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Matches
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28
May 1971 - Juventus 2 Leeds United 2
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European Fairs Cup final first leg - Stadio Communale - 45,000 |
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Scorers: Madeley, Bates |
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Juventus: Piloni; Spinosi, Salvadore, Marchetti, Furino, Morini, Haller, Capello, Causio, Anastasi (Novellini), Bettega |
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Leeds United Sprake; Reaney, Cooper, Bremner, Charlton, Hunter, Lorimer, Clarke, Jones (Bates), Giles, Madeley |
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In the end, however, they could not withstand the remorseless,
nagging pursuit by Arsenal. The Gunners steamrollered their way to the
title after mastering the black art of snatching late goals to secure
narrow victories. They made a virtue of grinding out win after win and
in the end Leeds had to yield, ending another season as League runners
up, the fourth time they had done so in seven years. But as the dust settled on a disappointing campaign there
was one final opportunity for the Elland Road club to secure some silverware. A magnificent victory at Liverpool
in the first leg of the Fairs Cup semi-final provided the foundation
for a place in United's third Fairs final in five attempts and they duly
completed the job with a goalless draw at Elland Road. Leeds' opponents in the two legged final were Juventus of
Turin, the club to whom they had sold the legendary John
Charles in 1957. The Welshman
inspired the Italians' dominance of their domestic game over the next
five years, but, after he left Italy for a short return to Elland Road,
they conquered the Serie A only once, in 1967. However, after several lean years when they slipped off
the podium, Juve were now starting to re-emerge as one of the giants of
Italian football. Former Inter captain, Armando Picchi, who led that club
to 3 Scudetti and a couple of European Cups in the Sixties, had been appointed
coach at Juventus in 1970 and was the architect behind a revival. The
club's advance provided a gilded showcase for some outstanding young talent,
such as Roberto Bettega, Franco Causio and the world's most expensive
footballer, Pietro Anastasi, signed in 1968 from Varese. Their forces also included the West German forward, Helmut
Haller, World Cup finalist in 1966, defensive midfielder Giuseppe Furino,
who went on to win eight Scudetti with Juve between 1972 and 1984, defender
Sandro Salvadore, a veteran of more than 300 Serie A games for the club,
and schemer Fabio Capello, in later years an outstanding pan-European
club manager, eventually going on to coach the England team. The Italian club was in sombre mood as the Fairs Cup final
neared: 35-year-old Picchi was in the final stages of a battle against
cancer and was to lose that struggle the day after the first leg. The
Czech coach of Juve's youth team, Cestmír Vycpálek, was promoted to the
role of head coach and took control for the final. As if in empathetic sorrow for Picchi's plight, as United
flew into Turin the skies yielded a flood of tears. Geoffrey Green in
The Times: 'The heavens have been raging here over the nearby Italian
Alps. A grey pall hangs over the city; thunder and lightning have rattled
the window panes as if some irate neighbour were moving heavy furniture
in the upstairs apartment. The rain has fairly bucketed down. Leeds, however,
are smiling gently. The conditions could be right up their street. 'The Yorkshiremen may well need every side perk. Eight of
them, in one way or another, were involved in the British championship
last week at the end of a nine months' slog which, for most of them, entailed
nearly 60 hard matches and which saw them finally lose the League title.
All of them, however, are said to be fit, which is as well since they
now face a basically young, talented and enthusiastic Juventus side shepherded
by the experience of two elder statesmen - Salvadore, the 31-year-old
former Italian international defensive sweeper, and Haller, now 33, the
West German World Cup 'Under their wings are young men like Anastasi, a brilliantly
elusive centre-forward acquired three years ago at the age of 20 for the
astronomical sum of Ł440,000, who would surely have led the Italian forward
line in Mexico last summer but for injury; Bettega, a 20-year-old forward,
and other striplings, such as Capello, Spinosi, Piloni, the goalkeeper,
Cuccureddu and possibly Causio, another striker. All these have just about
qualified for their own latchkeys and - Anastasi apart - are unknown to
us at home.' If the Juventus players were for the most part a closed
book to the British football public, Don
Revie would never leave such things to chance and ordered the customary
cataloguing and dossier compilation to provide his men with an insight
into their opponents. He was fully aware of their strengths and weaknesses,
saying, 'We shall play it by ear, adapting our tactics to the situation.' The match was staged on the evening of Wednesday, 26 May,
in Turin's magnificent Stadio Communale. The heavy downpour that started
in the afternoon was still in full sway and it was clear that conditions
would make play a lottery. Geoffrey Green claimed that 'It was really
only something of a formal concession to the crowd huddled high up on
the steep terraces of the stadium that this match was attempted at all.
