European Cup Trivia

[Alex Anderson]

Yeah I was using the Ronaldinho Ronaldo example to make a point about Jair / Jairzinho

No, I thought you said "are you alright, Spider?" ...

Thanks for the back-up ad hoc. I'm about to get ravaged by the bear ...

[Alex Anderson]

There is a possibility that this was true in Glasgow, but it sure as hell was not in France.

[Gangster Octopus]

Calling all trucks, this here's the duck, I'm about to go a-hunting bear...

[Alex Anderson]

Seeing as we're on page 89 and given the recent mention of the great Dejan Savicevic, it reminds me that I was there for Savicevic's Crvena Zvezda debut, in the 88-89 European Cup at that cathedral of European football, Oriel Park. Ok not cathedral so much as grubby old church, well not church so much as communal hovel, but hey it's *our* communal hovel. Them was the days, Turlough O'Connor's legendary 1988 double winners straight into an open draw European Cup along with the rest of Europe's champions (bar Liverpool). And so Pancev, Savicevic, Stojkovic, Prosinecki and pals travelled to the finest stadium in all of north Louth. Dundalk kept it tight til half time, but Red Star upped the pace after the break and ran out 5-0 winners, Dundalk's heaviest home defeat in Europe. I have a vague recollection of missing two goals in the second half while queuing for sweets.

Beautiful stuff, seand. (And your cheque's in the post for changing the subject). It's a great thing when you can look back and appreciate what you saw rather than just feeling the pain of defeat.

Yup I saw Red Star the season they won it. Pumped in the first leg, away, so not exactly a sell-out for the second leg, at the finest communal hovel in Govan (only since St Anthony's moved from Moore Park, mind - and before Benburb got their recent refurb).

But, retrospectively, what a privilege to have been there to see that Red Star side in that particular campaign. We drew 1-1 on the night and I saw Pancev score. Same kind of retrospective thrill as when I saw Fabio Grosso score in a 1-1 draw at Hampden in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers - he went on to score the pen that won the entire tournament.



We still had a bit of terracing at that time. I remember being stood with my mate on the West Enclosure, in plenty of room - in the part of Glasgow where, two years later, seeing Marseille in a pre-season friendly and the the first ever night of the Champions League, absolutely no-one would use Abedi Pele's first name - watching as Pancev controlled and finished as urbanely as his team-mates had teed him up.

In this clip (narrated by cradle of filth) He runs off to celebrate towards the exact spot I'm stood at, supposedly looking slightly down on him but, really, feeling like he's something to look up to (I'm, like, a writer).

Seventeen years later I saw us beat them 1-0 with a late goal. Red Star were less than half the team they had been in 1990-91. Economics. But this time it heralded my team's run to a European final. And - boyz o boyz - have the economics ravaged us since then.

[Alex Anderson]

Okay, I've been waiting for page 89 to become page 90. This time I've a duff question I've been saving ...



Milan won the European Cup in 1989 and 1990. You'll know that Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit, all of the Netherlands, started both finals for Milan (and shared all the goals across both games).

But can you tell me the only other time in the history of the European Cup/Champions League when the same three players from one country have started, and won, two successive finals for a club from another country.

Bonus point for naming all three players in question.

I'm not hiding behind the "born in Argentina but played for Spain (and Argentina)" thing. Whatever country the players represented at international level is, for the purposes of this question, their nationality. If they represented more than one country, the choice is yours - pick whichever country suits you.

[ad hoc]

McGovern, Burns, Robertson

[Alex Anderson]

Definitely took me longer to word that than it took you to nail it ad hoc.

Correct, Sir. Nicely done.

Only times it's happened. Three Dutchmen for Milan in 89 and 90, exactly ten years after the three Scots did it with Forest.

Okay, John Robertson's winner v HSV in 1980 seems like a small return against the five goals mustered by the three Tulips in 89 and 90. But in 1980 Frank Gray also started and McGovern captained both Forest's winning sides.

And thus they proved Scottish culture was about more than easy cliches ...



Wait til Archie finds out he's dropped ...

[Stobart]

Good to see Kenny Burns still sporting the dent he got in his forehead due to headbutting Richie Powling on the BACK of his head. Never was the word nutter more apt.

[Stobart]

There can't be many bluenoses with a soft spot for The Ants, but I'm one of them. I went round to have a look at their new ground on a Saturday morning, and McKenna Junior showed me around McKenna Park, including the memorial bench of McKenna Senior. All the while giving me a fascinating potted history of The Ants .......and The Bens, and the Candy Rock. Oh aye, and Peasy.

[ad hoc]

I saw Kenny Burns in an amusement arcade in Sheringham once

[Alex Anderson]

That, ad hoc, is the best line in this entire thread. Somehow it kinda sums up both Kenny Burns and everything the European Cup does to me.

