European Cup Trivia

[seand]

What a genuinely shitty little post.

A major example of tone not coming across on the internet Alex I feel... genuine apologies if I caused any offence, I just thought I spotted an inoffensive easy open gag set up by TRLB's surreal conflation of Novo and a hyperactive drugged up dog. Let's npt let this attempt at a "joke" destroy the unlikely Rangers-Dundalk love in

[Alex Anderson]

Bari is a few kilometres north of Napoli, on the other side of the peninsula.

Napoli have never had any influence within the Italian Federation, likely for all the reasons you mention.

Unfortunately, but not at all unsurprisingly, the San Nicola is falling apart, with parts even having been closed for safety reasons at various points.

Thanks mate. Sorry - I could have looked that up on, like, a map. If only I'd been on some sort of device which gave quick access to lots of general info like the location of cities. But I'm too busy typing shite about the European Cup final. So Puglia is further south - does that mean it's usually as dismissed as Naples by the North?

Very sorry to hear that the San Nicola's blossoming flower is turning to weed but that's the moral price of those synergies. As Shakespeare had it, Lillies that fester smell far worse ...


I hope they dump it altogether and get something more compact, for those Puglian derbies. That video I have of the 88-89 Serie A goals - the noise at Lecce was seriously TV-rattling.

[ursus arctos]

The San Paolo will need major renovations to meet the current criteria.

The Velodrome is Final-ready now, but OM and Marseille have similar issues with the FFF as those Napoli have with the FIGC.

One wonders if we would have seen different venues if the national federations didn't have an effective veto.

[Alex Anderson]

A major example of tone not coming across on the internet Alex I feel... genuine apologies if I caused any offence, I just thought I spotted an inoffensive easy open gag set up by TRLB's surreal conflation of Novo and a hyperactive drugged up dog. Let's npt let this attempt at a "joke" destroy the unlikely Rangers-Dundalk love in

Ah. Bugger. I'm genuinely sorry then, Sean. Deepest apologies mate. That's embarrassing. If I'm that sensitive about wee Nacho I shouldn't be mentioning him on a public forum anyway.

Yup, know what you mean about tone not coming across: Even when I was deep into the Rangers blogging, I never quite got to grips with the fact some people don't understand you can't be "tough" when you're on the internet. I just assumed everyone knew we were all silly for being here in the first place and that was the joy of it. But some took it the wrong way - which sometimes broke my heart - and now here I am doing the very same thing to you. I have become what I hated!!!

Or I'm just far too sober.

Fucking out of order, Sir. Apologies.



Anyway, nothing could break my cosmic bond with the Lilywhites.

D'ye know what it is! And I'm not even fucking joking here. I've just realised - it's PRE-MATCH NERVES!!

I've wound myself into such a fucking frenzy about the final tomorrow (you may have noticed) and, like any team before the game of their season, we're taking it out on each other in training. Totally over the ball - the way our manager likes it. We're snarly and gnarly, ready for the game of the season.

THIS IS WHAT WE'VE ALL BEEN BUILDING TOWARDS SINCE AUGUST, LADS! LET'S TRIVIA THE SHITE OUT OF IT! LET'S GET IT FUCKING DONE!

[*much swearing, back-slapping, hair-ruffling and chest-bumping ensues. Is that the click of many keyboards I hear - or is it boot studs going down a Ukranian tunnel?*]

[Alex Anderson]

The San Paolo will need major renovations to meet the current criteria.

The Velodrome is Final-ready now, but OM and Marseille have similar issues with the FFF as those Napoli have with the FIGC.

One wonders if we would have seen different venues if the national federations didn't have an effective veto.

Great stuff, UA - but you know I'm not letting you away with that. Especially on the eve of the final.

Come on. I know my point gets lost in my verbose, picture-riddled posts - and I know the San Paolo doesn't meet all sorts of criteria and agendas - but this is your thread and tomorrow is the 63rd final and I want your personal selection for the most glaring omission on the roster of final venues.

Which one stadium do you think has most deserved to host the European Cup/UEFA Champions League final but has not?

(It need no longer even be with us - it just has to have been around from 1955 onwards)

[ursus arctos]

Well, if I'm allowed counterfactuals, the Népstadion, with Honved lifting the cup.

[Alex Anderson]

Yes.

Oh, yes.

That, sir, is nice.

[ursus arctos]

[Gangster Octopus]

I'm a bit lost; did it never use to rain on mainland Europe in Autumn, Winter, Spring?

[Alex Anderson]

See, ursus part of me originally also wanted to reply "those aren't counterfactuals - that's jazz!". But I didn't want anyone (a) thinking I was into jazz or (b) that I meant it as a criticism.

