Friday, May 28, 2021
Fa Cup 1984 1985 Leeds Everton
Third Round
4 January 1985
Elland Road Leeds
Referee: Mr D. Richardson
Attendance: 21,211
Everton, the FA Cup-holders, produced a professional performance worthy of their growing reputation to move safely into the Fourth Round at Elland Road in this experimental Friday Night Cup-tie at Elland Road at the expense of Leeds United. Leeds, in front of a live TV audience, showed a high level of commitment, but rarely unsettled their First Division opponents in a match which produced enough passion to compensate for its lack of goal-mouth incident. A penalty by Graeme Sharp, his twentieth goal of the season, put Everton ahead after thirty-nine minutes and they needed to soak up persistent Leeds pressure in the second half before Kevin Sheedy settled the matter six minutes from time. Increasing stress on the Leeds defence in the opening half finally told on Andy Linighan, the tall central defender, who beat Graeme Sharp to the header from Gary Stevens’ throw but as the ball fell between them handled it in his anxiety to clear. Referee, Mr David Richardson’s suspicions were confirmed by his linesman and, although Phil Hughes guessed correctly, Graeme Sharp’s spot kick had the necessary power. It took another set piece to give Everton their first win at Elland Road in thirty-four years. Kevin Sheedy’s free-kick crashed against the bar as it beat Phil Hughes for pace and, as Leeds failed to clear, the Everton midfield man completed the job by hooking it in from six yards. The ageless Peter Lorimer, showing a consistency of passing not always shown by his colleagues, was Leeds’ inspiration and his example rubbed off on John Sheridan, the Eire Youth International midfield player, who rose to the occasion with a confident display. The presence of the TV cameras did not unduly affect a fine Cup-tie atmosphere as the holders attracted 21,211, Elland Road’s third highest of the season. Leeds gave them most heart in the first minute when George McCluskey fell on the edge of the area under pressure from Gary Stevens and Neville Southall needed to respond quickly to turn John Sheridan’s curling free-kick round the post. Lorimer, gathering himself to shoot in typical fashion, brought Neville Southall to his knees from twenty yards from the resulting corner but Leeds could not maintain such pressure. Everton worked hard in midfield where Peter Reid, Paul Bracewell and Trevor Steven, hungry for possession, produced a succession of one-touch moves. The most incisive move of all involved Gary Stevens and Andy Gray, both recalled after injury. The full-back’s long cross from the right was headed back into the path of Paul Bracewell, whose low drive raced wide. Early on, Leeds existed on scraps. Further forward, Tommy Wright’s pace was cancelled out by equally swift Everton central defenders and McCluskey, playing despite suspected tonsillitis never figured until his substitution after sixty-eight minutes.
4 January 1985
Elland Road Leeds
Referee: Mr D. Richardson
Attendance: 21,211
Everton, the FA Cup-holders, produced a professional performance worthy of their growing reputation to move safely into the Fourth Round at Elland Road in this experimental Friday Night Cup-tie at Elland Road at the expense of Leeds United. Leeds, in front of a live TV audience, showed a high level of commitment, but rarely unsettled their First Division opponents in a match which produced enough passion to compensate for its lack of goal-mouth incident. A penalty by Graeme Sharp, his twentieth goal of the season, put Everton ahead after thirty-nine minutes and they needed to soak up persistent Leeds pressure in the second half before Kevin Sheedy settled the matter six minutes from time. Increasing stress on the Leeds defence in the opening half finally told on Andy Linighan, the tall central defender, who beat Graeme Sharp to the header from Gary Stevens’ throw but as the ball fell between them handled it in his anxiety to clear. Referee, Mr David Richardson’s suspicions were confirmed by his linesman and, although Phil Hughes guessed correctly, Graeme Sharp’s spot kick had the necessary power. It took another set piece to give Everton their first win at Elland Road in thirty-four years. Kevin Sheedy’s free-kick crashed against the bar as it beat Phil Hughes for pace and, as Leeds failed to clear, the Everton midfield man completed the job by hooking it in from six yards. The ageless Peter Lorimer, showing a consistency of passing not always shown by his colleagues, was Leeds’ inspiration and his