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The 1986 European Cup Final was a football match held at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán, Seville, on May 7, 1986, that saw Steaua Bucureşti of Romania defeat FC Barcelona of Spain in an extraordinary penalty shoot out, after 120 minutes of normal and extra time could not separate the 2 sides. FC Barcelona had all of their spot-kicks saved by Helmuth Duckadam, who was later dubbed "The Hero of Seville." It remains Steaua Bucureşti's only European Cup triumph, and the only one by any Romanian team.
[edit] Match Summary
Seville was invaded by 50,000 Barcelona supporters for a final that they fully expected to win. 300 buses, a dozen aeroplanes and 6 trains were commandeered to get the Barca hordes to the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium where they would be met by only a handful of Steaua fans. Within the FC Barcelona camp, however, things were far from perfect. Their Scottish goalscorer Steve Archibald had been suffering from groin and hamstring problems for over a fortnight and had chosen to fly out to Amsterdam to consult a Dutch physiotherapist in an attempt to be fit for the final. On his return, the striker pronounced himself fit and was reinstated in the team at the expense of the popular Alonso whose hat-trick in the semi-final had enabled Barcelona to come back against Gothenburg. Also of concern to Venables was the lack of fitness of his captain Bernd Schuster who had been struggling with a niggling injury for some time.
In front of a partisan Spanish crowd, Steaua made their negative approach clear right from the start. Within twenty minutes they had begun to waste time to the frustration of Barcelona who were already being constrained by a defensive side who stopped Barca’s flow and rhythm. Miodrag Belodedici swept up behind the Steaua defence while forward Ladislau Boloni moved into the middle of the pitch where he closed down his midfield opponents to great effect. Terry Venables may have promised beforehand that Barcelona would ‘stick to our principles of playing in an open, adventurous fashion,’ but the Steaua tactics made that virtually impossible. In a game of very few chances, Barcelona only threatened in the periods just before and after the interval, but at that point Steaua coach Emerich Jenei brought the veteran 36 year old Anghel Iordanescu off the bench to shore up the defence and ensure that the game went to a penalty shootout. On 85 minutes, Schuster was controversially substituted and the furious captain walked straight off the pitch and out of the stadium. In the first few minutes of extra time, Archibald was also taken off, having made little contribution to the game.
It soon became sadly inevitable to the tens of thousands inside the stadium and the millions watching on television that the game would have to be decided by penalties and, after 120 dull and almost chanceless minutes, they were proved correct. It was to be a battle of goalkeepers with Barcelona’s semi-final hero Urruti up against Steaua’s Helmuth Duckadam and neither man would let his side down. First up was Steaua’s Majearu, and Urruti sent the stadium wild as he saved the penalty. Not to be outdone, Duckadam then saved from Alexanko. Incredibly, the spot kicks from Steaua’s Boloni and Barcelona’s Pedraza were also saved. Four penalties taken - none scored. Urruti was finally beaten when Lacatus found the net, but Duckadam saved again to leave Steaua with a 1-0 lead after three penalties each. Balint then found the net for the Romanians which meant that Marcos had to score to keep Barcelona’s hopes alive. Unbelievably,Duckadam saved for the fourth time and was engulfed by his jubilant teammates to a backdrop of silence from the disbelieving Barcelona supporters. Back in Bucharest, there was singing and dancing for the first time in decades on the tightly controlled streets. The spontaneous celebrations provided a rare evening of liberation for the inhabitants of one of Europe’s most downtrodden countries.
For Barcelona the evening was a disaster. They had failed with their best chance ever to win a European Cup title and would have to remain in the shadow of their great rivals Real Madrid. But for Steaua it was a remarkable achievement. Few people had given them any chance against the superstars of Catalonia, but their gameplan had worked and thanks to their hero Helmuth Duckadam they had emerged triumphant. Having kept the Barcelona attack at bay for a full 120 minutes, he had then saved all four penalties in the shootout and was rightly hailed a national hero on his return to Romania. Steaua had won a victory for the whole of Eastern Europe as the European Cup trophy went behind the Iron Curtain for the first time and it was Helmuth Duckadam who had made it all possible.
[edit] Match details
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Steaua Bucureşti
FC Barcelona