[Alex Anderson]

There can't be many bluenoses with a soft spot for The Ants, but I'm one of them. I went round to have a look at their new ground on a Saturday morning, and McKenna Junior showed me around McKenna Park, including the memorial bench of McKenna Senior. All the while giving me a fascinating potted history of The Ants .......and The Bens, and the Candy Rock. Oh aye, and Peasy.

That doesn't surprise me in the least, Stobart. Lot of hard-working, obliging committee types there - typical juniors scene stalwarts - and my only grudge against the Ants is they've put my home town team, the Winton, out the Scottish a couple of times over the last few years.

Been to McKenna Park three times I think. Simple ground but lovely setting - shoved between a motorway and dual carriageway yet so much greenery. If ye know what I mean. And a well-stocked, friendly pie shop at the back of the dressing room pavilion.

I saw Northern Ireland play Scotland there in a Juniors international just a few months ago. I almost sprinted through the Clyde tunnel walkway lest I miss the national anthems. The prospect of GSTQ at the latest home of the Ants was too surreal to be true. Was quite happy when no anthems were actually played.

The beamer for me is not just that I never got to Moore Park but that I had no idea it was there, in the shadow of Bill Struth's Broomloan Road greenhouse, until long after it was gone. Aptly enough, given what's happening this Sunday, Celtic-supporting colleagues told me that in the old days they'd sometimes go in to Moore Park there with a carry out and cheer on the Ants for the first half of the 2pm ko before heading off to Castle Greyskull for the lesser fixture.

For years, when still living in Ardrossan, my supporters bus would go along that part of Edmiston Drive, right past Moore Park. Yet all I could ever see was the cornucopia of Rangers scarves, hats and badges being sold on the corrugated metal boundary wall (where the billboards are in this v old pic)... I never clicked there was a park on the other side. And now I walk past it's remains every time I go to Ibrox - you can clearly see the remnants of banking at the back of the wee office complex there now (the banking in the foreground of Moore park in that pic), just before you hit The Wee Rangers Club at that part of Edmiston Drive where Scarlett Johansen picks up a couple of her victims in Under the Skin.

So I'm extra glad I got to the previous Tinto Park a few times before Benburb sold it. Mind you even someone as myopic as me couldn't miss that old enclosure roof from the M8.

I'd heard three red cards in four games got the loveable, placid Kenny Burns his jotters from Ibrox as a youth. But he had the last laugh, I suppose. We go out to Cologne in the 1978-79 quarters and he picks them off in the semis then reaps the reward of a tournament now sans Juve and PSV thanks to his first love.

But then we stole Trevor Francis, a mere nine years later.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Was he manning one of those booths that give you 50 2p pieces for a pound?

[Alex Anderson]

Milan retained it in 1990. Next club to retain and first club to retain it, is about to kick-off at the ground they first won it ... against the most glam French side of the day.

Ronaldo is Rial and Di Stefano combined. Him and his manager had their greatest international moments at a different ground in this same city. The girl doing the pitch-side reporting for BT Sport has just unfurled a copy of today's L'Equipe, the paper that invented the competition.

If I could find that black and white picture of Reims v Real Ursus posted somewhere in these pages I would but, while we don't do birthdays on this thread, I would just like to wish everyone a very happy Real Madrid At The Parc Des Princes in Europe's Premier Club Comp.

I don't care who goes through - I just want PSG to be 3-1 up at the end of the 90.

Enjoy troops.

[ad hoc]

No he was playing one of the machines. I was on a school trip. He was at the height of his fame

[Alex Anderson]

Has anyone else seen a European Cup-winner in a town with the same name as a player who's scored in the final?

Wim van Hanegem in a chip shop in Charlton ...?

[Alex Anderson]

I'm nearly as excited by Spurs v Juve but my enthusiasm/verbosity for last night's fixtures has clearly killed the thread stone dead.

It's just about the quizzes for you lot, isn't it. No nostalgia - just facts. Hard, merciless bastards ... Helenio Herreras, the lot of you ...

[Logan Mountstuart]

I'm still chuckling at the memory that The French media used to to call old Goethals "Raymond Science"

[Alex Anderson]

... tailor-made for the Everton job you'd think.

[seand]

Seeing as nobody’s engaging Alex in his rambling reverie, and seeing as we’re on page 90 here’s another year related trivia challenge. The USSR representatives in 89-90 were Dnipro. They are one of SIX former Soviet European Cup representatives who have never appeared in the Champions League groups. All six have subsequently qualified for Europe for their relevant successor states- three of them, including Dnipro, have played Champions League qualifiers but not in the groups, the other three have played UEFA Cup/Europa League but not the Champions League.

So in summary we’re looking for another 5 Soviet champions (in addition to Dnipro) who’ve not played in the Champions League groups but did play in the European Cup

[denishurley]

Dynamo Minsk?

[seand]

Dynamo Minsk?

Yep, Minsk in the Dnipro qualifiers but not groups category

[Alex Anderson]

Dynamo Moscow

[Alex Anderson]

Dynamo Tbilisi

[Alex Anderson]

.