Sandro Mazzola, who scored against Celtic for Inter Milan as the Lisbon Lions became the first British team to win the European Cup in 1967, has passed away at the age of 83.
The Italian legend netted a penalty after just seven minutes at the Estadio Nacional, before goals from Tommy Gemmell and Stevie Chalmers handed Jock Stein's side their most-celebrated trophy.
Mazzola won two European Cups and four Serie A titles with Inter - the club he spent his entire career with, before hanging up his boots in 1977, having collected 70 Italy caps.
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Celtic will celebrate the 60th anniversary next year and Mazzola consistently praised Celtic's performance over the years as Stein got the better of their legendary manager Helenio Herrera.
And on the 50th anniversary of the game, Mazzola admitted they should have given Celtic more respect that day in Lisbon.
He said: "If there was one game in my career, I would have liked to have played again, it is definitely the European Cup final defeat by Celtic in 1967.
"Back then, you didn't get to see all the games and it wasn't good that we didn't always know our opponents so well. Our manager went to see one of their games and returned with a tape.
"Now, I do not know if Celtic did it on purpose to trick us, but I remember that I watched the game and thought, 'these guys are mediocre.'
"Then, the day before the final, we stopped to watch them in training and even then, they seemed totally disorganised.
"Everyone was doing what they wanted. We thought it would be an easy game and it was the biggest mistake we could have made!"
