Atletico Madrid face Real Madrid in the Champions League final on Saturday attempting to put to bed one of the club’s most painful nights.
Los Rojiblancos missed out on the European Cup by a matter of seconds to what became an all-conquering Bayern Munich side 40 years ago.
Bayern, featuring Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Mueller, went on to win three European Cups in a row, and yet they almost never won the first, as they went into the final minute of extra time 1-0 down.
The goal had been scored by Atletico’s greatest player of all-time, Luis Aragones, just six minutes from the end of extra time, but the Spaniards were denied when Miguel Reina -- father of current Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina -- let Hans-Georg Schwarzenbeck’s hopeful effort slip through his grasp.
In the days before penalty shoot-outs, Bayern went on to win 4-0 in the replay in Brussels just two days later.
On Sunday an estimated 200,000 Atletico Madrid fans crowded round the Neptuno fountain and surrounding streets in the centre of the Spanish capital to celebrate their side’s first La Liga title in 18 years.
However, amongst chorus upon chorus of chanting, it wasn’t inspirational manager Diego Simeone or top scorer Diego Costa who was the most prominent name, but that of Aragones.
The man who also coached Spain to the first of three successive major tournament victories at the European Championship in 2008, died on February 1 this year aged 75.
Since then he has become an inspiration for arguably the most successful season in Atletico’s 111-year history.
A picture of Aragones adorned the plane that took the players to the away leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against AC Milan.
- ‘Win, win and win again’ -
Once the seven-time European champions had been easily disposed of 5-1 on aggregate, it was one of Aragones’ famous decrees “win, win and win again” that met the players in a spectacular display by the Vicente Calderon crowd as they hosted Barcelona in the last eight.