He would brand the Celt as a 'great actor' and accused him of hiding in the second leg in Spain.
Famed Atletico Madrid skipper Adelardo Rodrígue sensationally attempted to frame Jimmy Johnstone for the infamous shame game mayhem caused by the Spaniards.
Turkish ref Dogan Babacan ended up sending off three players from Atletico, who conceded a total of 51 free kicks that night and Johnstone – voted the greatest-ever Celt in a fans' vote in 2002 – took the brunt of it. However, Rodriguez, who is now 84 and won three Spanish titles in 553 appearances, put the blame squarely on Johnstone. He said: "Jimmy Johnstone was the one who caused it all. He was a very skilful player, very quick, good. Of course he was fouled. That's normal.
"In the second leg, he didn't even dare to move. He didn't look like a winger, he looked like a linesman because he was so far away from us. He didn't want to know anything." And Rodríguez insists that it was actually Atletico who were treated badly that infamous night and not Celtic. He pointed out: "Celtic were very confident that they would qualify, that's why they were so angry. They were unable to beat us with eight players for more than 25 minutes.
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