IT is almost half a century exactly since Tommy Gemmell’s greatest moment, but the feat remains undiminished by the passage of time.

The date was Thursday, May 25, 1967. The venue was the sun-bathed Estadio Nacional in Lisbon, Portugal. The occasion was the final of the European Cup. The opposition was the revered Inter Milan team who had lifted the trophy in two of the previous three seasons. The Italians were leading 1-0 with over an hour gone.

Then Gemmell intervened. The left back had been ordered to remain in defence by his manager Jock Stein before kick-off. But the negative Catenaccio tactics of Helenio Herrera enabled him to roam forward at will.

Read more: Tommy Gemmell put the boot in as Helmut Haller felt Scotsman's wrath

Jim Craig, who had bundled over Renato Cappellini inside his own area in just the sixth minute to gift Inter a spot kick which Sandro Mazzolla had buried, had possession just inside the opposition penalty box.

Craig spotted his team mate advancing upfield at pace and cut the ball back into the D. Gemmell struck his first-time effort sweetly. Giuliano Sarti in the Inter goal had no chance. The powerful shot soared high into the top left corner. Celtic were level.

“The rest is history,” Gemmell once remarked. Indeed it is. Celtic took the lead when Stevie Chalmers prodded home from close range with just six minutes remaining, held on until West German referee Kurt Tschenscher blew the final whistle, won 2-1 and became the first British club to lift the European Cup.

It is desperately sad that Gemmell, whose passing at the age of 73 after a lengthy illness was announced in a brief statement from his former club yesterday, has been taken from us as we approach the 50th anniversary of that triumph.

Yet, his myriad achievements – for his goal against Inter Milan in Lisbon in 1967 was far from being an isolated highlight in playing days which spanned 16 years - will live on forever.

Read more: Tommy Gemmell put the boot in as Helmut Haller felt Scotsman's wrath

Indeed, the Scot went on to become the first British player to score in two European Cup finals three years later when he put Celtic in front against Feyenoord in the San Siro in Italy after half an hour with a virtually identical strike to the one he had notched in Lisbon.

On that occasion, though, the final outcome wasn’t as favourable. The Glasgow club were perhaps guilty of complacency following their earlier victory and were outplayed by their impressive Dutch rivals. They lost 2-1 after extra-time.

But, once the crushing disappointment of that painful defeat had subsided, Gemmell was justifiably proud of his claim to fame.

When he moved on and joined Nottingham Forest the following year – after a series of fall-outs, many about money, with Stein – he found himself playing alongside a promising teenage professional from Northern Ireland called Martin O’Neill.

“I loved your goal in the European Cup final,” the wide-eyed O’Neill once said to him.

“Which one?” Gemmell asked the man who would, many years later, go on to manage Celtic to the UEFA Cup final with a wink.

Read more: Tommy Gemmell put the boot in as Helmut Haller felt Scotsman's wrath

Phil Neal, who scored for Liverpool in both the 1977 and 1984 finals, is the only British player who has emulated his deeds since. But the Englishman’s first strike came from the penalty spot.

The boy who was born in his grandmother’s home in Cumbrae Drive in Motherwell and brought up in Craigneuk in nearby Wishaw did rather well for himself.

Originally a winger, he only changed positions when his amateur club Meadow Thistle found themselves short of a full-back. His eye-catching prowess there as a gangly youth won him a move to Celtic from junior club Coltness United in 1961.

He signed provisional forms with the Parkhead club on the same evening as another youngster who would also go on to become a Celtic legend, not to mention a close friend, Jimmy Johnstone. Their escapades off the park became as renowned as their exploits on it in the forthcoming years.

Gemmell had soon forced his way into the Celtic first team and impressed supporters with his confident and aggressive playing style and, in particular, his ferocious shot and penalty kick-taking expertise. No fewer than 31 of his 64 goals came from the spot. He only failed to convert three. But to begin with his efforts didn’t bring considerable joy to a club which was toiling badly.

Like so many, though, he blossomed following the arrival of Stein as manager in 1965. He developed into an exceptional defender who also posed a serious threat going forward. His long-range strikes were renowned long before Lisbon.

Read more: Tommy Gemmell put the boot in as Helmut Haller felt Scotsman's wrath

The two men had, particularly towards the end of their professional association, an often fractious relationship. But Gemmell was always unstinting in his praise of Stein the coach. “I thought he was brilliant and light years ahead of his time or any other manager with whom I was involved,” he wrote in his autobiography. “I still loved that man.”

He became the first Celtic player to score in the European Cup when he struck in the first round match against Zurich in Switzerland in 1966. He and John Clark were the only players involved in every minute of all 10 games during that watershed continental campaign.

Gemmell could play either left back or right back equally well despite being right footed. In 1967 France Football magazine named him the sixth best player in the world. In 1970 sports journalists in both Hungary and Brazil, who knew a decent footballer when they saw one, voted him the best right back on the planet.

Many players have been credited as being the first full-back to overlap. It is nigh on impossible to state with any certainty who started the practice. But just last week, Jonathan Wilson, the sports journalist and author who specialises in the evolution of football tactics, rated him as being one of the five pioneering players in his position along with Nilton Santos (Brazil), Silvio Marzolini (Argentina), Giacinto Facchetti (Italy), and Ruud Krol (Netherlands).

He won 18 caps for Scotland between 1966 and 1971 and scored one goal in an 8-0 win over Cyprus. But it is his ordering off in a 3-2 defeat against West Germany in Hamburg in 1969 for which he is best remembered by members of the Tartan Army. He was red carded after chasing after Helmut Haller, who had just fouled him, and scythed him down.

Gemmell spent two seasons at Forest before returning, after a brief stint in the United States with Miami Toros, to his homeland in 1973 and turning out for Dundee for three years. He captained the Dens Park club to a League Cup final victory over Celtic in 1973.

Read more: Tommy Gemmell put the boot in as Helmut Haller felt Scotsman's wrath

He went into management on Tayside and also spent a spell in charge at Albion Rovers before giving up coaching and moving into insurance sales.

Gemmell was engaging company, full of fun and popular with his team mates, opponents (apart from perhaps Haller) and supporters alike. That, though, is true of all of the Lisbon Lions.

They may not have benefitted financially from their endeavours to the same degree that modern footballers, the majority of whom are unfit to lace their boots, now do. But no price can be put on the lifelong friendships they forged and the remarkable successes they enjoyed.

The tributes from across the football world following the announcement of his death yesterday morning are an eloquent indication of the huge affection Tommy Gemmell was held in.