example rubbed off on John Sheridan, the Eire Youth International midfield player, who rose to the occasion with a confident display. The presence of the TV cameras did not unduly affect a fine Cup-tie atmosphere as the holders attracted 21,211, Elland Road’s third highest of the season. Leeds gave them most heart in the first minute when George McCluskey fell on the edge of the area under pressure from Gary Stevens and Neville Southall needed to respond quickly to turn John Sheridan’s curling free-kick round the post. Lorimer, gathering himself to shoot in typical fashion, brought Neville Southall to his knees from twenty yards from the resulting corner but Leeds could not maintain such pressure. Everton worked hard in midfield where Peter Reid, Paul Bracewell and Trevor Steven, hungry for possession, produced a succession of one-touch moves. The most incisive move of all involved Gary Stevens and Andy Gray, both recalled after injury. The full-back’s long cross from the right was headed back into the path of Paul Bracewell, whose low drive raced wide. Early on, Leeds existed on scraps. Further forward, Tommy Wright’s pace was cancelled out by equally swift Everton central defenders and McCluskey, playing despite suspected tonsillitis never figured until his substitution after sixty-eight minutes.
Both goalkeepers were largely inactive for the entire match. Phil Hughes, deputising in the Leeds goal for the injured David Harvey, settled his nerves after twenty-three minutes as he caught a corner and his first save, purely routine, came eight minutes from half-time as Paul Bracewell’s shot lacked conviction. When Sharp’s penalty flew past him, he had hardly been in the game. Trevor Steven’s whip-lash volley a minute later, fractionally too high, almost settled the match there and then. Leeds approached the second half with renewed vigour. From one rare Everton break Peter Reid fluffed a left foot volley and Mark Gavin’s introduction on the left, allied with Peter Lorimer’s presence on the right, saw United begin to provide crosses on either flank. Neville Southall, however, apart from his save in the opening minute, remained uninvolved. When even Peter Lorimer’s angled free-kick finished near the corner flag it was symptomatic of a tight Cup-tie laden with effort but bereft of chances. Eddie Gray, the Leeds Manager reacted, “Neither side created many chances. The first goal came at a bad time and I don’t think Andy Linighan intentionally handled the ball. They are a good side who work hard for each other all over the field and I thought we competed well.” Everton Manager, Howard Kendall, said, “It was a very impressive performance. We were never really in any trouble. The anxious moments were in the first couple of minutes. Our goalkeeper made an incredible save from a free-kick, which was vital because if we had gone one down it would have changed the course of the game. There are some saves you think that he has no right to pull off and that was one of them. He is a brilliant goalkeeper.” (Mark Ledgard)
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Div.One.1984.1985.Lds.Ev.Thewildbunch22.mkv
494.4 Mo
https://uptobox.com/oa7thoknpr74
Leeds United: Hughes; Irwin, Hamson; Sellars, Linighan, Aspin; Wright, Sheridan, McCluskey (Gavin), Lorimer, F. Gray.
Everton: Southall; Stevens (Atkins), Van der Hauwe; Ratcliffe, Mountfield, Reid; Steven, A. Gray, Sharp, Bracewell, Sheedy.
Scorers: Leeds United: Nil Everton: Sharp (pen), Sheedy.
In July, popular Scottish winger Eddie Gray was named player-manager of the club he had served so loyally for nearly two decades. Gray had no managerial experience but during one of his lengthy spells of injury as a player, he had impressed when coaching the juniors. A quiet family man, some thought he would struggle to adapt to the hard, frantic world of soccer management, but he carefully dismantled the existing team, at the same time ending his own playing career in May 1984. He brought back old favourite Peter Lorimer as skipper and blooded a batch of talented youngsters from the juniors and reserves, all of which helped check United's slide. Gray, who received an MBE for his services to football, was unable to win back United's First Division place although they were promotion candidates for three successive 54 seasons. Bookmakers reckoned that the team's rich promise would bear fruit in 1985-6 and installed them as promotion favourites. Indeed, Leeds looked a good bet, but the skilful squad lacked physical presence and lost out to less able but harder-tackling opponents.
