ON THIS DAY

London is a biggish sort of place but I guess that most of will think that matches between Arsenal and Chelsea would be classed as local derbies. But not so when they met in the final of the Europa League in 2019. May 29th 2019 saw the two London clubs meet in the final of that competition at the Olympic Stadium in Baku. I don't want to sound too school-teacherish but perhaps a couple of lessons are in order. First geography - Baku is further east than Baghdad and is the capital of Azerbaijan which has a border with Iran...so is in Asia! Second a history lesson - the Olympics have never been held in Azerbaijan! OK, Azerbaijan is a member of UEFA and so can't be left out hosting the big matches but the cost and practicalities of London fans making the 5000+ mile round-trip meant that neither Arsenal or Chelsea could sell their full allocation of tickets. Not a great deal of local interest either with the gates reportedly being opened for free entry to local fans to boost the attendance. Oh - and Chelsea won 4-1.

Forty seven years to the day after Benfica had played Manchester United in the European Cup final the Portuguese side were up against another Manchester side, this time the opposition being FC United of Manchester. They were the protest club founded in 2005 by supporters of Manchester United following the unpopular takeover of their club by the American Malcolm Glazier. The match was to mark the official opening of their new Broadhurst Park ground, a 4,232 crowd witnessing a 1-0 victory for the Benfica reserve side. So how long is it going to be before they celebrate their first match in the Football League?

Just 18 days after the Bradford City fire disaster tragedy struck at the European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, Belgium. Rioting fans and a collapsed wall at the decrepit stadium saw 39 fans crushed to death and over 600 injured. Despite this happening before kick off the match took place with the authorities fearful of further violence if it was called off. The result of the match was an irrelevance.

Manchester United became the first English club to win the European Cup, beating Benfica 4-1 at Wembley.