http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/apr/26/chelsea-champions-league-leeds-united?
The team in white celebrated wildly. Reduced to 10 men in their semi-final second leg on 24 April at the Camp Nou, they'd held on for an improbable 3-2 aggregate victory over Barcelona<http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/barcelona> to reach the European Cup final. Earlier in the season they'd looked in disarray. An upstart young manager who was supposed to oversee the rejuvenation of the squad had been ousted after alienating a core of senior players, but a safe pair of hands everybody assumed was a short-term appointment had arrived, soothed egos and reawakened some of the old fire. The league was beyond them, but doggedly they'd scrapped their way through to within one game of the prize – the greatest prize – that had eluded them through all their years of success. In that final that side in white faced Bayern Munich. Undone by some scandalous refereeing, they lost and were never the same again. The similarities with Leeds United in 1974-75 and Chelsea<http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chelsea>'s success at the Camp Nou 29 years later are striking. Of course the Barcelona then, despite the presence of Rinus Michels in the dug-out and Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens on the pitch, did not have quite the aura of the present-day side. And Leeds, having won 2-1 in the first leg, scored their away goal early, Peter Lorimer latching on to a Joe Jordan knockdown after eight minutes. But then too, Barcelona were disappointing. "They did not spread their attacks wide enough to worry their opponent," wrote David Lacey in the Guardian. "It was a strangely muted performance from a team who many people had thought would sweep all before them in Europe this season." But almost as soon Barcelona had levelled on the night through Manuel Clares after 69 minutes, Gordon McQueen was sent off. "McQueen played Clares with such vitality," Lacey wrote, "that it was nearly a minute before the Barcelona player could be brought round, and he played to the end mopping his wounded head with a pad … it is a pity that on the threshold of their greatest triumph they should now be faced with problems caused by one of those irritating losses of control which have so often marred the club's success." etc _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] PETE CASS (1962 - 2011) Rest In Peace Mate