United made a bad start and soon began to lack confidence, but with only one defeat in eight games they seemed to have turned the corner when 38-year-old Gray was sacked on 11 October 1985, along with his right-hand man Jimmy Lumsden. For Gray it ended a 22-year association with the club. As coach Peter Gunby was put in temporary charge, chairman Leslie Silver paid tribute to Gray's work but said that 14th place in Division Two was not good enough. The board had voted 6-2 to end Gray's stewardship and one of the directors, Brian Woodward, a former United reserve, resigned in protest.
The repercussions went further still. Some senior players cried openly after being told of the sacking and Lorimer handed a statement to the board in which the players condemned the timing and handling of the announcement, although they pledged to continue to do their best for the club. The day after the shock news, United beat Middlesbrough with a Lorimer penalty as Leeds fans demonstrated against Gray's dismissal, calling for Silver's resignation. The board, however, were adamant.
Gray, typically, showed no bitterness at the decision and bowed out quietly from the Elland Road scene, later joining his old teammate David Harvey as a player for non-League Whitby Town, to where Lorimer also moved. It did not take long for a man of Gray's quality to get back into the full-time game and at the start of the 1986-7 season he was working as Middlesbrough's reserve and youth-team coach. In December 1986 he was appointed team manager at Rochdale but quickly stepped up the managerial ladder when he became Hull City's boss in June 1988. Sadly, he was sacked by Hull in May 1989. The following September he became manager of Whitby Town but quit in May 1990 to concentrate on outside business interests.
The repercussions went further still. Some senior players cried openly after being told of the sacking and Lorimer handed a statement to the board in which the players condemned the timing and handling of the announcement, although they pledged to continue to do their best for the club. The day after the shock news, United beat Middlesbrough with a Lorimer penalty as Leeds fans demonstrated against Gray's dismissal, calling for Silver's resignation. The board, however, were adamant.
Gray, typically, showed no bitterness at the decision and bowed out quietly from the Elland Road scene, later joining his old teammate David Harvey as a player for non-League Whitby Town, to where Lorimer also moved. It did not take long for a man of Gray's quality to get back into the full-time game and at the start of the 1986-7 season he was working as Middlesbrough's reserve and youth-team coach. In December 1986 he was appointed team manager at Rochdale but quickly stepped up the managerial ladder when he became Hull City's boss in June 1988. Sadly, he was sacked by Hull in May 1989. The following September he became manager of Whitby Town but quit in May 1990 to concentrate on outside business interests.
In 1984-5, Leeds United showed some signs of
improvement and a splendid late run gave them a flicker of hope for
promotion until defeat in the final game, at Birmingham when both sets
of fans ran riot, dashed their First Division dreams. A young man died
at St Andrew's during the trouble the game was played on the same day as
the Valley Parade fire disaster and United were later fined £5,000 for
their fans' part in the affair. Moreover, it was ruled that all Leeds
1985-6 matches must be all-ticket. There had been crowd violence
involving Leeds followers at Oxford, Barnsley and Huddersfield in 1984-5
and there was genuine talk of closing the club down to avoid further
trouble. After a mediocre start to 1985-6, Gray was sacked and Billy
Bremner appointed in his place, but United slipped closer still to the
relegation zone before a frustrating season ended in safety, although
the team's defensive record gave the fans real cause for concern...
C1 1966 1967 Real Madrid Inter Milan
Quarter-finals Second Leg1 March 1967
Santiago Bernabéu Madrid
That season, Inter would get another crack at their third European Cup after coming up against Real for an amazing third time in four seasons. This time Suarez ran the show, particularly in Madrid where he scored in the 2-0 win that effectively began the rather dramatically named wilderness years'. Jock Stein's Celtic provided the Spanish (and most of Europe) with some comfort later in that tournament, winning a wonderful final in Lisbon and putting Herrera's hated system to the sword. But it was to be 14 long years before Real would return to dispute a final of the competition they had once considered their own. Summarising what remained of the 1960s, it is worth pointing out, once again, that Real's consistency in the league was not something easily maintained. No longer able to rely on automatic qualification as European champions, the domestic competition was as important as ever.
