1984
As we start our countdown to the Dons return to Europe in early July, over the next month or so on RedWeb and RedTV we will look back at some memorable moments, infamous events and forgotten occasions from the Dons adventures in Europe down the years.
This will include new archive footage on the RedTV Memorable Matches Section.
We start by going back almost 30 years to 1984?.
Porto Memories
by Kevin Stirling
It remains a fact that no side in the history of the European Cup Winners Cup managed to retain the trophy during it’s 39-years of existence. Italian giants AC Milan came nearest to achieving that feat in 1974 when they went down to Magdeburg in the Final in Rotterdam after winning the trophy a year earlier against Leeds Utd. Belgian club Anderlecht also came close after reaching three finals in succession in the 70’s, while both Arsenal and Paris St Germain reached successive finals in the 90’s. Outside of that it was Aberdeen that came very close to achieving the dream of retaining the European Cup Winners Cup in 1984.
Following their finest hour in Gothenburg on 11th May 1983 when the might of Real Madrid was defeated in the Swedish rain, the Dons once again entered the ECWC competition the following season as holders. There was no doubt that Aberdeen’s stock had risen dramatically following their European exploits. No longer was Aberdeen looked upon as a reasonable draw in the European arena.
The reality was that Aberdeen were now a team to be feared and none of the top sides in Europe relished the prospect of coming up against “Fergie’s Furies”. Pittodrie had become a cauldron of passion on those European nights and teams such as Hamburg, Bayern Munich and the rest bore testimony to how hard it was to play the Dons on their own patch. As holders the added pressure of being among the favourites to lift the trophy was welcomed by Ferguson?”It is proof of just how far we have developed as a side that we are amongst the favourites to retain the trophy. It is a far cry from 12 months ago when we had to play a preliminary tie in the same competition. As a seeded club we have earned the respect of some of the best clubs in the continent, and no side will fancy coming up against us this time around.”
For the 1983.84 competition Aberdeen were joined by some of the best sides in Europe including old foes Juventus and Rangers along with the likes of Barcelona, Porto, Zagreb, Cologne, AEK Athens, Prague, Manchester Utd and Servette. In the opening round Aberdeen eased past Icelandic champions Akranes before disposing of Beveren of Belgium in round two. That brought Aberdeen through to the quarter finals in March and they almost came unstuck against Hungarian side Ujpest Dosza of Hungary. A shocking performance in the first leg in Budapest meant that Aberdeen trailed 2-0 going into the Pittodrie return. Ferguson was livid at his players as chances were missed and the Dons had it all to do against a side that were nowhere near to Aberdeen’s class. That proved to be correct, as a Mark McGhee hat trick was enough to put Aberdeen through to the semi final in their quest to retain the trophy. The 1983.84 tournament had more or less gone with form with Manchester Utd causing the only surprise along the way by defeating Barcelona 3-0 in the quarter final. That left holders Aberdeen in the mix with Manchester Utd, Porto and Italian favourites Juventus.
While coming up against such exalted opponents may be daunting these days, back then Aberdeen were a feared because they combined great technical ability and some fiery Scottish passion, it was a potent combination. When the draw was made the ‘dream’ final of an all-British affair between Aberdeen and Ron Atkinson’s Manchester Utd in Switzerland was still on as the Dons came out against Portuguese side Porto with United taking on Juventus. After the draw was made the bookies were laying short odds on an Aberdeen v Juventus final and Aberdeen boss Alex Ferguson admitted that Porto would be his favoured opponents out of the three sides left in the cup. What had been perhaps over looked by the football world was the fact that Porto were an emerging side with great potential. While still labouring under the more popular and established Benfica, Porto were perhaps a bit like Aberdeen had been in previous years?a team with a lot too prove on the big stage and they had the tools to achieve that. In the first leg in Oporto the Dons were up against it for long spells and had to face a massive partisan 65,000 crowd in the Das Antas stadium.
