In 1973, Atlético de Madrid won the League and qualified for the European Cup. The champion team had been led by the Austrian Max Merkel, better known as Mr. Whip. But his scarcely conversational style and some statements (“I'm up to my nose in Spain”), which he always denied, precipitated the change. And the Argentine Juan Carlos Toto Lorenzo, former red and white player and coach with an eventful career, appeared.
With Lorenzo, Atlético was thoroughly reinforced and three Argentines arrived who left their mark. Rubén Ratón Ayala, a striking forward with a mustache and black hair, Ramón Cacho Heredia, a blocking midfielder, and Rubén Osvaldo Panadero Díaz, a distributing left back. The four came from San Lorenzo de Almagro. Another especially successful reinforcement was that of the Barça goalkeeper Miguel Reina. That Atlético that grew in anger also had players like Ovejero, Capón, Bezerra, Melo, Eusebio, Benegas... and left elegance at the feet of Gárate, Irureta, Luis (Aragonés) and Adelardo.
In the 1973-74 League they competed, as far as they could, with Cruyff's unstoppable Barça. But they ended up focusing on a European Cup that seemed affordable. Galatasaray fell first (with extra time in Istanbul), Dinamo Bucharest in the round of 16 and Red Star in the quarterfinals, these two after winning away first and drawing at home later. And the semifinals arrived with the Scottish Celtic, with a first leg, on April 10, 1974, which has gone down in history as the Battle of Glasgow and which turned a Turkish referee into the character of the moment: Dogan Babacan.
Atlético drew 0-0 at Celtic Park and went to the final (2-0) with goals from Gárate and Adelardo in the second leg. Then they lost the final against Bayern Munich, led by Udo Lattek and had a terrifying block with up to six world champions, a month and a half later. If the double final with the Munich team (1-1 with extra time and then 4-0 in the replay two days later) is historic, the famous Glasgow match is no less so.
Celtic were a very tough team, used to overwhelming their rivals on their own ground, where they had the deafening encouragement of the public and figures like Kenny Dalglish, later a Liverpool star, or the right winger Jimmy Johnstone, a relentless 1.57 dribbler. meters, that that day he had to deal with Panadero Díaz. But Celtic did not calculate that no one there was willing to bend their leg and violent tackles followed one another. Round trip. However, Babacan only harshly punished Atlético's intemperance, which ended up reduced to eight players, with Ayala sent off (62nd minute), Panadero Díaz (63rd) and the Salamanca defender Quique, who came on for Gárate in the 65th minute, to withstand the downpour. , and was already in the dugout in the 81st minute. With only seven players ahead of Reina, Atlético walked over the edge of the precipice. But he maintained his balance. Years later Adelardo summarized: “Every time Gárate received they kicked him in bad faith. Johnstone provoked and laughed at Panadero Díaz... in the end we got together and went after them.” And Irureta added: “The environment conditioned us... and we had very brave players.”
When the referee blew the final whistle, the tumult that was organized, on the pitch and in the locker room, was indescribable. The local coach, the legendary Jock Stein, punched Ayala and other red and white players were attacked while the police restrained them.
Regarding the atmosphere around the battle, a report written by José María García for Mundo Deportivo deserves to be rescued. He remembered that before traveling to Glasgow, Atlético ordered the hotel to ensure that the players were not served by young girls and that waiters were made available to them. He then remembered that that same week Ovejero and Panadero Díaz had ended up getting into a fight during training. That Babacan did not realize that throughout the second half Atlético had two players with number five on their backs. That also the Spanish companions, press and followers, "suffered all kinds of insults and humiliation" and that already at the airport, on the way back to Madrid, they stamped Ovejero's passport, spat on the document and threw it on the ground.
The refereeing performance was the priority objective of the Madrid press. The cover of Marca the next day left no room for doubt: “The Turk, a madman.” In As a similar path was followed (“Referee Madness”) and in Arriba it was highlighted that it had been “Lepanto's revenge.” The summary of the special envoy of Nuevo Diario was “The Turk, a clown.” In the British press, however, there was no shortage of Argentine connections when remembering that Lorenzo was the Albiceleste coach in the 1966 World Cup and the historic clash with England with the expulsion of Rattin and the stands in chorus shouting "animals, animals" to the fans. Argentines. The Atlético players were branded provocateurs and Celtic were asked to demand a neutral ground for the return match.
For a viewer who we could consider neutral, the L'Équipe envoy, that was “a super run.” After the headline “Hateful spectacle”, some of his sentences were: “The Spaniards, progressively reduced to almost a basketball team... Johnstone attacked twenty or thirty times... a hateful spectacle of which the Spaniards are guilty ninety percent... let's hope UEFA does something."
And he did. Days later he announced that each expelled player would get three games. And that three other players, Ovejero, Alberto and Melo, would also miss the return match, six casualties in total. Atlético was fined one hundred thousand Swiss francs, the highest in UEFA history, and Marca's analysis was this: “The madman's report decided.”