Inter-Cities Fairs Cup 1959 1960 Birmingham Barcelona Resumes AR
Birmingham and Barcelona were enjoying vastly differing fortunes ahead of their eagerly-awaited showdown at St. Andrew's. The English club were languishing second from bottom of the First Division and without a win in their previous four fixtures. Pat Beasley's team would have climbed out of the drop zone had they held onto a first half lead given to them by Don Weston in their last game before the European clash away to fellow strugglers Luton Town. But the bottom side rescued a draw courtesy of a penalty leaving Beasley's side in a spot of a bother in the league and hardly the best preparation for taking on what was considered to be the best club team in the world. In contrast Barcelona were fresh from a 3-0 victory over Betis that retained their position at the top of the La Liga table. Helenio Herrera's side were high in confidence, so much so that they turned down Blues' offer of training facilities and instead prepared for the big match with a shopping trip around Birmingham. The size of the challenge that lay ahead for Blues had been brought into sharp focus earlier that month when Barcelona completed a 9-2 aggregate win over reigning English champions Wolves in the European Cup quarter-finals. Winger Harry Hooper admitted to Blues News recently: "After the hammering they gave Wolves at Molineux all the press were saying that we would need the scoreboard from Edgbaston because there would be a lot of goals!" But when asked ahead of the game whether his team were daunted by the prospect of facing the mighty Barca, boss Beasley insisted: "Overawed? Why should we be? We start level with Barcelona…and every team has its day - or night." Blues made one change from the side that had drawn at Kenilworth Road three days earlier with Bryan Orritt earning a recall at outside left in place of Billy Hume. The out-of-favour Welshman had not featured in the team for over three months and looked set to be on his way out of St. Andrew's before this opportunity rose. The 22-year-old was clearly determined to make the most of his chance as he spent the morning of the game doing extra training to ensure peak fitness. Manager Pat Beasley commented: "He is the man I want to fetch and carry in the forward line. Bryan can be useful both in an attacking and defending sense from the inside-left position." Barcelona travelled to the UK without tricky inside-forward Luis Suarez due to injury but otherwise Helenio Herrera's side was at full strength.
Kenny Dalglish Blackburn Rovers 1993 1994 "The Boss"
Blackburn chose the right season to win promotion from the Second Division. They went straight into the new Premier Division after winning a Wembley play-off final against Leicester City. The last Premier spot was not decided until 25 May, more than two weeks after the Cup final. Rovers' David Speedie was brought down in the penalty area, and Mike Newell scored from the spot for the only goal of the game. Blackburn's appearance in the top flight will be their first since 1966. There were two ironies in their achievement. Their late chairman, Bill Fox, as president of the Football League, had fought tooth and nail against the new Premier League, which his club were now joining. And Kenny Dalglish, their manager, who had been lured to Blackburn by retired steel magnate Jack W'alker, with the help of £5.5 million to spend in the transfer market, found himself returning to the pressures of the top divi-sion, which had forced him to give up the Liverpool manager-ship only 15 months earlier.
