ON THIS DAY

Manchester City kicked off the 2018/19 competitive season with a victory over Chelsea at Wembley to lift the Community Shield. Their last match of the season – on Saturday 18th May – was another Wembley victory when they won the FA Cup to become the first club to complete the treble of winning the 3 major trophies in England in a season – the League, FA Cup and League Cup. Their FA Cup final victims were Watford who had finished mid-table in the Premier League although that was 48 points behind champions Manchester City. The difference in class was evident at Wembley with City lifting the cup with a convincing victory to equal the FA Cup final winning margin record of 6-0 which was originally set in Bury’s defeat of Derby County in the 1903 final. 19 th May

Paul Gascoigne was carried off - and many say should have been sent off – with a torn cruciate ligament after a wild tackle on Forest’s Gary Charles at the Spurs v Nottingham Forest FA Cup Final. Was he ever the same player again? Spurs won 2-1 to deny Brian Clough success in his only FA Cup final.

When Bobby Moore and Bobby Charlton went shopping in Columbia on May 18th 1970 during an England pre-World Cup tour a diplomatic incident followed. Bobby Moore was accused of stealing a bracelet and a week later was charged with theft and placed under house arrest. The case was later dropped and Moore was able to take his place in the England team in the Mexico finals.

The date of the first final of the European Cup (later the Champions League) to be played in Britain, the venue being Hampden Park in Glasgow. The participants in what was the fifth European Cup final were Real Madrid, who had won the first four European Cup competitions, and Eintracht Frankfurt. Eintracht were the first German side to play in the final but had made a name for themselves in Glasgow a couple a weeks earlier when they won 6-3 at Ibrox to complete an amazing 12-4 aggregate victory over Scottish champions Rangers in the semi-final of the competition. Eintracht were one up in the final after 18 minutes but a hat-trick from Alfredo Di Stéfano and four from Ferenc Puskás saw the Spaniards finish comfortable 7-3 winners. Despite the one-side nature of the scoreline the match is still considered one of the classic European finals while the attendance - 127,621 - is a European final attendance which surely will never be bettered.