The last thing that Aberdeen wanted was the loss of an early goal but disaster struck the Dons after 14 minutes when Porto danger man Fernando Gomes headed past Jim Leighton. It was the worst possible start for Aberdeen who then had to defend in depth against a lively Portuguese side looking to reach their first European final. While Porto dominated the midfield area in the first half, they were restricted to limited opportunities to build on their lead mainly due to stout defending from Miller and McLeish. The renowned Aberdeen defence were given a stern test but they stood firm and resisted all that the home side could throw at them. In the second half it was a different story as Aberdeen began to control the game far better and they in turn created their own chances. Indeed on another day they would have taken something from the tie but Porto keeper Ze Beto was inspired on two occasions to save from Gordon Strachan.
Then the Portuguese keeper was once again well placed to turn a ferocious strike from Eric Black away for a corner in the 61st minute as Aberdeen began to look dangerous on the counter attack. Aberdeen almost levelled the tie with seven minutes remaining when Strachan’s clever lob from all of 40 yards almost caught out Ze Beto who did well to recover and make a desperate save. Despite going behind in the first leg Aberdeen manager Ferguson remained confident that the Dons would turn the tie around in the Pittodrie return?”There was a sense of occasion about our play in the second half last night. We wanted to doe something in the game and show our determination. The chance is still there for us to get to the final. If I had been asked at the start of the season that we would be coming home with a 1-0 deficit in the semi final of the ECWC then I would have gladly taken that. Porto did not bother coming to watch us at Pittodrie; maybe they thought they could have done enough in the first leg. We came through as tough a tie as we have faced away from home for a long time and we still think that Porto will have a hard time of it in Scotland.”
On the domestic front Aberdeen came back to a Scottish Cup semi final against Dundee at Tynecastle on the Saturday and were in the process of reclaiming the Premier league championship. The dream treble was still on when Porto came to Pittodrie two weeks later. Aberdeen had increased their margin at the top of the league and were through to meet Celtic in the Scottish Cup Final. All that remained was to see off the Portuguese challenge and the bookies would have been right was Juventus took a 1-1 draw away from Old Trafford in the other semi final and they looked odds on to reach Switzerland.
Although Aberdeen looked to be in cruise control in the domestic scene, the return against Porto proved to be one game too far as the Dons failed to ignite their renowned fervour on the night and eventually fell out of the competition with Porto scoring a goal they hardly deserved on the break through Vermelinho in 75 minutes. It left Aberdeen with the impossible task of scoring three goals and despite dominating possession for long spells and a host of missed chances it was just not the Dons night. There was an eerie atmosphere around Pittodrie as the game was played in a dense spring fog and the capacity all-ticket crowd could not inspire their heroes to scale the European heights once again.
Aberdeen had due cause to rue some of the decisions by Czech referee Krcnak and it emerged some 20 years later that Krcnak had enjoyed some ‘fringe benefits’ during his career as a FIFA whistler in that he freely admitted to accepting bribes from certain clubs. While it was never proven that Krcnak had been up to anything sinister in the Dons matches against the Portuguese, it nevertheless did cast a shadow over what had happened in 1984. Nottingham Forest were perhaps more directly involved on the wrong of the corrupt Krcnak as they went out of the European Cup in very controversial circumstances with the Czech whistler directly involved in a couple of their matches which were shrouded in controversy.
While the European dream of retaining the European Cup Winners Cup was over for Aberdeen, the Dons went some way to making up for that by claiming a first ever league and Scottish Cup double when they went on to win the Scottish Cup for the third time in succession to create another record for a provisional club in Scotland. Porto went on to face Juventus in the ECWC Final in Basle and went down 2-1 before a 55,000 crowd in the Sankt Jakob Stadium. Mark McGhee finished as the tournaments top scorer along with Viktor Gracyhev of Shaktar Donetsk. The other British clubs competing in the tournament that season were Rangers who were beaten by Porto in the second round; Swansea City who never made it past the preliminary round and Manchester United.
In the all-time record of European Cup Winners Cup matches, Aberdeen come in at a credible 10th place, ahead of the likes of Porto, Hamburg, Celtic, Tottenham, AC Milan, Real Madrid, Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Ajax and Liverpool.
RedTV | European Cup Winners Cup | 1983-84 | Porto v Aberdeen | the goal | first leg | click here
RedTV | European Cup Winners Cup | 1983-84 | Aberdeen v Porto | highlights | second leg | click here
