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Jordi Blanco
On April 23, 1975, Cruyff Barcelona rode in the Europe
Barcelona – On April 23, the Diada de Sant Jordi 'is celebrated in Catalunya, the Book Day and the Rose, a special day in the Catalan calendar, and sad for the Barcelona because 50 years ago the Leeds United He truncated a dream of Johan Cruyff's team in an abrupt and unthinkable way.
Signed in August 1973, Cruyff led a Barcelona imposing to conquer the league title and return to the European Cup The next season.
At that time, only the national tournament champion played the great continental tournament (in addition to the title defender) and, in a much shorter course than at present, Barcelona was planted in the semifinals after consecutively eliminating the Vöest Linz of Austria (5-0), Dutch Feyenoord (3-0) and Swedish Atbidabergs (5-0).
And there he crossed with the fearsome Leeds United by Jimmy Armfield, the Dominating English Soccer Club of the moment, heir to the undisputed postulates in the hern Road Don Revie and that had replaced Brian Clough on the bench, then legend in the Nottingham Forest but who crashed in a team known as the 'Dirty Leeds' grass.
The Barça of the Precious Soccer and the Rocoso Leeds opened the tie in it, overcoming the English team for a tight 2-1 that in Barcelona understood a transtable to play its second final, 14 years after the defeat of 1961, in the European Cup.
But that April 23, a festive day without being a party in Catalonia ended in the worst way in a Barça key. The Camp Nou was filled with more than 100,000 fans who turned the old stadium into a boiler that suddenly fell silent, just seven minutes when Peter Lorimer, after a long release of the pottero David Stewart, caught by surprise the offsembled local defense and scored a terrible 0-1.
Cruyff put himself at the controls and the comeback was sought through total football that Barça coach Rinus Michels had implanted in the orange mechanics in the World Cup a year earlier … but all attempts were collided, one by one, before the Ferrhea, hard and sometimes violent defense of a reads that faced the last 25 minutes in inferiority due to the expulsion of McQueen.
And Claries tied, he achieved the 1-1 head 20 minutes from the end that already gave way to a runaway attack by Barça in search of the 2-1 that took the game to the extension, with a hobby delivered and a Leeds surviving the limit, saving Captain Billy Bremner, the Hunter defense or the very striker Joe Jordán of expulsions that would not have been unfair.
And the Leeds survived. And depression was present at the end of the game in a Camp Nou incredulous for that elimination. The curse of Sant Jordi, at its most expression.
Cross and face classic
That bad form accompanied, and is remembered, Barça for a long time and lived a second and terrible chapter on April 23, 2002. Again in a semifinal, already from Champions. But this time faced the Barca team to Real Madrid of the Galactics, who assaulted the Camp Nou brutally.
Sendos goals from Zidane and Mcmanaman (this in added time), sentenced a 0-2 impossible to overcome for the team led by Charly Rexach in the Vuelta, where the 1-1 certified his elimination and the pass to the final of a Madrid that was crowned in Glasgow in front of Bayer Leverkusen.
The mischievan, never enough but at least relief, was obtained by Barça on April 23, 2017, in another classic, of the League and this time in the Bernabéu. It was the afternoon that Lionel Messi scored a 2-3 of order in the 92nd minute and followed by the iconic celebration of the Argentine, showing the shirt to the Culers fans present at the Merengue Coliseum.
But that nightmare of 1975 will always remain in the books. And in the memory of the veterans fans who suffered it as a stab in the heart.
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