UEFA's totally discordant in its selection of final venues so why shouldn't we just go beautifully against the beat in picking ours? But you're already riffing anyway - and it's bloody beautiful!

Who are Honved beating in your final, daddio?



See I would always have had Rangers winning it at the Bernabeu so my personal club fantasy is spoiled by a venue which has been chosen in reality. It's a bit goth. My choice of most glaring omission for hosting the final, the San Paolo, is a bit heavy metal.

But my jazz final would be Racing Club de Paris versus Torino at Goodison. Maybe Maine Road.

[ursus arctos]

It has to be il Grande Torino, no?

Might as well change as many things that make us sad when we can.

[Kevin S]

1994 Fantasy Champions League Final
Norwich City v AC Milan
Ibrox

[seand]

Dundalk v Napoli at the Nepstadion for me. Yis are all invited as de facto members of the OTF football family.

[3 Colours Red]

I know that Anfield isn't a certified UEFA 5-star stadium and I think a capacity of 54,000 might be slightly too low as well.

But I'd have it for a fantasy final. Let's go year I was born so it'll stick in my mind - 1982 (so apologies to any Villa fans).
The fact Saint Etienne never got past the prelim round is fucking mental and that Super Tele shirt with the horizontal double pinstripes is pure sex. Bayern can stay though - Rummenigge, Breitner, Hoeness... ain't nothing wrong with that line-up.

[Alex Anderson]

It has to be il Grande Torino, no?

Might as well change as many things that make us sad when we can.

No other. Coz it's certainly the Goodison or Maine Road of the 75 - 80k crowds. And it's not one of those post-60s Racing Club remakes.

They played their last game on the ground where Celtic won it. Where Valentino's boy scored a penalty in the final.

[Alex Anderson]

Anfield ... for a fantasy final. Let's go year I was born so it'll stick in my mind - 1982 (so apologies to any Villa fans).
The fact Saint Etienne never got past the prelim round is fucking mental and that Super Tele shirt with the horizontal double pinstripes is pure sex. Bayern can stay though - Rummenigge, Breitner, Hoeness... ain't nothing wrong with that line-up.

Going ...

1994 Fantasy Champions League Final
Norwich City v AC Milan
Ibrox

... going ...

Dundalk v Napoli at the Nepstadion for me. Yis are all invited as de facto members of the OTF football family.

... gone!

Beautiful stuff, gents.

Man. This is getting me a bit Little House on the Prairie - the pre-final Pre-Match Tension is really kicking in. The hormones are all over the shop.

Going through all those lovely old English grounds in their terraced incarnations I loved the most and never got to and suddenly thinking about Il Grande Torino playing everyone from Racing Paris to First Vienna to Third fucking Lanark at everywhere from Molineux to the Victoria Ground to Villa Park to Hillsborough to ...




Ye know what it is, troops - it's the imminent approach of history. So close now ye can taste, smell and feel it. (Well, I can certainly smell something ...)

Il Grande played their last ever game on the ground where Celtic won it - the triumph which, two years before I was born, shaped my football-supporting life and is easily the Freudian reason I'm so fuckin mental about this competition. Rangers go two stages further in 1992-93 - maybe even just one - I'm not on this page. Guaranteed.

I've been to the final. I've seen my team a goal from the final - Christ, I've seen them a decent square ball in the Velodrome away from the final (Pieter Huistra! WHY, Pieter - WHY??!! You did the hard bit ...!). But had I ever known what it was like to be truly, completely immersed and invested in just one European Cup/Champions League final then I might not have spent so much of my spare head space immersing myself in every one ever played.

But that last Il Grande Torino game - the friendly with Benfica which was the reason they were flying towards Superga at all - was played, I also meant to say, on the ground where the first ever match in the European Cup took place. Think this is why I'm going so much further back than 4th September 1955 (Sporting ... 3 - 3 Partizan Belgrade). Because a season of talking about the most consistently glamorous competition in European club competition (apologies Petrofac Training Challenge Cup) has come down to almost every stat we've assembled being about to change tomorrow.

And I wouldn't have it any other way. Coz the Champions League is the European Cup is European club football - is all the tradition and backstory we grew up with which gave our game meaning, our own clubs' context and our own wee selves their fantasies. And some of the best nights of our lives.



I've an inkling for 3-1 Liverpool.

I've a suspicion someone will get the first hat-trick in the final since 1969.

I've a secret hankering for that to be Ronaldo who I absolutely want to become the only man other than Di Stefano to score in four finals.

I've an incurable desire to see Real win the Champions League incarnation three-in-a-row as a way of mirroring the European Cup five-in-a-row (I love dominance - it invests a competition with gravitas).

