former Rangers winger sinking to the turf after Wallace had raised his hands towards him. To this day, Willie insists that he made no contact whatsoever with the player, albeit recalling with a wry smile that Jock Stein told him that he had deserved to go anyway, for making such a poor attempt at a punch!
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