As part of our coverage of the Gothenburg 40th anniversary celebrations this week, a number of the players who featured that night sat down and spoke to RedTV in length about their Aberdeen careers and in particular the European Cup Winners’ Cup final. The latest interview with Aberdeen legend Alex McLeish is available to watch by clicking on the link above.

“Even on the day, we were pretty relaxed. In the tunnel the boys were screaming and shouting to one another, and you could see the Real Madrid players, they were laughing, trying to mock our enthusiasm, but there looked like a fear in them as well, especially once big Dougie showed his lack of teeth to them! They went out there a bit apprehensive.”

Alex was involved in the Dons’ opener, powering a header towards goal from Gordon Strachan’s corner, Eric Black there to finish things off. But then there was the test of character that came from being involved in Real Madrid’s equaliser at the other end.

“I was normally one who stayed out and did a longer warm-up and when I came in, everybody was getting ready and I said, ‘Guys listen, with all the water out there, we’ll have to be careful passing the ball, we’ll have to chip it a little bit.’

“And of course, when the ball came to me, it was very instinctive and just something I’d done every day of my life because in those days you could pass the ball back to the goalkeeper. So I never did what I’d said to the players, I didn’t lift it, I played a daisy cutter back to Jim Leighton and it stuck, Santillana got there first and went round Big Jim. I still say to Jim, ‘You know, you were a bit slow off your line there!’ In normal weather conditions the ball would have got to him.

“For a wee spell, I was rocking, thinking all the bad things, ‘If we lose the game, what are people going to say about me?’. But then I buckled down, Willie was in my ear helping me through it, and I just said, ‘Ok, don’t make one more mistake in this game.’ But going in at half-time, I knew the gaffer was going to have a dig at me, which he did! But Archie butted in and said, ‘We’ve got a game to win second half, never mind fighting!’ So the gaffer backed off and we got on with it.

“After the game, back in the dressing room, the boys were all drinking champagne and singing, I was still in the shower feeling a bit sorry for myself, thinking about the mistake, and the gaffer came and found me and said, ‘I’m really proud of you, a lot of players would have crumbled but you didn’t. You stuck to it, you didn’t put a foot wrong.’