WHAT A DIFFERENCE FANS MADE AS ROBBO’S SIDE BEAT MARADONA’S BARCA
AS Manchester United look to lift the Europa League in front of an empty stadium, Ron Atkinson remembered the night the Old Trafford crowd helped to humble Diego Maradona.
The Argentine genius was in Manchester in 1984 with the Barcelona side that defended a 2-0 lead, going into the second leg of the European Cup Winners’ Cup quarterfinal clash. The match was billed as Maradona v Bryan Robson – and was an emphatic victory for the England captain.
Robson scored twice in a 3-0 win in front of 58,000 United fans.
“To this day, people still talk about the atmosphere that night,” said Atkinson, then United’s manager.
“They say they had never known Old Trafford to be like that. “I remember chairman Martin Edwards telling me before the game, ‘You will hear a sound you have never heard tonight’ – and he was right. I can’t remember being involved in a game played in that sort of atmosphere. The crowd was massive for us.”
United needed all the help they could get.
In the first leg, a Graeme Hogg own goal and Juan Carlos Rojo’s last-gasp screamer left them with much to do.
“We were 2-0 down from the first
leg and shouldn’t have been,” said Atkinson. “I thought we should have come back on level terms.
“Barcelona didn’t really frighten me to death. We knew that if Maradona had one of his games, anything could happen, but I knew they had seen us and were worried about our ability at corners. That was one of the things we worked on.”
Midway through the first half United were back in the tie – following a well-worked corner routine. Hogg flicked on a Ray Wilkins corner and unmarked Robson flung himself full length to head in from close range.
That was how it stayed until the break and Atkinson said: “If we were still at 1-0 in the closing stages, we would throw everything at them.” It didn’t come to that.
Six minutes after the break the scores were level on aggregate – and Robson was the hero again. The keeper couldn’t hang on to Wilkins’ shot and Robson mopped up in front of the Stretford End that adored him.
Sixty seconds or so after Robson had underlined his value to United with that equaliser, Atkinson’s team went ahead.
Arthur Albiston’s cross picked out Norman Whiteside at the far post and he headed across goal where Frank Stapleton slammed the ball home.
“Those two goals came early in the second half,” said Atkinson. “Two incidents late in the game stick in my mind. Bernd Schuster hit a bending shot that Gary Bailey tipped on to a post and we got away with a certain penalty.
“I sent Mark Hughes on to give us some energy and the first thing he did was smash Rojo into the ground in the penalty area.
“It was a certain penalty – but the referee didn’t give it.”