ATLETICO MADRID are planning to HONOUR their team of 1974 which had three players ordered off in a game of shame at Parkhead.
The Spaniards shocked Jock Stein’s Celtic with their disgusting tactics as they booted and hacked their way to a goalless draw in the first leg of the European Cup on April 10 almost half a century ago.
Jimmy Johnstone had been targeted by the Atletico assassins as they brutally followed their game plan against the Hoops.
Turkish referee Dogan Babacan failed to keep control of an explosive encounter with seven of the visiting team booked on a notorious evening in the east end of Glasgow where police had to intervene to break up confrontations as they spilled off the field at the end.
DOWNED…Jimmy Johnstone is grounded again as the referee has a word with an Atletico Madrid culprit. Davie Hay has discussions with Ruben Ayala who was the first of three players red-carded in a night of shame.
Ten minutes after the interval, Ruben Ayala was the first Spaniard to be red-carded and he was quickly followed by Ruben Diaz. Seven minutes from time, Enrique Hernandez became the third Atletico player to be dismissed.
The visitors were widely condemned for the thuggish misbehaviour, but UEFA merely fined them £14,000 at the end of the season.
Stein’s men lost 2-0 in the return in the Spanish capital before Bayern Munich thumped the Spaniards 4-0 in the replayed Final after a 1-1 draw in the first game.
Goalkeeper Miguel Reina, whose son Pepe, also a netminder, played for Liverpool, was among the players booked in the uproar.
In an interview a few years ago, the former shotstopper admitted his team-mate Diaz could have decapitated Johnstone with one of his reckless challenges.
Bizarrely, the Spaniards are poised to pay a tribute to that team when they face Brendan Rodgers’ men at the same venue in the Champions League Group E encounter in midweek.
UPROAR…Jimmy Johnstone is helped to his feet by Jim Brogan as police intervene at the end of the game.
The visiting players will wear a special retro strip and club president Enrique Cerezo said: “This Wednesday we meet again with a historic club in a mythical stadium, Celtic Park, where we will have the honour of reliving a duel that half a century later continues to remain in the memory of all Atletico players.”
Adelardo Rodriguez, now 88, was the Atletico captain that chaotic night, and, in a report in the Daily Record, added: “For all the players who played in that match, and that great European Cup, it is a huge recognition that fifty seasons later, the team is wearing the same uniform again at Celtic Park.
“It fills us with pride now as it filled us with pride then. That semi-final was very special, we had just won the League the previous season and we eliminated a European champion at a very good moment in our careers.”
