What might have been?

Aberdeen have played in the European Champions Cup on three occasions.

The Dons were controversially not allowed the chance to enter the European Cup in 1955. Despite winning the league championship for the first time the Dons were not put forward by the SFA to compete in the inaugural European Champions Cup. Their place went to Hibernian who finished 15 points behind the Dons in the league. Interestingly Hibs reached the semi finals so you wonder how the Dons, who were unofficially the best side in Britain at the time after beating English Champions Chelsea in a friendly, would have done?

The Dons first foray into the European Champions Cup in 1980 ended with a convincing defeat from an all-conquering Liverpool. Aberdeen played their first game in the Champions Cup by defeating FK Austria Memphis 1-0 with mark McGhee scoring the vital goal. The ‘battle of Britain’ clash against Liverpool captured the imagination of the football public as no less than 65,000 requests were made for tickets for the tie. Aberdeen went down 0-1 at Pittodrie and lost 0-4 in Liverpool who went on to win the European Cup that season.

In 1984-85 the Dons went out in the first round against Dynamo Berlin on penalties. However in 1985-86 Aberdeen reached the quarter final of the European Cup for the first time. As league champions the Dons went through to meet Swedish champions IFK Gothenburg. The Swedes had already been crowned UEFA Cup winners and they presented a tough task for Aberdeen.

Gothenburg has a special place in Pittodrie folklore; the Swedish port had never seen anything quite like it when more than 15,000 of the Red Army rolled up to town for the 1983 European Cup Winners Cup Final against the famous Real Madrid. Of course Aberdeen made Scottish football history that wet evening in May 1983, but it was three years later that Aberdeen returned to the scene of their finest hour and on that occasion it was not such a happy ending. The Dons were through to the last eight of the European Champions Cup;

Aberdeen were also seen as one of the favourites to lift the top European crown on offer. When they came out of the hat against Swedish champions Gothenburg, there was added optimism given that the Dons had avoided the cream of Spain and Italy in the draw.

The first leg at Pittodrie in March 1986 was always going to be crucial. Gothenburg were UEFA Cup Winners in 1982 and were fresh from their winter shutdown. Despite that Aberdeen were well on top for long spells and when Willie Miller, playing in his 50th European tie, gave Aberdeen a first half lead the Dons looked on course for the semi finals. It took a goal from John Hewitt in 79 minutes to give Aberdeen a 2-1 lead and Alex Ferguson was always happy to take a lead to an away tie in Europe. However disaster struck in the final minute when Ekstrom popped up to level the tie at 2-2. Aberdeen knew then they would have to win the return at the Ullevi. It proved a step too far as a 0-0 draw dumped the Dons out of the European Cup in what was a bitter blow for the club at that time. The most frustrating factor was that Aberdeen were unbeaten in all six matches in the European Cup but were eliminated on the away goals ruling.

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Gothenburg played Barcelona in the semi-finals and despite a stunning 3-0 victory in the first leg, they went down 3-0 in the return leg at the Nou Camp and lost on penalties. In the other semi-final Anderlecht were beaten by Steaua Bucharest and the Romanians went on to beat Barca in the final even though it was held in the Spanish city of Seville. The game finished 0-0 and Steaua won a penalty shoot-out 2-0 – Barcelona missing all their spot kicks.

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1986 | European Cup | Aberdeen 2 Ifk Gothenburg 2