But the crowd took it all stoically, their banked umbrellas for all the
world resembling black mushrooms, sprouting in the rain. Even at the start,
wide tracks of water dotted the pitch.' Barry Foster in the Yorkshire Post: 'Many had been
standing in the heavy downpour for more than an hour before the match
had started. The rain which was falling when Leeds arrived in Turin, restarted
this afternoon and developed into a fierce thunderstorm as kick off time
approached. 'The ditch separating spectators from the pitch was filled
with water. An hour before the kick off, the terraces were a sea of umbrellas
and plastic macs. Their owners saw the referee inspect the sodden pitch,
on which pools of water were lying, twice before the kick off. At first
it was thought unlikely the match would go on. But about 50,000 of the
70,000 capacity were already in the ground. 'Firecrackers exploded on the terraces while groundsmen
fought the pitch and eventually the players appeared. It looked impossible
to play but postponement promised even more difficult problems. 'The match started on time with Leeds kicking off against
the tide and wind. It was soon obvious that the match should never have
started. Ground passing was impossible. The ball just stuck as soon as
it hit the mud. And it was a bath for the players each time they fell
and that was often.' Despite the dreadful conditions, the two teams did what
they could to play good football. The hosts had most of the possession
and forced two corners in the first three minutes, with Charlton
having to concede the first with a headed block to Causio's shot. Then
the centre-half was hampered by the pools of water as Anastasi burst through
Madeley's attempted tackle, but the striker's resulting shot lacked power. Lorimer responded for Leeds by letting fly from 35 yards;
it was obvious that even the most speculative of efforts had a chance
with the conditions making it a nightmare for the two keepers. Clean handling
was After 20 minutes it became clear that Eddie Gray could not
continue. A shoulder injury that kept him out of the previous week's Scotland
game had been aggravated. He was forced to leave the field with his arm
in a sling. Terry Yorath came on to slot into the midfield role he had
filled for Wales in that same series of home internationals. Juventus knew attack was obligatory for them and they continued
to do much of the pressing. From one of their assaults, after 22 minutes,
they nearly opened the scoring when Anastasi's shot struck Madeley and
was nearly deflected into the net. Sprake parried it and when Anastasi
got to the loose ball he could only crash it against a post with the goal
gaping. Back came Leeds for Giles to manufacture enough room to
fire in an effort from fully 30 yards. The crossbar denied what would
have been a tremendous goal in the final dangerous movement of the first
period. The players came out for the second half in fresh new strips,
ready to resume battle, but it was clear that playing on would lead to
farcical scenes. Within six minutes Dutch referee Laurens van Ravens held
an impromptu conference with his linesman and declared the match abandoned,
to the relief of most reasonable people. It was clearly the correct decision, and Juve danced with
glee, but Bremner protested angrily. United were halfway to the draw that
they sought and understandably disappointed at having to start again. With heavy rain continuing over the next couple of days,
there were rumours that both legs might be staged at Elland Road. Don
Revie accepted the unfairness of such an approach: 'We don't want any
more rain. If we are going to win the cup, let's win it right. If the
two legs are in Leeds everyone will say we should be the winners and after
what we have gone through it's fair to say we don't do things the easy
way, do we? We have worked all season to get there so it was not fair
for the final to be contested in such conditions, irrespective of who
might win the trophy.' There was another thunderstorm on the Thursday afternoon,
but Friday was blessed with bright sunshine and the restaged game was
able to kick off that evening as planned. With Eddie Gray out of contention, Revie brought Paul Reaney
back into the side for his first start since the home defeat to West Bromwich
Albion on 17 April and switched Paul Madeley to No 11. Juventus selected
the same eleven as in the first game. There was two minutes' silence before kick off to commemorate
the passing of Picchi. When play finally commenced, Juventus were straight into
their stride and pressed United back. However, the pace was more sedate
than in the first game, allowing Leeds to settle into their rhythm. Revie had promised that his team would go for goals, though
most people expected United to take a defensive approach, with Madeley
there to provide his customary insurance in front of the rearguard. However,
the utility man was surprisingly ready to reinforce his forwards. United paid a heavy price for their sense of adventure on
this occasion. With 27 minutes of the game gone, after two Leeds attacks,
Juventus opened the scoring. Cooper was off on one of his penetrative
dribbles down the left flank when Haller won the ball from him on the
halfway line. The German found Anastasi, who in turn flicked to Causio,
who fired the ball goalwards. Bettega got on the blind side of Reaney
to fire past Sprake, high into the net, with a shot that any goalkeeper
in the world would have struggled to get to. Five minutes later, Clarke was booked, to the derision of
the home supporters, after kicking Morini in the Juve penalty area. It
looked like retaliation against some hard buffeting by the Italian international. Juve came close to taking a 2-0 lead when Anastasi and Charlton
raced side by side after a forward pass. The Italian outpaced the defender
and Charlton lunged into a desperate challenge, which Anastasi did well
to ride. However, he rushed his shot and it flew well wide of the target. Just before the interval Jones might have equalised when
he shot first time from close range but goalkeeper Piloni smothered the
