Cup Winners Cup. Terrible predicament for years – since most teams were weak, one had to keep fingers crossed the draw does not pair the stronger participants early. This year the draw was good: only Tottenham Hotspur and Ajax played against each other in the first round – Tottenham won both legs 3-1 and 3-0. The only upset in the first round was elimination of Glasgow Rangers by Dukla Prague. And almost an upset: Eintracht Frankfurt needed penalty shoot-out to eliminate PAOK Thessaloniki.
One more inevitable casualty in the second round – FC Porto eliminated Roma 2-0 and 0-0.
The quarter-finals were also good for the stronger teams – except for Standard Liege and FC Porto. The Belgians won 2-0 and 2-2. Eintracht Frankfurt, qualifying with difficulties so far, was blocked at last by Tottenham – 0-2 and 2-1.
The four semi-finalists were the best possible teams of this year’s lot. One cannot complain at this stage. Tottenhal Hotspur and Barcelona. 1-1 in London.
Simonsen scored the only goal in Barcelona and Tottenham Hotspur was out.
Dinamo Tbilisi – Standard Liege. The most exciting Soviet team at the moment and current holders of the cup against bright, up and coming Belgian team. Which prevented the Georgians from having a chance for second Cup Winners Cup – Standard won both legs 1-0.
Tahamata gets away from Mudzhiri – a small difference perhaps, but amounting to winning and losing. The rules were getting lax too – note the add on Tahamata’s shirt. Prohibited at finals, but otherwise already OK to use them in the European cups.
Barcelona vs Standard. Big advantage for Barca – Barcelona was chosen to host the final. 100 000 attended – more than twice the crowd the European Champions final gathered. Mostly Barca supporters, of course. But it was also a battle of great coaches – Raymond Goethals vs Udo Lattek. Goethals gathered wonderful team. Lattek had already problems with his fellow countryman Bernd Schuster. Schuster was out of the final because of injury, though. Standard was without Dusbaba and Bodart (his absence for rather reason – it was either him or Preud’homme between the goalposts).
The match was not great… thanks to the Catalans, who displayed in full everything for what people hated Spanish football since the 1960s: dirty tackles, simulations, wasting time. Add some German grit infused by Lattek, especially in defense. Of course, there was a lot at stake – Barcelona did not reach European final since 1969 and did not win a cup since 1966 – but it was not a plausible excuse for such an ugly approach.
Barcelona was not exciting at all and with time Standard emerged as the much better team, but…
There was also the referee. No big mistakes, but his whistle benefited Barcelona. Standard opened the score in the 7th minute, thanks to Tahamata and Barcelona equalized just before the end of the first half – Simonsen in the 44th minute.
The second half was mostly Standard – except in the fatal 63rd minute. A free kick was called against Standard.
After which Quini scored the second goal for Barcelona. One must see the moment: the call was fair, but Barca players did not wait for the referee to whistle – the ball was quickly crossed to Quini and he scored. The surprised look in the eyes of Echweiller – he was about to organize the wall, players all around him, as they were caught by his marking the foul, nobody having time to take defensive position. The referee seemingly was going to take charge of the free kick, but the Catalans scored and he… just blew his whistle, acknowledging the goal. Belgian players protested, but seemingly resigned to the injustice – mostly expressed by Haan, not even bothering to start from the central circle after the goal, so Echweiller had to whistle again and put the game ‘in order’. The Belgians saw no order to be respected, though. Yet, they attacked to the end and unfortunately missed their chances. Then 2 minutes were left and something extraordinary happened – an ominous precursor of the disgrace showed by West Germany and Austria a month later at the World Cup. Quini talked to Carrasco and both positioned themselves with the ball at the right corner of the Belgian half of the field. There Quini passed to Carrasco from corner kick – may be a 30 centimeters pass – Carrasco placed the ball near the corner flag, keeping it from Belgian players with his body. The ball was mostly static, Belgian defenders had no chance of reaching it without fouling Carrasco, the referee whistles a free-kick, and the same begins anew. Meeuws pushed Carrasco a bit more, so he dropped dead and Meews was send off. Under the circumstances, there was a foul, no matter whether Meeuws wanted to commit it or not, but red card? Same referee was quite blind to vicious tackles before… Once Meeuws was out, Carrasco suddenly resurrected, only to die again in the next second, because Gerets breathed near to him. One more free kick, the ball still did not move from the flag. Until the final whistle. Barcelona won 2-1. Of course, it was great tactical decision – technically, Quini and Carrasco stayed into the frame of the rules: the ball moved just a bit, but moved. In the narrow space one can argue there was no room for the Catalans to move, blocked by eager to get the ball Belgians. And there is no rule saying how far the ball must go after a free-kick or a corner-kick – a small pass is still a pass. Yes, it was blatant and arrogant, and obvious killing of time. Yes, Quini and Carrasco were going to stay in this little corner to the end of the world, if necessary. Yes, the Belgian protested. But was for the referee to do – no rule was broken. Formally, it was fine and the only culprits would be Standard players, for, so close, there was no way to avoid collision with Carrasco. A great tactical decision, but also a huge disgrace to the sport. Did not matter at all to Barcelona and their supporters – they won!
