In order to qualify for the last eight, Holland faced Scotland needing only to draw, or to avoid losing by three goals. Though the pressure appeared to be off, Happel, dissatisfied with the performance against Peru, axed Arie Haan, which at least meant a recall for Johnny Rep in an otherwise unchanged line-up. Quite why Holland needed to wear white shirts is another of those questions you'll just have to ask of FIFA - whereas surely one or other team could have helpfully changed their socks?

Line-up against Scotland. Krol, Jongbloed, Rijsbergen, Suurbier, Jansen, Rep, Poortvliet, René van de Kerkhof, Willy van de Kerkhof, Rensenbrink, Neeskens.

  Scotland had arrived at the World Cup burdened by the weight of expectation that had gone from naïve confidence, through misplaced optimism, to outright boasting of their chances of winning the tournament itself. The flame of this irrational self-belief had been ignited by the British media and ill-advisedly fuelled by the verbal outpourings of the bombastic manager Ally MacLeod.

  The situation in Group 4 was actually a bit less complicated than it might have seemed. Holland could afford to lose this one; with a 5-goal advantage over Scotland, they only needed to avoid defeat by three goals or more in order to make progress. (Remember there were only two points for a win in those days.)

  Exactly the same situation pertained in the other group game as Iran needed to beat Peru by a similar margin to progress. Note that even if Iran had won by a sizeable score, they would have qualified at the South Americans' expense rather than Holland's. No matter what permutation of results transpired, either Holland or Scotland, and either Peru or Iran, would qualify.

It was always an open, entertaining match - probably the best of the competition thus far - but it started badly for Holland, with Johan Neeskens sustaining a rib injury challenging Gemmill for the ball, and needing to be replaced. The substitute, Johan Boskamp (to whom had fallen the questionable honour of wearing "Cruyff's" number 14 shirt), was a fine passer of the ball, but by no means as busy a midfielder as Neeskens, and he would not look back on this game as the highlight of his career.

Against a side who clearly were bent on doing some damage before they went home, the Dutch lost much of their rhythm from here on. Scotland, organised by Graeme Souness in the midfield, made the most of their good fortune, and soon realised they had caught the Dutch on a less than inspired day, Kenny Dalglish having a goal disallowed as the alarm-bells started ringing in the Holland defence.

  After a challenge by Joe Jordan left Rijsbergen hobbling badly, it might have seemed the tide was running Scotland's way, but the alert Willy van de Kerkhof took the ball off the dithering Stuart Kennedy and fed Rep who set off at pace into the penalty area, to be inevitably brought down by Kennedy and goalkeeper Alan Rough. Scotland players claimed the tackle was a fair one, Gemmill earning the yellow card for prolonging his protests, but the referee was adamant, and Rensenbrink hit the one thousandth goal in World Cup history from the penalty spot.

Wildschut took up a berth on the left of the midfield, with Holland now playing three at the back again, but they were clearly going to struggle to get any sort of result.   Scotland struck again when Dalglish headed down a cross towards Souness, and the midfielder crashed to earth amid a forest of outstretched Dutch legs, with Krol looking suspiciously culpable. Archie Gemmill put the Scots in front from the penalty spot, and 20 minutes later the same player, as every schoolboy knows, was responsible for putting his team in dreamland with one of the World Cup's most famous goals of all time.

  Intercepting the ball when Dalglish had been tackled, the irrepressible Gemmill took the ball past Jansen, then Krol (still on the deck having made the original tackle on Dalglish), and finally a despairing lunge by Poortvliet, before coolly lofting the ball over the advancing Jongbloed. The goal is replayed on British television just about every time Scotland play a match, and of course whenever the film "Trainspotting" is shown. Which is quite a lot.

  But, great goal though it was, it was surely too little too late for Scotland.

All of two minutes elapsed before the Dutch struck back, as Rep exchanged passes with Krol in his own half and ran at the retreating Scots defence before unleashing a drive from immense range which found goalkeeper Rough strangely out of position.

  The first of a series of classic long-range Holland goals in this World Cup, Rep's effort effectively sealed qualification for the Dutch, and brave Scotland were forced to settle for their one day of glory.

  There was still time for a late challenge on Suurbier to reduce the Dutch full-back to passenger status for the rest of the game, and just about end his World Cup. Scotland were most unlikely to get the five goals they now needed, but went out tackling strongly, leaving more than one Dutchman battered and bruised for the second phase of the tournament. A bit of this aggression against Peru and Iran might have seen Scotland through to the next round, but now it just seemed like petulance.