On This Day – 11th June
Archie Gemmill scored the most iconic goal in the history of Scottish football on this day back in 1978. It could easily have been included in the ‘Football’s Greatest Goals’ series but I have selected it for the ‘On This Day’ instead.
Gemmill’s goal came against Holland, the finalists in the previous World Cup and gave the Scots a 3-1 lead. Scotland needed to win the game by three goals in order to qualify for the next round at the expense of their opponents.
The game didn’t start well for the Scots, with Rob Rensenbrink scoring a penalty for Holland after 34 minutes.
Kenny Dalglish scored two minutes before the break to level the scores before Archie Gemmill scored a penalty two minutes after the restart.
Midway through the second half, Gemmill took control of the ball 20 yards out and midway between the penalty area and touchline.
He managed to jump over a sliding challenge from Holland’s Wim Jansen, Ruud Krol and Jan Poortvliet got into the penalty area.
Holland’s goalkeeper Jan Jongbloed raced out and dived at Gemmill’s feet but the Scottish winger dinked it over him and in to the back of the net.
The goal was considered to be one of the greatest scored in a World Cup. It made the score 3-1 and meant that Scotland needed only one more to get through to the next round.
It wasn’t to be as three minutes after Gemmill’s wonder goal Johnny Rep made the score 3-2. That was how the score stayed and Scotland went home early.
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