Final, Nou Camp, Barcelona, 12 May 1982, att 100000
FC Barcelona (1) 2 Standard CL (Liège) (1) 1
7′ 0-1 S: Vandermissen
44′ 1-1 B: Simonsen
63′ 2-1 B: Quini
FC Barcelona
Urruti; Gerardo, Migueli, Alesanco, Manolo; Sanchez, Moratalla, Esteban;
Simonsen, Quini, Carrasco
Standard CL (Liège)
Preud’homme; Gerets, Poel, Meeuws, Plessers; Vandersmissen, Daerden, Haan,
Botteron; Tahamata, Wendt
Referee: Eschweiler (West Germany)
Red card: Meeuws 89
Barcelona got the Cup Winners Cup for the first time. Success at last. Not so well deserved, but a winner is a winner. Happy sea of Catalan supporters around, a moment of glory – do not tell them it was a crooked victory. Just leave it at that.
One may feel sorry for Standard – it was not entirely fair loss, but in the same time they missed a good many chances and were not very organized at times. Raymond Goethals gathered a wonderful team – a bunch of top Belgian players: Gerets, Meeuws, Vandersmissen, Preud’homme, Plessers, Daerden, complimented by experienced foreign stars: the usual Dutch stars, Haan and Tahamata (and Dusbaba in the reserves), one of the best Swiss players since 1975, Rene Botteron, and the Swedish international Wendt, who played for years in West Germany before joining Standard. There were solid reserves too – Bodart, Voordeckers, Semmeling, Dusbaba. Perhaps the most interesting was the evolution of Arie Haan – players often change positions as they age, but normally it is moving back – from attack to midfield or defense. Haan moved in the opposite direction – starting as, nominally, defensive midfielder with Ajax, he was moved back to central defender for the 1974 World Cup, then was a playmaker for Anderlecht, and now – a centre-forward for Standard. If there was a symbol of the great total football, it was Haan – he played any position and always shined. Too bad Standard lost this final and Haan was unable to add one more international cup to his collection, but there was perhaps something Standard was lacking – a strong playmaker. A man able to control the tempo and organize the attacks. At the final, the Belgians appeared a bit chaotic and their attacks were more spontaneous improvisations then well planned. Perhaps it would have been better if Haan was put in midfield to organize the team’s play.
To say that Barcelona was exciting team would be too much. They clinched a victory and that was all. Of course, they were strong and determined, but not the obvious and even less the deserving winner. But they won and it was a big success for the club, suffering disappointments for so many years. Even with Cruijff they won only 1 Spanish title and plain nothing internationally. It was great for the club, for the supporters, for the players – it was a squad full of stars: Migueli, Carrasco, Quini, Alesanco, Urruticoechea (still called with his full name at the time, although today one can hardly see anything but Urruti written). Only Alan Simonsen of this squad knew continental success and that was already years ago. Injured Bernd Schuster missed the moment of triumph, but it would be empty speculation to muse what would have been Barcelona with him: most likely, not very different. They played gritty football and depended too much on dirty tricks – Schuster would not have been able to transform deeply embedded tradition into something more interesting. Udo Lattek proved again he was a great winner, but there little evidence of his influence – coaching the team into great fitness and making them careful in defense, and adding constant pressuring was seemingly all he implanted from West German football. But it was not exactly radical for Spanish gritty fighters. Whatever he did, it clashed already with Schuster’s understanding of the game – and soon with Maradona’s too. Even after the big win it was quite obvious at Barcelona that the team was not truly great and needed additional spark, spur, and something more artistic. Hence, Maradona – which was also numbering the days of Lattek at the helm. Ironic, in a way, for the German coach brought the first international victory since 1966.