C1 1978 1979 Nottingham Forest Grasshopers Zürich
Quarts de Finale
Aller et Retour
Le dernier quart de finale de cette edition oppose Nottingham Forest à Grasshopper Zurich, et cet affrontement a ceci de plaisant, outre la qualité des deux équipes, que le club suisse a été fondé par un Anglais, EJ. Westermann, en 1886. Cet homme devait être d'ailleurs neuf ans plus tard, le père spirituel et le premier président de l'Association suisse de football. Cette ascendance britannique a fait de Grasshopper (la sauterelle, en français) un club où l'on ne mange pas avec ses doigts, ni ne se mouche dans sa manche. Le G.C., ainsi qu'on abrège en Suisse, a toujours été considéré comme «un club de huppés, de bourgeois dominés et dirigés par la crème zurichoise des industriels et des banquiers». Ses joueurs ont toujours témoigné d'une distinction et d'une opulence que leur enviaient, et que leur envient encore, tous les autres clubs suisses. Sur le plan du jeu, Grasshopper a toujours été fidèle à un style anglo-saxon dans lequel la vigueur athlétique, la passe en profondeur, le jeu aérien, le réalisme en somme correspondent bien aux goûts des spectateurs alémaniques. L'une de ses plus belles périodes (5 titres et 6 coupes de Suisse en dix ans) a été impulsée par Karl Rappan, le père du verrou. Le Grasshopper de Johanssen, un entraîneur allemand, est fondu dans ce moule de l'efficacité collective. Les puristes romands, et ses deux meilleurs joueurs, Sul-ser et Ponte, le lui reprochent parfois, au point que Johanssen, non dénué d'humour, a attrapé son numéro 10 dans un coin pour lui dire : « Je te propose un pacte. Tu me critiqueras une semaine, et moi je te critiquerai la semaine suivante. Ainsi, les journalistes auront toujours de quoi écrire».
C1 1976 1977 Liverpool Fc Zürich 1/2 Finale Aller Retour
Pour les Zurichois, l'accession aux demi-finales de la Coupe d'Europe est une aventure, et comme un aboutissement. Depuis le mois de septembre précédent, ils se sont promenés dans la forêt des grands en semant leurs petits cailloux : 1-1, 1-0 contre les Glasgow Rangers ; 2-0, 1-0 contre Turku Palloseura (Finlande); 2-1, 2-3 contre Dynamo Dresde. Ils sentent confusément qu'ils arrivent au bout du chemin et leur premier désir est de ne pas se faire dévorer par l'ogre Liverpool. Ils ont tous les malheurs, ces Zurichois. Cucinotta, meilleur buteur de la Coupe d'Europe 1977 avec Gerd Muller (et qui le restera), est sous le coup d'une suspension automatique d'un match. Stierli est indisponible. Et le capitaine Kobi Kuhn, classé un jour parmi les cinq meilleurs joueurs d'Europe, traîne une grosse cheville depuis le match du Servette onze jours plus tôt.
C1 1978 1979 Nottingham Forest Fc Koln 1/2F Aller Retour
Forest-Cologne,
c'est le choc des titans ; l'assurance à peu près certaine, pour le
vainqueur, d'inscrire son nom au palmarès de cette Coupe d'Europe tant
convoitée ; l'affrontement de deux équipes orgueilleuses, dominatrices
et sûres d'elles-mêmes ; le duel tactique de deux techniciens très
supérieurs, Brian Clough et Hennés Weisweiler. Le courant ne passe pas
très bien entre les deux hommes. Certains prétendent que leurs opinions
politiques divergent trop pour que leur passion commune pour le football
les réunisse. Brian est socialiste militant. Hennés affiche ouvertement
son penchant pour la droite, et il a le tort de tout mélanger. N'a-t-il
pas dit, à la grande fureur de l'autre : « Tout comme Clough, je ne
crois pas aux entraîneurs démocrates. »
Ligue des Champions 2011 2012 Ac Milan Barcelona
28 Mars 2012
Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
Arbitre J. Eriksson Pour son premier quart de finale européen depuis 2007, le Milan AC peut se féliciter d'avoir préservé toutes ses chances de qualification pour le dernier carré en tenant en échec Barcelone à Giuseppe Meazza (0-0). Plutôt un bon résultat pour l'équipe lombarde qui a su garder sa cage inviolée malgré les assauts répétés des Blaugrana. Car, bien que privée de Van Bommel (suspendu) et de Thiago Silva (blessé), l'assise défensive du Milan se montrait très solide face à des Catalans qui tenaient, comme à leur habitude, la possession du ballon.
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