Inside the night Celtic halted Johan Cruyff's mighty Ajax side to become toast of Europe

That doesn't begin to tell even half of it.

It's 40 years ago this week since former Celtic striker Frank McGarvey played in what he calls the best football match he's ever been involved in.

That's quite the accolade from a man who scored memorable derby goals, bagged over a century of Celtic strikes and won two league titles, two Scottish Cups and a League Cup.

Many would agree though that the first-round first-leg clash of the European Champions Cup - to give the competition its proper Sunday name - was indeed a belter.

In a three-year spell in European football, Celtic took on the cream of the continent; Real Madrid in 1980, Juventus in 1981... Ajax in 1982. 

The legendary Johan Cruyff made his one and only appearance at Celtic Park that night. The Dutch legend and his team certainly didn't disappoint.

An all-ticket affair with briefs costing £2.50 saw just over 56,000 fans cram into Parkhead for a pulsating match.

The Dutch outfit were sportingly applauded off the pitch at the end of a European classic.

A Celtic player had barely touched the ball when Ajax's Danish winger Jesper Olsen waltzed through the challenges of Davie Moyes and Danny McGrain to hammer past Pat Bonner to make it 1-0 to the Dutch outfit after just four minutes.

Charlie Nicholas equalised from the penalty spot after Cruyff - of all people - had been fooled by a wonderful piece of trickery by Tommy Burns in the box.

Back came the Amsterdammers and they took the lead again with one of the most exquisite goals ever seen in a European tie in Glasgow's east end.

Olsen's wayward pass somehow landed at the feet of Cruyff and his wonderful cushioned volley parted the green and white sea of Celtic defenders with Denmark international midfielder Soren Lerby dinking the most audacious chip over the advancing Bonner.

It was a goal of stunning quality, with Cruyff the architect.

READ MORE: Celtic's Harry Kewell and the Johan Cruyff mantra that fuels his coaching philosophy - Tony Haggerty

Back came Celtic though and the home fans roared again when McGarvey slid the ball home following a superb through ball by striker partner Nicholas. It was 2-2 and they hadn't even played for half an hour.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then McGarvey is still smarting from gaining absolutely no recognition for pulling off the Dutch star's most famous football manoeuvre, 'The Cruyff Turn'.

"I can't believe that match took place 40 years ago. That's incredible," McGarvey told The Celtic Way. "That Celtic v Ajax game is quite simply the greatest game of football that I ever played in.

"As a spectacle, it was top-drawer entertainment. At the start of the 1970s, Ajax became the first team to win the European Cup three times in a row since the legendary Real Madrid team of the late 1950s and early 1960s.

"Ajax had Jesper Olsen in that 1982 team and he was considered one of the best players in the world. The Celtic defence could not get the ball off him. They had an ageing Johan Cruyff but my goodness he couldn't half still pull the strings in midfield. Marco van Basten was on the bench too!

"Soren Lerby's goal to put Ajax 2-1 up is world-class. What a goal that was. The pass from Cruyff is something special. I watch the highlights now and I marvel at what Cruyff did.

"Charlie got the first equaliser from the penalty spot and then I made it 2-2. I always ran in behind defenders and Charlie knew that. I made a trademark run in behind and he picked me out and I stroked the ball home.

"There were 56,000 fans inside that ground and I am running clean through and I just knew I had to score. I took a chance and pushed it through his legs and thankfully it went in. I meant to do it.

"I think 2-2 was a fair result at Parkhead in the first leg. In fact, I was absolutely raging because in the second half of the first leg I pulled off a Cruyff turn and nobody ever mentioned it. I couldn't believe it!

"Those two games against Ajax were the two greatest football games I played in during my whole career. I'm talking about it from a footballing perspective as it was two teams who came out to play football and just went at each other. It was end-to-end stuff in both legs.

"Celtic also played Real Madrid in 1980 and they were a very good side. We played Juventus in 1981 and they were really cynical - they had the likes of Claudio Gentile at the back.

"I was knocked out cold by him after he punched me. I was raging. I ran after him when the game finished. He was quicker than me and he ran away but I was going to spark him out if I caught him.

"Thankfully I didn't though, that was probably the best thing that could've happened. I scored a goal in the return leg in Turin that would have put Celtic through on the away goals rule but I was wrongly flagged for offside.

"I argue to this day that it was one of my best-ever goals for Celtic and I was robbed by a linesman's flag."

Sadly there was to be no more scoring at Parkhead as Ajax hit the crossbar and Celtic were denied a second penalty but the consensus of opinion was that the Hoops were as good as out as they couldn't possibly triumph in the De Meer Stadion in the return leg, could they?

Billy McNeill's men were discounted in every quarter with the media saying it was all but a done deal.

They didn't reckon on Graeme Sinclair.

Sinclair - a £65,000 signing from Dumbarton - had the finest moment in his Celtic career as he shackled Cruyff in the return and the Hoops pulled off mission impossible courtesy of goals from Nicholas and George McCluskey. It handed the men in green and white a 2-1 victory and unlikely passage through to round two on a 4-3 aggregate.

"Nobody gave us a chance after the first leg finished 2-2," said McGarvey. "And you can't blame the media for thinking like that as Ajax had world-class players in their team back then.

"But that was the night Sinky (Sinclair) came of age as a Celtic player - he marked Cruyff right out of the game.

"Charlie Nic scored a cracker with a neat chip shot over the goalkeeper and George bagged the last-minute winner after I had headered the ball against the crossbar moments earlier. I was pig sick that my effort didn't go in and we felt then that our chance had possibly gone.

Frank McGarvey celebrates scoring (Image: SNS)

"We believed that we could do something but defensively we were a team that shipped a lot of goals.

"We defended properly that night in Amsterdam though. It was a stunning victory for the club. That Celtic team just never gave up over the two legs."

McCluskey grabbed more than a goal that night by also bagging a priceless souvenir: the legend that is Cruyff's famous number 14 shirt.

McGarvey wasn't quick enough out the blocks on either occasion against Cruyff - and he also missed out at Hampden Park in 1979 when he failed to grab a hold of Diego Maradona's jersey after Argentina had defeated Scotland 3-1.

"I was too slow to pick up Cruyff's shirt at Celtic Park and in Amsterdam," McGarvey recalls. "I'm sure George McCluskey got the famous strip from the away leg. I don't know who got the number 14 top in the home leg.

"It was the same in 1979 when I played against Argentina and I wanted Diego Maradona's jersey but Arthur Graham of Leeds United beat me to it. I had to settle for Daniel Passarella's jersey that day."

Although, that said, McGarvey and co. had another reason to remember the two-legged triumph for Celtic over Ajax four decades ago.

"I have never seen Celtic chairman Desmond White so happy," he said. "I remember the him saying back then to the team that we could have whatever we wanted to drink to celebrate because the board was going to make a fortune for winning the tie.

"Davie Provan requested a crate of champagne for the whole team and it duly arrived - we drank it all."

Forty years ago Celtic held the mighty Johan Cruyff and Ajax in a humdinger at Parkhead.

The Hoops would go on to become the toast of European football by doing a number on them in the return.

But it's that home leg that still gives McGarvey and the 52,000-plus Celtic supporters who witnessed it goosebumps to this day.

The green and white class of 1982 never tire of talking about the time Cruyff and his men came to town.

All stand and raise your champagne glasses.