If Aberdeen beat Viking FK in Norway next Thursday, it will host a 3rd Europa League qualifying stage against Sporting Clube of Portugal.
Despite a history of European competitions, such an adjustment would be only the moment the Dons would play against a Portuguese team.
This is noteworthy, given Aberdeen’s track record in Europe and the Iberian country’s pedigree in continental competitions, whatever the case may be.
Alex Ferguson’s Reds were about to retain the Cup Winners’ Cup they won in 1983 when they faced Sporting mentioned above to win all Primeira League titles, Porto, in the 1984 semi-finals.
Aberdeen entered the semi-finals after beating Hungary’s Ujpest in the quarter-finals (a 3-2 aggregate victory, despite a 2-0 defeat after the first leg).
Porto could have won the European Cup twice, however, in 1984, they were pessimistic about their chances of reaching their first continental final against the Scottish champions.
After the return, assistant coach Antonio Morais said that when they learned that the Fergie Dons were betting, Porto “had to finish our career in this cup” was the strength and reputation of the Golden Generation of the Granite City squad.
Before the first leg, there was some other blow to the home team when an illness prevented his coach José Pedroto from attending the match.
However, it took Porto 16 minutes, which knocked out Rangers at the festival, to take the lead.
A corner closed a tense foot at the front post, and Fernando Gomes was able to step over Doug Rougvie and pass Jim Leighton at the Aberdeen net.
Despite the delay, everyone at Dons’ camp seemed extremely happy that the score remained at 1-0.
Gomes denied other targets through his own debauchery and through the paintings of Leighton and central Alex McLeish.
After the break, Aberdeen began dictating the game, Porto may have had a penalty after Gomes got caught between Stewart McKimmie and Willie Miller, but that didn’t happen.
There was not much risk from Aberdeen in the first 90 minutes, as Gordon Strachan was continually rejected by the local goalkeeper in line with Ze Beto, but that was not a challenge at the time. to get out of the game.
Ferguson said his team had a “great chance” for the British first team to triumph in the Cup Winners’ Cup final after the first 90 minutes in Portugal.
He continued: “We did the hardest thing and Porto knows it too. “
In the northeast, John Begg of Grampian Rail Tours had a plan in position to take 1200 members of the Red Army to the latest in Basel, Switzerland, on the Dons Express.
After the start of the semi-final, Begg said he kept “his fingers firmly crossed” over the idea, while some 15,000 enthusiasts had tentatively booked some kind of the latter in anticipation of the Dons’ rankings.
Despite the expectation of a remarkable victory in Misty Pittodria, unlike Ujpest or Bayern Munich or Ipswich Town, this never happened for the Dons at the stage.
Aberdeen was poor, and Ferguson complained that his players were too eager to run with the ball and beat the opponents, to pass it.
Porto’s purpose of sealing his progress, however, fantastic: in the 76th minute, Vermerlhinho broke the right wing on his side and, after skipping two red shirts in the process, threw the ball over Leighton and into the farthest corner of the Dons area. .
After the victory, Porto’s surprised assistant Morais, killed in a car accident five years later, said: “I never imagined we would beat a team like Aberdeen twice. “
There is no desire to feel sorry for himself after the match, with Ferguson admitting his sadness after his team was “massacred in midfield”, but claiming that the result would allow Aberdeen to concentrate on securing a double in the Premier League and The Scottish Cup, which he duly did.
Porto, meanwhile, lost the 1983/84 European Cup Winners’ Cup final to Italian giants Juventus.
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