Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

For lovers of the "beautiful game", last night's Greece 1-0 Czech Republic result was a rerun of a 20th century nightmare we thought we'd escaped from — catenaccio (the door bolt). Watching the Greek squad extinguish Czech creativity with cynical fouls and a penalty area packed with Doric columns was a grim reminder of how football can fall victim to tacticians. Catenaccio, like Dracula, is a manifestation of the undead and, like Dracula, it drains the life blood from its victims. Unless Portugal can drive a stake through its heart on Sunday, the Greek version of catenaccio, orchestrated by Otto Rehhagel, could become the leitmotiv of the 2006 World Cup.

For those who don't remember the plague, here's a quick backgrounder taken from Flat Back Four: The Tactical Game by Andy Gray and Jim Drewett. Catenaccio evolved from a system developed by the Austrian coach Karl Rappan, who introduced it as trainer of the Swiss national team in the 1937. Worried that whenever the opposition's centre forward managed to get past his centre half he was headed for goal, Rappan withdrew one of the three strikers from the front and replaced him with an extra defender positioned in front of the keeper. Rappan christened his system the verrou or "door bolt" and his extra defender the verrouller. Swiss fortunes improved immediately. They beat England 2-1 in a friendly in May 1938 and a few weeks later knocked Germany out of the World Cup. Rappan's formula found a dedicated disciple in Argentinean Helenio Herrera, who perfected it with Inter Milan in the 1960s. It Italian, verrou became catenaccio; in Italy, catenaccio became football.

Herrera's system involved four defenders who were tight man-to-man markers. This meant that each defender was assigned to mark a particular attacker — and stuck to him like glue wherever he went to ensure he never had the space to pose a threat. Remember Georgios Seitaridis doggedly following every step taken by Milan Baros last night? Anyway, playing behind these four man-markers for Inter was the sweeper. The idea was that he would pick up anything that came through the back four. Popping up here, there and everywhere he would sweep up wherever and whenever he was needed. Grinding out 1-0 wins was the name of the game and that's what Herrera did with Inter Milan.

So hated was catenaccio, that the 1967 European Cup Final between Inter and Glasgow Celtic was seen as a battle between good and evil with Celtic in the role of saving free-flowing football from extinction. Jock Stein's team of Van Helsings — all born within 30 miles of Glasgow — played in the traditional Scottish way with two wingers and a basic philosophy of all-out attack. In other words, the very opposite of everything Helenio Herrera's Inter Milan stood for then, and Otto Rehhagel's Greece stands for now.

What happened in that game 36 years ago? Celtic won 2-1? Where did it happen? Lisbon.