Today I'm going back 30 years to 1991 and Tottenham's European Cup Winners Cup 2nd Round 1st Leg against FC Porto of Portugal at White Hart Lane. 30 years ago! It feels like last week!
Spurs gained entry to the competition following their 1991 FA Cup Final win against Nottingham Forest. Incredibly that was the last time that Spurs won THE Cup. Meanwhile Porto won their own version of the FA Cup: The Taca de Portugal by beating SC Beira-Mar from Aveiro 3-1 after extra time. And so on to the 1991/2 season Cup Winners Cup. Spurs had to go through a Qualifying round in which they beat SV Stockerau (known on the night by their bank-inspired sponsor name of Sparkasse Stockerau) of Austria before meeting and defeating Hajduk Split (then in Yugoslavia) 2-1 on aggregate in the First Round. Meanwhile Porto had an easier time of things seeing off Valetta of Malta 4-0 on aggregate.
In the First Leg of the 2nd Round Spurs managed to take a decisive 3-1 lead with goals from Gary Lineker (14 and 83 minutes) and Gordon "Jukebox" Durie (32 minutes). Porto's solitary reply came from the Bulgarian Emil Kostadinov. For some reason Spurs wore their away hit at home, a bright yellow affair that some fans refer to as "the one with the pigeon shit on the shoulder". The second Leg was, to date, the only competitive away European fixture to which I have travelled with Spurs. The result? It finished goalless at the old Estadio das Antas and Spurs went through 3-1 on aggregate. I remember the Spurs fans were given a position which was very high up in the concrete bowl of the stadium and that the gangways were unlit and very dark. Helpfully a few Porto fans decided to burn newspapers in the terraces to illuminate proceedings and there was never any danger of a fire spreading due to the sheer volume of concrete. Sadly there were no souvenir programmes available that night or the fires might have been even bigger! Porto vacated the Estadio das Antas in 2004 and moved to the brand new Estadio do Dragao, built for the 2004 European Championships. The old stadium was demolished almost immediately.
Sadly Spurs fell at the next hurdle, the Quarter-Final, going out 1-0 on aggregate to Feyenoord of Rotterdam. Werder Bremen of Germany ended up winning the Cup Winners Cup that season defeating AS Monaco in the Final which was also held in Portugal, this time at the Estadio da Luz ("Stadium of Light") in Lisbon.
The programme cover star is Spurs defender Gudni Bergsson who made 72 appearances (2 goals) for Spurs between 1988 and 1994. Gudni, from Iceland and who has 80 international caps, was a qualified lawyer. He became Chairman of the Icelandic Football Association in 2017 but sadly, in August 2021, Bergsson and the entire Board of the Icelandic Football Association resigned en masse following accusations of a cover up involving sexual abuse committed by an Iceland player.
CRB Match No. 742
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