Last night, a bunch of Espanyol fans met in a countryside house in Bedfordshire on their way to Glasgow. The host, a little-known Sky Sports pundit who once unashamedly wore an Espanyol shirt in a La Liga show, had given warning that something special was going to happen and asked everyone to be prepared to start an exorcism of a nightmare that has stayed with fans of the Catalan club for 19 years – since 11.12pm on May 18, 1988, to be precise.

He was going to play a video that none of the group had watched – the return leg of the Uefa Cup final of 1988, Espanyol’s only previous European final.

Espanyol had beaten Bayer Leverkusen 3-0 in their old Sarria stadium. In Germany, the unthinkable happened. Javier Clemente, the coach at the time, left out two of Espanyol’s best players, John Lauridsen and Ernesto Valverde, the man who will be at their helm at Hampden Park this evening. The match was goalless at half-time, but Leverkusen then scored three times to take the tie to extra time and penalties. Espanyol lost the shoot-out and this was the video the little group of fans watched last night.

Eyes moist, they remembered how a cake with “Champions of Uefa” on it had to be changed for subchampions – runners-up in Spanish.

And they remembered a harsh lesson in life. The group set off this morning for Glasgow with the intention of getting back from football what it took almost two decades ago.

A further 13,250 Espanyol fans have landed in Scotland with similar stories and feelings. White and blue Espanyol colours outnumber Seville’s red on the streets.

A thousand kilts in Espanyol colours were sold in Barcelona and are proudly on display in Glasgow, while José MarÍa Del Niro, the Seville chairman, chided his team’s supporters for not taking up their allocation of tickets to the final.

Espanyol fans are not the only ones with unfinished business in Glasgow. Raúl Tamudo, the forward, almost signed for Rangers but did not pass a medical – the “injury” proved nonexistent and he never stopped playing. Iván De La Peña had a trial at Celtic but was not considered tall enough.

But the 13,253 supporters of Espanyol have longer memories – of that night in Leverkusen. And none of those people wants to go back home defeated again.

Guillem Balague is the resident expert on Spanish football on Revista La Liga