Although controversial, his methods proved successful and after winning La Liga in 1973, the club reached the European Cup final in 1974. On the way to the final Atlético knocked out Galatasaray, Dinamo Bucureşti, Red Star Belgrade and Celtic. In the away leg of the semi-final against Celtic, Atlético had Ayala, Díaz and substitute Quique all sent off during a hard fought encounter in what was reported as one of the worse cases of cynical fouling the tournament has seen.