Date: 21st May 2014 at 9:39pm
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photo10Tuesday 8th April was yet another fantastic night in the ‘Gloriously Unpredictable’ (© Mark Worrall) history of Chelsea Football Club! But there was something wonderfully predictable about the events that night.

What is it about European nights at Stamford Bridge? Talking amongst my Chelsea supporting friends before the crunch game against Paris Saint-Germain, to a man we all believed that Chelsea would “Do It Again” and turn over a 3-1 deficit from the first leg.

Of course “We’ve Done It Before” famously against Napoli on the way to winning ‘The Cup With The Big Ears’ in 2012, on one of the best nights I have personally experienced at Stamford Bridge. There was less expectancy that night but possibly more desire to get the Champions’ League monkey off our back – and importantly do it for Robbie, Didier at al.

Where does this rank in all time European Nights? Well Napoli probably trumps it for me, and Barcelona in the same campaign runs it close. Those who were lucky enough to be at Stamford Bridge for Vincenza and Brugges all say the noise on those occasions was something else.

Clearly there is something about European football and midweek night games that gets the juices of Chelsea players, management and the supporters flowing. Perhaps it is the knock out format that gets us going or the fact that we are invariably the underdogs or up against it to get a result? One thing for sure though, Chelsea supporters just love a game under the floodlights testing themselves against the European elite.

It is good to see our fine European history now being justifiably proclaimed with the unfurling of the three European Flags – European Cup; European Cup Winners Cup and Europa Cup – with the last one of the quartet to come – the European Super Cup. We are the only English club to have won all four of these trophies, and in fact only Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Juventus have equalled that feat. Let that sink in a bit. Not Liverpool those bastions of winning European Trophies; not Manchester United whose history is defined by European competition; not Barcelona or Real Madrid, the giants of the European game. CHELSEA!

Not bad for a plastic club with plastic fans whose success has only been achieved since we were founded in 2003 and has been bought with the oil money of Roman Abramovich (sic). Of course we know how false this all is and the jibes thrown our way are purely down to deluded jealousy.

The reality of course is very different. Chelsea’s European history is indeed very rich and relevant pre-2004!

Even if one starts with the friendly game against Dynamo Moscow in 1945 which drew a crowd of between 100,000 and 120,000 according to accounts, our participation in European competition goes back a long way.

Infamously of course, we were denied our first crack at the European Cup having won the league in 1955, by the insular and xenophobic FA Chairman Alan Hardaker. There is of course the chance that we may have done well in the fledgling competition and who knows may have met Real Madrid in the final in 1956 some 15 years before we eventually met them in a European final!

Nevertheless we were competing in Europe at the same time as Man United’s famous ‘Busby Babes’ were – remind a gobby Manc of this when you need to!

We competed in the Fairs Cup (later the UEFA Cup) in 1958-59 going out in the quarter finals and then with the dissolution of Drakes Ducklings into the evolution of Docherty’s Diamonds we had a gap of 5 years before competing in the competition again. This was a European season with an eye to the future as we battled both AS Roma and AC Milan (literally in the case of the former with much Italian skulduggery and retributive violence meted out by the likes of Chopper Harris and Terry Venables, before going through by the toss of a coin against the later).

We reached the semi-final where our rivalry with Barcelona first began. We lost 2-0 in the away leg before winning the return 2-0 to square the tie. No penalty deciders in those days and Chelsea lost the toss of the coin to decide the venue, with Barcelona then making full use of their home advantage by walloping us 5-0!

Of course we won our first European trophy – the Cup Winners Cup – in 1971, doing it the hard way beating the mighty Real Madrid 2-1 in a replay. I believe this is where our modern day love affair with European nights first developed, certainly with the supporters. There were only around 200 Chelsea supporters who were able to stay for the replay – many were skint having travelled out there at great expense and been on the beer for a couple of days with many having to sleep on the beach with no accommodation. I still hear legendary tales from those I know who were there, one of them, ‘Psycho Phil’ took two weeks to hitch back from Athens to London. Mind you one or two of the 200 stayed in Athens and never made it back at all! Chelsea away in Europe – little seems to change!

The other salient point on winning our first European trophy lies in the fact that we won it two seasons before Liverpool won their first European trophy – the UEFA Cup in the 1972-image473 season. We had already competed in European competition a good 6 years before Liverpool were to do so. That fact should have the Scousers frothing at the mouth!

After the barren years between 1973 and 1993, we managed another semi-final appearance in the Cup Winners Cup in 1994, before winning it again in 1998 following that up with our first European Super Cup trophy against, fittingly, Real Madrid.

So whilst our European history is rich, many of the generation of supporters who were around for that first European trophy are no doubt pinching themselves and rubbing their eyes in disbelief at the regularity of European success we have enjoyed since 2004.

43714701-675x425Our progression to the Champions’ League semi-final at the expense of PSG is the 7th Champions’ League semi-final we have achieved in 11 seasons. Incredible. Other than being the only English Club to win all four European trophies, we are now England’s third most successful club in European competition having won five trophies, and behind only Man Utd and Liverpool. Our performances in Europe for the last 10 years have solely been responsible for keeping England’s co-efficient high enough to guarantee four places in the Champions’ League. Where would those whining Gooners be without Chelsea keeping them in the Champions’ League!

But beyond the facts and figures it is the adventure and the journey beloved by the supporters and the players alike that counts most.

I followed a daft argument on twitter this week where a Gooner and a Citeh fan were debating the fact that apparently Chelsea do not have a style and are not known for a particular way of playing.

Obviously I would disagree vehemently with this view. Chelsea has a style – it’s called a winning style. A will to win, a desire to win and a refusal to be beaten that is almost inhuman. Give me Chelsea’s dogged and gritty backs to the wall defence; John Terry flying about getting blocks in at risk of life or limb any day over flash counter attacking or tikka takka pretty football.

I love the bond and spirit that the supporters and players show in abundance when it really counts – invariably a European night, under the floodlights with a semi-final at stake. That for me is what Chelsea is all about.

European nights – you can’t beat them!

 

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