Today I'm going back 30 years to 1992 and Tottenham's European Cup Winners Cup 3rd Round 2nd Leg match against Feyenoord of Holland played at White Hart Lane with 29,834 in attendance.
Spurs had won the FA Cup in 1991 and with that came entry into European competition, in this case UEFA's European Cup Winners Cup, a competition for the winners of a country's domestic cup competition. The European Cup Winners Cup no longer exists having been subsumed within the general reorganisation of European club football which has spawned the Champions League, the Europa League and the Europa Conference. At the time, the Cup Winners Cup was probably the easier of the three European competitions to win with the big hitters, the champions of each country entered into the European Cup whilst the next ranking strongest teams gained entry to the UEFA Cup. The Cup Winners Cup on the other hand often included mid-ranking teams and, if a club had won their domestic League and Cup double, they would enter the European Cup leaving their place in the Cup Winners Cup to the beaten finalist in the domestic cup competition. I guess it would have been too much of a mouthful to call it the European Cup Winners and Beaten Finalists Cup?
Feyenoord won the KNVB Beker (the Dutch FA Cup) in 1991 beating BVV Den Bosch 1-0 in the Final gaining entry to the following season's European Cup Winners Cup. In the 1st Round they narrowly beat Albania's Partizani Tirana 1-0 on aggregate and followed that up with a 2nd Round penalty shoot out win over Sion after two goalless draws against the Swiss side. Spurs played an additional Round beating Austria's Stockerau 2-0 on aggregate in the Qualifying round. In the 1st Round Spurs disposed of Yugoslavia's Hajduk Split 2-1 on aggregate and in the 2nd Round they knocked out Porto of Portugal 3-1 on aggregate. The 3rd Round (also known as the Quarter-Final) pitched Spurs and Feyenoord against each other and, by the time of the featured game, Spurs had already lost the 1st Leg by 1-0 in Rotterdam.
Spurs simply had to score on the night whereas yet another goalless draw was good enough for Feyenoord to progress and, despite a good deal of huffing and puffing, Spurs were unable to break down the Dutch defence. The game ended goalless on the night. I've attached the highlights video to my blog just so that you can enjoy the sumptuous Dutch commentary! Just to confuse everyone, Spurs played the game in their pale blue away kit whilst Feyenoord (the away side) wore their famous red and white halved home kit. Why? It seemed to be a trend at the time and maybe was a way for clubs to encourage their non-travelling home fans to buy another shirt? The programme cover shows an action shot from the 1st Leg with, you guessed it, Tottenham's Paul Stewart and David Howells wearing their home kit whilst Feyenoord's Johnny Metgod is shown resplendent in his all green away kit. Sadly for Feyeoord, their European adventure ended at the Semi-Final stage as they were eliminated on away goals by Monaco who themselves lost 2-0 in the Final to the German side Werder Bremen.
In the Feyenoord side that night were several players who made a living in England including Dutch international goalkeeper Ed de Goey (pronounced de Hoy!) who joined Chelsea in 1997, spending six seasons at Stamford Bridge before moving onto Stoke City where he finished his career. Former Spur Johnny Metgod (pronounced Met-hod) was playing against his former club (Tottenham) and Regi Blinker, another Dutch international, would go on to join Sheffield Wednesday in 1996 and subsequently played a season for Celtic. My favourite Feyenoord player was none of the aforementioned however. Playing in defence, Feyenoord had the fearsomely named John de Wolf, a 6 foot 2 inch International centre back and a huge unit of a man who would surely have struck fear into the hearts of many a striker of the era. De Wolf also plied his trade in England joining Graham Taylor's Wolverhampton Wanderers (who else with a name like that?) in 1994. Interestingly, since retiring from football, de Wolf has participated in a number of Dutch TV shows including "Living with John", "Cooking with John" and "Sleeping with John"(!) as well as the Dutch equivalent of Dancing with the Stars and, intriguingly, a show called "Fighting with the Stars". Why can't we have a show like that in England? I'd love to watch Joey Essex duking it out with Jodie Marsh.
CRB Match No. 772
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