Cometh the hour: It's time for a new Scottish hero to sink the Spanish to replace the memories of Dalglish in '82. Pic: ©STV
Spain haven't travelled to face Scotland for 26 years and the feats of Jock Stein's team that year against the current European champions should serve as inspiration to the current crop of players. In a qualification match for the 1986 World Cup, nearly 75,000 crammed into Hampden Park in November 1984 to see Mo Johnston score twice and Kenny Dalglish score a wonder goal to wrap up a truly memorable 3-1 win against Miguel Monez's side.
The Spanish had just finished as runners up at Euro 1984, losing to a Michel Platini-inspired France in a Paris final, in which the Juventus striker scored his ninth goal of the tournament. A nation with a big reputation and big name players such as Andoni Zubizarreta, Jose Camacho, Emilio Butragueno and Rafael Gordillo, to name but a few, came up against our talented crop of Souness, Dalglish, McStay, Johnston and Cooper.
Arriving with the big reputation and expected to walk a group also containing Wales and Iceland, they were humbled by a dogged display by their hosts before Dalglish sealed the victory with an incisive run through the heart of the Spanish backline inside the box before smashing the ball into the top corner.
Spain would go on to claim top spot but Scotland also managed to qualify on the strength of that result at Hampden Park. With Vicente Del Bosque set to bring his team littered with modern day stars such as Fernando Torres, Xavi, David Villa and Iker Casillas, again to name but a few, Scotland's top men have spoken of their desire to emulate the '84 team and get the home crowd dreaming of good times on the international stage once again.
Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith was with Manchester City when Dalglish et al last conquered the Spanish on home soil and is hoping that a new name can remain etched on the minds of the Tartan Army for contributing to another unlikely victory over a world class side.
“It would be so exciting to do that again,” he admitted. “You never know. Spain were a good side at that time too and we got the result. So let's hope that somebody puts their name in the history books like Dalglish did that night. I would like another young Scottish player coming through to do the very same thing.”
Current Scotland manager Craig Levein shared his boss' sentiments: “I would love to be able to emulate the team from then,” he added. “We'll see. I am very confident with the group of players that we've got and we want to try and build some momentum up before the qualifiers.”
Since that match at Hampden, Scotland have faced Spain three times away from home. Their last competitive match was the return fixture in the 1986 World Cup qualifiers, in which the Scots lost 1-0 in Seville.
Two friendly matches since then have ended in a draw, although the most recent, a 1-1 draw in Valencia in 2004, was abandoned after 59 minutes. James McFadden had given Berti Vogts' team a surprise lead with 17 minutes on the clock but Raul's penalty levelled the scores three minutes before the match was abandoned because of torrential rain and a power cut caused by a lightning storm.
