Match Pictures

David Hay:

"The only time I really think of the Rapid fiasco is when people mention it to me. I know I'll never forget what happened but it was a long time ago now.

"The most annoying thing was we thought we were in the last eight of the Cup Winners Cup and as far as we were concerned that was the end of the story.

"I don't think anyone could believe the decision to replay the game in Manchester and on the night we just froze.

"A lot of people said we should never have agreed to play the game down there but the alternative would have been just withdrawing from the Cup Winners Cup. That was unthinkable as far as I was concerned.

"The club hadn't enjoyed a lot of success in Europe for some time and the general feeling was if we'd beaten them once we could do it again. But as history shows it wasn't to be.

"Of course it took a long time to get over it but I never used it as an excuse for our failings.


Frank McGarvey:

TO this day, I still dislike talking about Celtic's game against Rapid Vienna in the European Cup-Winners' Cup back in 1984.

Celtic had a fantastic team then that could score goals from all over the park.

We had Brian McClair, Davie Provan, Paul McStay and Mo Johnston.

I firmly believed we had a great chance of winning a European trophy that season.

Having trailed 3-1 from the first game over in Austria, we won the second leg comfortably by 3-0 to clinch a place in the quarter-finals of the competition fair and square.

Then we were cheated out of it.

Goals from Brian, Davie and Tommy Burns should have ensured one of the greatest comebacks in our European history.

It was a pretty straightforward triumph. Peter Grant even missed a penalty.

However, the Rapid players knew they were beaten so they started carrying on, playacting and fouling our guys.

That really agitated the Celtic support.

A few of our fans in the Jungle threw some things, including a bottle, onto the pitch. I suppose it just takes a couple of drunken idiots to spoil things for everyone. And they certainly ruined it for Celtic that season.

Of course, that sort of behaviour is totally unacceptable. But one of their players, Rudolf Weinhofer, fell to the ground clutching his head as if he had been struck by a sniper's bullet.

None of the missiles went anywhere near to him.

Television evidence proved that conclusively.

I was the first player over to Weinhofer and there was nothing wrong with him at all.

This picture shows Roy Aitken trying to get him to his feet. Even after the game he was at it. He came out of the Rapid dressing room with a huge bandage on his head. He looked like he was wearing a turban.

Uefa looked into the match and ruled it would have to be played again, and down in Manchester at Old Trafford.

I didn't want to play that match. But we had no choice.

Peter Grant:

"Amid all the mayhem, that was actually really funny and I still wind Paul up about it," said Grant. "As Krankl was shouting at his team-mates to walk off, Paul ran up to him and in his best European accent screamed 'Hans, you are a cheat!'. Not a swear word to be heard, typical of Paul."

Hans Frankl (still lying) in 2003:

"The Rapid Vienna encounter against Celtic was the most horrible football experience ever.

"Our defender Weinhoffer was hit by a bottle on the head and after consulting our coach Otto Baric, I decided to lead the players off the field.

"The atmosphere was intense and the referee had lost the plot and lost control of the situation.

"However, Rapid's President persuaded us to finish the match as that was unsporting and said he would complain to UEFA.

"The Celtic supporters branded us cheats but we won the match 1-0 in the end, although we lost the final 3- 1 to another British team, Everton."