With today's European draw bringing Tottenham back to the forefront of the European limelight, we take a look back at some of our most memorable European nights. This is obviously open to debate...
4. Spurs 8 - 1 Gornik Zabrze - September 20, 1961
The first ever European Cup game played at White Hart Lane and, similar to Young Boys this season, the stadium proved to be a fortress.
Having lost the away leg 4-2, we looked in danger of an early exit. But, in front of a huge crowd, we hit back against accusations of being dirty in the away leg and blew the Polish side off the park - a Cliff Jones hat-trick amongst the eight goals.
This narrowly pipped the quarter-final home leg against Dukla Prague, a 4-1 victory in snowy conditions, where Dave Mackay and Bobby Smith helped themselves to two goals each - but Gornik was the game that started it all.
3. Spurs 1-1 Anderlecht - May 23, 1984
An English team winning on penalties? Surely not. Yes, it really happened. Spurs drew the first leg 1-1 and brought Anderlecht back to White Hart Lane for a huge night. Conceding after 60 minutes, we looked to be headed for defeat until Graham Roberts popped up six minutes from time with an equaliser.
The game headed towards penalties and the shootout looked won as Spurs converted the first four kicks but a Danny Thomas miss had the fans' hearts in their mouths - until keeper Tony Parks saved the next one to win Spurs the UEFA Cup and give Keith Burkinshaw the perfect send-off.
2. Spurs 3-1 Inter Milan - November 2, 2010
Well, something from this season had to be in there or there was just no point in doing a rundown! This was the night that Spurs proved they could mix it with the big names. Gareth Bale tore Maicon apart for the second time and attacking football won the day. The sound of White Hart Lane singing "Oh, when the spurs" in unison after Bale had raced down the left to square for Pavlyuchenko to score the third will live long in the memory.
1. Spurs 5-1 Atletico Madrid - May 15, 1963
The Benfica semi-final was difficult not to include, but at the end of the day we lost it, so we went for the original glory, glory night instead.
Jimmmy Greaves and Terry Dyson helped scored two each, to add to John White's goal as we turn out one of our most memorable performances of all time. Beating the defending champions at Feyenoord Stadium, we became the first English team ever to bring home a European trophy.
No comments:
Post a Comment