effort. That was the final opportunity of the half and Leeds went
in at the break disappointed to be behind. They had shown enough to offer
hope that they could take something from the game, and within three minutes
of the restart they were back on terms. Lorimer battled for the ball on the left and secured to
feed Madeley, 25 yards out. Morini was slow as he moved to confront the
Leeds man. It would have been all too predictable for Madeley to be content
merely to maintain possession but instead he made his way forward to the
edge of the area and chanced his arm, letting fly at goal. It wasn't the
most powerful of shots but seemed to take a deflection off Salvadore before
beating the aghast Piloni to bring United level. Paul Madeley: 'My goal was a long range speculative daisy
cutter. I hit it quite well, but it just clipped a defender some distance
from me, which wrongfooted the keeper completely.' The goal heartened the Leeds players but they were not level
for long. After 55 minutes the Italians took a 2-1 lead when Capello fired
a wonderful drive from the edge of the box into the top corner after Spinosi
had fought fiercely for possession on the left. Bettega could not master
the bouncing ball, but Capello made no mistake. That was the signal for
Juve to show some of their best short passing moves as they took control. If Juventus expected Leeds to fade, they were sadly mistaken
as the Yorkshiremen rallied bravely, 'like a relentless tide', according
to Geoffrey Green in The Times. Shortly Juventus appealed in vain for a penalty when Bettega was
brought down in the area, and Leeds took the opportunity for a swift counter
attack. Giles centred from the left and the cross was pushed away rather
than being collected by the outrushing Piloni. Bates came out of nowhere
to collect the ball and connect beautifully almost in the same movement
to hammer it home. It was only Bates' second touch of the game and Furino,
standing on the line, could only help the ball on into the roof of the
net. It was the finest moment of Bates' career, and no one was
more surprised than the midfielder: 'It was only my second goal for the
club. When I got the ball I just hit it and hoped for the best. It was
a tremendous feeling when I saw it go in.' Minutes later, things might have got even better for Leeds.
There were concerted appeals from the entire United party when it looked
like Spinosi had handled the ball in his area under pressure from Lorimer,
but the referee waved play on. However, there were no further goals and at the end Leeds
were more than satisfied with the 2-2 scoreline. With away goals counting
double in the event of a draw and the second leg to come at Elland Road
a week later, they had put themselves in pole position to regain a trophy
they had won three years before. It was a Paul Wilcox in The Guardian: 'Leeds continued their
run of scoring in all nine of their away European ties over the past two
years. The disappointed partisan crowd of 45,000 was nevertheless appreciative
of Leeds' skill, giving them a round of applause as they lined up to wave
farewell. There can be no doubt that Leeds deserved their ovation. Their
performance was one of courage, resourcefulness, and determination in
a display of athletic maturity which was at times up to world standards.
They were twice behind but their grim and relentless dedication to the
task of containing Juventus' lively forwards gave them a springboard from
which to launch impressive counter attacks. 'Leeds had a magnificent commander in Bremner, who urged
his colleagues to shrug off the cares of being in arrears, and engineered
Leeds' survival by his command in midfield. Giles, too, played a prominent
part in Leeds' fight, but it would be unfair to single out any player
for mention above others. The display was one of cool and cultured teamwork,
with Cooper joining Lorimer in attacks down the flanks, Charlton, Reaney
and Hunter dominating the area in front of Sprake and Clarke and Jones
bearing the tremendous weight of trying to find a pass through the strong
Italian defensive wall. 'For all Juventus' skill, they must now consider that their
chance of winning on aggregate is a slim one. They have brilliance in
midfield with Causio and Capello capable of finding space and time in
which to work to send precise through passes to the speedy Bettega and
Anastasi. Tonight, however, Anastasi was controlled by the attentions
of Charlton and Hunter, and was substituted by Novellini after his greed
had spoiled chances for better placed team mates. Haller, in fact, was
Juventus' main inspiration of their attacks, belying his years with agility
and style.' Geoffrey Green in The Times: 'It was a praiseworthy
effort by Leeds. They finished the stronger and tactically the wiser,
while their machine like teamwork and discipline, plus their economy of
effort, clearly matched the flashes of refined skill of the Italians.
There was the long game against the subtle close work of Juventus, all
of it a refreshing contrast between the British and Latin styles. Most
of it was stimulating as both sides played each other with a stout heart.
Perhaps at times Juventus held some advantages in secrecy of footwork
and speed, but none of it could dislodge Leeds, who refused to be hurried,
knowing that haste goes only with folly. The man above all who kept his
men's nose to the grindstone was Giles, the complete midfield general,
as he surveyed the whole canvas, choosing the right colours to use at
the right moments for the right situation. And close to his elbow as an
ally in midfield was Bremner to support and inspire the whole effort.
Between them they got a fine response from their colleagues, until finally
they stamped all the skill out of emotional artists like Causio, Anastasi,
Haller and the hard working Furino, in midfield.' Don Revie: 'I am very proud of the lads. They controlled
the game and gave a world class display, twice coming back from a goal
down.' Juventus coach Vycpalek acknowledged the result as a fair
one - 'Neither side deserved to lose, but we shall go to Leeds hoping
for the best.' |