Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen, the night they won the Cup Winners’ Cup and denied Real Madrid a seventh crown | OneFootball

As Aberdeen visit Strasbourg in the Europa Conference League on Thursday, their history includes a singular European triumph. In 1983 a young Alex Ferguson led them to the Cup Winners’ Cup, denying Real Madrid a seventh crown.

L'Équipe writes that the 11 May 1983 final set Alfredo Di Stefano’s Madrid, in their 11th European final with six prior wins, against Aberdeen, first-timers after knocking out Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals.

Real, pipped to La Liga by Athletic Bilbao, arrived at Gothenburg’s Ullevi, half empty yet pro-Aberdeen. They fielded Juanito and José Antonio Camacho, with striker Santillana singled out by Ferguson as the prime threat.

Since 1978 Ferguson had broken the Celtic and Rangers duopoly, built around Alex McLeish, Willie Miller and Gordon Strachan, a 1982 World Cup revelation. He was exacting and omnipresent, even memorising players’ parents’ names.

He controlled distractions too, instructing Mrs Bell to alert him, not her husband Doug, a midfield reserve, when labour began. Former team-mates recalled how he tested competitiveness off the pitch and frightened them before kick-off.

In driving rain Aberdeen played with speed and crisp passing, Strachan outstanding. Eric Black struck in the seventh minute, only for Juanito to level from the spot in the 15th.

After sustained pressure, Peter Weir surged down the left and substitute John Hewitt dived to head the 112th-minute winner for 2-1. Hamburg were beaten in the European Super Cup, 0-0 and 0-2, and those triumphs convinced Manchester United to appoint Ferguson in November 1986 on reduced terms.

Source: L'Équipe