BUT I also love that Real have won it so often yet, like Ajax and Bayern in the seventies, have never had the same manager for more than two victories (I love jinxes - they invest a competition with magic).

I've a faint hope it could equal or beat the 1960 record of ten goals in the final (6-5 to Liverpool would be fine).

I've a fantasy that we'll get two players scoring a hat-trick, like 1960, and one equalling Puskas' record of four.

But if it's 0-0 and settled by a shit shoot-out, it's still the biggest game in Europe and another historic night.

And this thread proves no-one can ever kill it for the punters that matter. Coz the suits may take our ticket allocations - and they may take our champions (and put them in the Europa League at the earliest possible opportunity) - but they'll never take our TRIVIA!!!

[Third rate Leszno]

Having become emotionally invested in one of the Champions League semi-regulars, it's quite hard to choose a 'dream' final without including them.

But with my small club woolly hat on, I suppose I'd want to see a final that doesn't include the usual suspects from England, Spain or Germany, and although the grainy black and white, iron curtain glamour of an eastern European club holds some appeal, too many of them have dubious recent records on racism and dickheadery, so maybe Saint Etienne v. Benfica would be a nice match up with a bit of a link back to the past. Venue? Well, somewhere with a bit of history like...

[Alex Anderson]

Oh yeah. This is just getting plain sexual now. Big European Cup Fantasy orgy. The end to end all ends. So many FA Cup semi highlights I watched on telly as a kid and couldn't pay any attention to the game because of that never-ending mountain of gargantuanness.

So many regrets about English terraces I never stood on but doing the Anfield Kop and that baby - and doing them proper ("stood" up that old top corner of the Hillsborough Kop but years after it had all been seated) - mean I don't feel like a complete failure.

Did see a real European final from nearby - from the Doug Ellis - in 1999. Last game I ever attended as an unmarried.

[Third rate Leszno]

Betis are surely back in the Seville game tho. Their place looks fucking ace now.

We blagged our way into the Villamarin when we were in town for the Sevilla game earlier this season. It is indeed ace.





I'm pretty sure that's Miki Roque on the seats. Made a solitary appearance for Liverpool, coming on as a substitute in a Champions League fixture against Galatasaray, at the Ataturk. After 4 years at Anfield, he signed for Betis, but was diagnosed with cancer and passed away aged just 23. His shirt number was 26, and I believe the Betis fans still mark his passing by chanting his name in the 26th minute of every match.

[Lang Spoon]

Something in my eye.

[Lang Spoon]

I can’t believe they finally finished building it.

[Alex Anderson]

Beautiful.Those pics have just moved Beti back to the top end of my can't believe they've never played a European final list - leapfrogging Real Sociedad and Villarreal locally and pipping Spartak Moscow for the last never-reached-the-final-of-the-Champions-League spot behind Spartak Moscow, Lyon and league-leaders Honved (who're really unpopular because they'd barely be mid-table without the ursus arctos petrodollars)

Besiktas and Slavia Prague propping it up. Basel in the relegation play-off spot. Hajduk Split mid-table alongside Fenerbahçe, Sunderland and Spartak Moscow.

Sorry. I shouldn't be talking about this on European Cup Final Day. European Cup Final stuff only. So. Erm ...

We've done the stadium we think should have hosted the final but hasn't. So, what about ... erm ...

What about the one club which has never reached the ECCC/UCL final which "should" have?

I'm not talking about our own clubs because you really, really wish they had (if they haven't already) or any club who narrowly or unfairly lost a semi (aherm).

I'm just talking about the one club which it might actually surprise casual fans to know have never reached the European Cup/Champions League final (Sporting Clube de Portugal) ...

... or the one which has put most money into it but has never got to that point (PSG) ...

... or the one which seems to have hung around the latter stages so often they should have even fluked it to a final, just once (Lyon) ...

... or a club so massive and historic, and a major player in a hugely powerful league, its just assumed they must have at some point, even in the black and white days, have at least lost one ECCC/UCL final (Spurs??).

[Third rate Leszno]

My first thought was PSV but obviously that’s my goldfish memory surfacing again. So, what about the Null Vier? Their stadium has hosted it, but they’ve never got to go to the party as active participants.

Or, how about Everton? Had it not been for Heysel, they were surely in with a great shout of extending the English successes of the late 70s and early 80s.

[ad hoc]

What about Sevilla? They've won the UEFA Cup 5 times. They've only been national champions once, but they seem like a contender

[Kevin S]

... or the one which has put most money into it but has never got to that point (PSG) ...

Man City probably have a dog in this fight, too?