Remarkably, the 1-0 victory over Real was viewed, at the time, as something of a failure, possibly because Reds boss Matt Busby had suggested on the eve of the tie that he wanted a better result to take into the second leg.
“If we can go to Madrid for the second leg with a two-goal lead, I believe we shall be on our way to the final,” he'd declared. “The fact that it will be played in London is a tremendous incentive.”
Wembley beckoned and the chance of a first final in the competition, a decade on from the Munich Air Disaster that had cruelly robbed the Babes of their chance to make history.