A Real shock for Madrid in Wales
Cardiff City beat real Madrid? the 21st Century response to this question may be one of incredulity, but yes, it happened. it was March 1971, real Madrid went to Ninian Park and lost 1-0 in a quarter-final.
it was the Cup-Winners’ Cup. Cardiff were a Second division club, holders of the Welsh Cup, and real Madrid, while not the force of even five years earlier when they had won their sixth European Cup, were still real Madrid. the match programme called it ‘the most attractive club game ever held in this country.’
Here is the Bluebirds’ fearsome manager, Jimmy Scoular, sharing a special edition of the local newspaper with some of his squad in preparation for one of the most vivid nights ever at Ninian Park.
Officially, 47,500 were there. Cardiff winger Nigel rees has a tale to tell about that. He has a few tales from a famous occasion.
as amazing as any is that rees was 17 and had made his debut only eight weeks earlier. His inexperience did not prevent him crossing the ball for Brian Clark to score with a header that produced a reaction some said was heard in Clark’s native Bristol.
‘it was a great header,’ rees, 64, says. ‘i know that now because i’ve seen it so many times on tV. all i saw then was the ball hit the net because i’d fallen over after crossing it.’
also remarkable is that rees was called up to play for Wales against Scotland in a youth international at Wrexham the same day. So he went to see Scoular.
‘One was a youth match and one was real Madrid,’ rees says. ‘it wasn’t Leighton Buzzard. Jimmy Scoular was a very, very fierce man. the first team called him Jimmy Growler.
‘We reached the fa youth Cup final that season, against arsenal, and you’d expect a load of those players to have gone on and had good careers. But Jimmy Scoular ruined them, he frightened them.
‘i’d made my debut against Sheffield Wednesday not long before. the talk at the time was that we were trying to sign dennis tueart, but i got in the team while ronnie Bird was injured and i kept my place.
‘i played on the Saturday before real Madrid and on the Monday at training i was taking corners and was involved in free-kicks. it looked like i would be starting.
‘then when i finished training there was a letter from the Welsh fa saying i was selected for Wales v Scotland. Wales had priority. i went to see Scoular, who said: “Son, it’s your choice, but don’t forget who pays your wages. there is no choice”.
‘that’s when he said, “you’re starting on Wednesday”.’
Club trumped country. rees took his place on the Bluebirds’ left wing and after half an hour he broke through two real challenges to deliver the centre converted by Clark. according to 1971’s Rothmans
Football Yearbook, Ninian Park’s capacity was 60,000. ( Rothmans also provided the bus route: 37). When Cardiff’s players saw the attendance given as 47,500, they were irked.
‘it says 47,500 but there were at least 10,000 more than that there, it was full,’ rees adds. ‘ you couldn’t get a baby in there.
‘the ground was rocking and it mattered to us because for every 1,000 fans over 40,000, each player got a £1 bonus. When we saw the official crowd, we thought, “Well, we’ve been done here”.
‘We joke about it now, but £10, £12.50, that was a lot of money to us then.’
a 1-0 lead looked a thin one to take to Spain for the second leg. But Cardiff were an assured side, top of the Second division despite selling John toshack to Liverpool four months earlier.
real had finished fourth the previous season in La Liga — behind atletico Madrid, athletic Bilbao and Sevilla — but they won the Spanish Cup against Valencia. it was real’s first time in the Cup-Winners’ Cup.
When the second leg was goalless at half-time, Cardiff remained confident. they had a goal disallowed and, as rees says: ‘real were really struggling. then they got a bloody fluke.
‘Our keeper Jim Eadie threw the ball out and it hit dave Carver on the back. their man got it and scored.’
real’s equaliser came from Manuel Velazquez. and they quickly got a second goal through Sebastian fleitas. ‘after that we chased the game,’ rees says.
there was to be no Welsh away goal to take Cardiff through. they returned home to drop to third in the league and miss promotion.
real Madrid, meanwhile, made the final in athens. again there was British opposition: Chelsea. after a replay, Chelsea won thanks to Peter Osgood. they defeated real Madrid, just as Cardiff City once did.