The Lions’ manes are hoary with age now but the adulation heaped upon the survivors of Celtic’s European Cup-winning team is as fervent as on the evening of May 25, 1967, in Lisbon, when Jock Stein’s players breached Inter Milan’s infamously negative catenaccio defence to become the first British side to bring the champions’ trophy home in triumph. True, these audiences no longer try to rip off their idols’ garments – several Celtic players returned to their dressing room in the Estadio Nacional shorn of jerseys, boots, socks and very nearly everything else – but their admirers’ desire to savour the proximity of heroes has intensified incredibly on the run-up to the 50th anniversary of that epochal victory.
