The Wee Prime Minister had never seen anything like it
Rangers’ hopes of becoming the first British team to win a European trophy were ended in the most cynical way.
They had beaten Ferencvaros, Borussia Monchengladbach and Wolves to face Fiorentina in the inaugural two-legged Final.
80,000 turned up at Ibrox for the first match – only to witness some of the dirtiest, ruthless and brutal football ever seen in Scotland.
Fiorentina used every trick in the book to stop Rangers getting anywhere near their goal.
They left Glasgow with a 2-0 lead but, despite the brutality of the visitors, it might have been a very different outcome.
A missed penalty and a last-minute mistake made all the difference.
Ian Mcmillan was one of six players who turned out for Scotland in Bratislava just three days before the first leg. Bobby Shearer, Eric Caldow, Jim Baxter, Ralph Brand and Davie Wilson were also in the team that lost 4-0 to Czechoslovakia.
Both sides had played with 10 men for 55 minutes after Pat Crerand and Andrej Kvasnak were sent-off, hardly the ideal preparation for a European final.
Then there was the Austrian referee, who seemed prepared to let anything go. Davie Wilson suffered a series of vicious challenges from Sergio Castelletti. Every run down the wing was met by a body-check or a trip, and the ball seemed incidental to the left-back’s game.
As Mcmillan recalls, this was a brand of football new to Rangers.
He said: “I normally enjoyed European games because it gave me a chance to come up against very good players. “The opposition would give you a bit more room, and that suited my game in the middle of the park.
“Scottish football was more physical, and you’d often have opponents right on top of you, ready to get a tackle in. “But Fiorentina were incredibly cynical. It was a style we became familiar
with as we saw more of Italian defending.
“I thought we did reasonably well in the first tie, but losing 2-0 made it difficult.
“I felt for the fans, who turned up to support us without fail.”
The man known as “The Wee Prime Minister” was at the centre of an incident that led to an unseemly rammy. He went down while weaving through the Italian defence and was awarded a penalty-kick.
The visiting players besieged the referee, and their trainer came running on to join the heated protests. Davie Wilson became involved in the scuffle and was physically thrown from the throng. Mcmillan went on: “I don’t know if the decision was correct, but it was unfortunate that Eric Caldow missed that penalty as it was not long after they had taken the lead. “That was surprising because Eric very rarely missed from the spot. It might have made a difference.” Fiorentina’s opener had come when a Harold Davis pass-back was intercepted. A second goal in the last minute of the game came from another misplaced pass. Overcoming the deficit 10 days later was always going to be a big ask.
“It was baking hot when we arrived in Florence,” added Ian. “It was the end of a long, hard season where we’d won the league by a point and the League Cup.
“We gave it a good go but there’s no doubt we suffered in the conditions.”
Rangers lost 2-1, Alex Scott getting their goal, and 4-1 on aggregate.
They would have to wait another 11 years to win the competition, their only European trophy to date.