Spurs' European Cup Campaign - 1961-62
Part Four - Benfica
Brian Judson wrote this series on the 40th anniversary of Spurs' only venture in the fore-runner of the Champions League - The European Cup. The series is being published on Spurs Odyssey 50 years after those events, and has been up-dated accordingly.
On March 21st 1962, Spurs played the First Leg of their European Cup
Semi-Final tie with Benfica. They did not play well during the first half
as they were overwhelmed by the intimidating atmosphere of the Stadium of
Light. There was a fanatical crowd of 70,000 (Ed:- My figures suggest the attendance was 86,000!) people stacked in tiers in a stadium that was years ahead of its time.
Spurs did not play at all well. They fell behind after only five minutes
when Bill Brown punched the ball away from Coluna. Unfortunately, the ball
ran loose to Simoes, then 18 but a future star of the Portuguese national
team. Simoes lobbed the ball back into the goalmouth where Aguas took
advantage of indecision between Norman and Brown to score.
A moment later, the 500 Spurs fans, who had travelled to Lisbon, thought
Greaves had equalised for Spurs. But, to Jimmy's disgust, the goal was
disallowed for offside.
Augusto then took advantage of slack marking to fire Benfica 2-0 ahead in
the 19th minute. Spurs were on the rack and the pressure was beginning to
make Spurs buckle.
Spurs SHOULD have got a goal back after 35 minutes when John White made a superb
centre but Greaves could not get his head to the ball, unfortunately. A
minute after that, Mackay put Jones through but incredibly the Welshman
managed to screw the ball wide of the goal.
At the start of the second half, Spurs were kept waiting for seven minutes
before Benfica finally re-appeared on the direct orders of the referee.
Aguas almost extended Benfica's lead and it took an agile leap by Bill
Brown to deny Eusebio shortly afterwards.
But in the 54th minute, Spurs reduced the arrears when Blanchflower
floated a ball over for Smith to thump home with all the venom he could
muster. Greaves, White and Jones all wasted good chances shortly
afterwards, much to Bill Nicholson's annoyance.
In the 20th minute of the second half, Benfica broke through yet again.
The Spurs defence was split and Augusto nodded the ball home to give
Benfica a 3-1 lead.
Spurs should have reduced the arrears in the dying moments of the match
but despite the presence of two Benfica defenders actually on the
goal-line, the referee decided Smith was offside.
Wednesday 21st March, 1962
Benfica 3 (2) Tottenham Hotspur 1 (0)
Attendance:- 86.000
The teams :
Benfica: Costa Pereira; Joao, Angelo, Cavem, Germano, Cruz, Augusto,
Eusebio, Aguas, Coluna, Simoes.
Spurs: Brown; Baker, Henry, Marchi, Norman, Mackay, Greaves, White, R
Smith, Blanchflower, Jones.
The second leg was a pulsating affair played on a Thursday night. The
rafters echoed to the 'Glory, Glory!" anthems and the Angels paraded
around the perimeter with a placard saying LISBON GREAVES TONIGHT!
Disaster struck for Spurs in the 15th minute when they fell further behind
on aggregate. Aguas strode through the Tottenham defence as if it didn't
exist to score.
After that, Spurs dominated the proceedings and thought they had equalised
in the 23rd minute. Smith flicked the ball on to the hovering Greaves, who
waltzed through the Benfica defence, only to see the goal disallowed for
offside. But who exactly was supposed to be offside was not immediately
clear. The referee seemed to award a goal but the linesman wasn't having
it. He persisted in holding the offside flag up. It was only then that it
was apparent that Greaves had been ruled offside but as he had had to run
past several defenders, it was uncertain how the official had decided
Greaves was offside.
In the 35th minute, Spurs did equalise and it was the rotund Smith who
dragged Spurs back into the game. White sent over a superb cross for Smith
to hammer home with all his strength.
Half-time came and went before Spurs struck again. Two minutes after the
break, Coluna sent White flying in the penalty area. With cool aplomb,
Blanchflower struck home the resulting penalty. Now Spurs needed one more
goal to force a replay in Brussels ....
Spurs powered forward relentlessly in search of the goal that refused to
come. Jones wasted yet another glorious chance when he hammered the ball
too high. Greaves miscued twice from close range. And then right at the
end, the mighty Mackay race forward and slashed a shot at the Benfica
goal. It had 'goal' written all over it and people were celebrating an
amazing come-back when the ball struck the cross bar and bounced
harmlessly into the crowd behind the Park Lane goal. And soon afterwards,
the game was over ...........
Spurs had been the better side on the night but had wasted too many
chances. Bill Nicholson complained after the match that he had been
exhorting the team to slow down and play their normal game but he had not
been able to get through to them.
Thursday 5th April, 1962
Tottenham Hotspur 2 (1) Benfica 1 (1)
Attendance:- 64,448
The teams :
Spurs: Brown; Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, Mackay, Medwin, White,
R Smith, Greaves, Jones.
Benfica: Costa Pereira; Joao, Angelo, Cavem, Germano, Cruz, Augusto,
Eusebio, Aguas, Coluna, Simoes.
Benfica went on to beat Real Madrid in the Final.
Cheers, Brian
· Spurs v Gornik Zabreze, European Cup - September 1961
· Spurs v Feyenoord, European Cup - November 1961
· Spurs v Dukla Prague, European Cup - February 1962
Footnote:-
Spurs had beaten Manchester United 3-1 at home on the preceding Saturday, and just two days after facing Benfica, they beat Sheffield Wednesday 4-0. Then on the Monday, they faced Sheffield United at home, drawing 3-3. It wasn't even Easter, as that came later in April, when we played 3 games in 4 days, beating Blackburn at home and away, but losing at home to West Brom. We finished third in the league, four points behind Champions Ipswich, managed of course by Alf Ramsey. Burnley were runners-up, but we would go on to beat them in the FA Cup Final.
Thanks to Brian Judson, Spurs Odyssey will provide more archive material from 50 years ago regarding that Cup win and the historic 1962-63 European Cup Winners Cup campaign. Look out for those articles later this year (2012)
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