With our Europa League semi-final coming up with Valencia, i thought I’d show the most nerve-wracking penalty shoot out between Arsenal and our Spanish opponents in the Cup Winners Cup Final in 1980. The game was played at the infamous Heysel stadium on a horrendously waterlogged pitch and the game was stuck at 0-0 even after a half-hour of extra time. We were only allowed one sub in those days so there were very heavy tired legs as it came down to the penalty shoot-out…..
Here was our team on that day:
GK 1 Northern Ireland Pat Jennings
DF 2 Northern Ireland Pat Rice (c)
DF 3 Northern Ireland Sammy Nelson
MF 4 England Brian Talbot
DF 5 Republic of Ireland David O’Leary
DF 6 Scotland Willie Young
MF 7 Republic of Ireland Liam Brady
FW 8 England Alan Sunderland
FW 9 Republic of Ireland Frank Stapleton
MF 10 England David Price
MF 11 England Graham Rix
Substitutes:
MF 12 England John Hollins (replaced David Price on 105 minutes)
Watch the nail-biting finish below….
These were our penalty takers – in order…
Brady
Stapleton
Sunderland
Talbot
Hollins
Rix
Before my time, I was born 2 years after this but fully aware of our rivalry with Valencia my memories of them are from the champions League losing twice at the mestalla John Carew scoring winners in 01 and 03 but we did manage to beat them at Highbury if I remember correctly ray parlour scoring a screamer ? it’s about time we came out on top in this one ?