Chelsea – Barcelona rivalry dates back to a three-leg (yes, 3) Fairs Cup tie
In recent years, Chelsea and Barcelona have become bitter European rivals. But the rivalry dates back longer than many people think.
Chelsea and Barcelona first crossed swords in a competition that pre-dates the Europa League and the UEFA Cup before that. It was the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, often known as the Fairs Cup. It was a maverick competition, as UEFA wouldn’t ratify it but FIFA did recognise it as a bona fide tournament.
The Fairs Cup began in 1955, the year Chelsea won their first top-tier (First Division) title. The idea behind the tournament was for it to be contested by teams from cities that were hosting an international trade fair. The rules permitted one team for each city. League position, initially, did not come into the equation, either.
Although the club weren’t directly involved, Chelsea nonetheless, played a threefold part. First, a number of their players competed in a combined London XI. Second, the home games were played at Stamford Bridge. Third, the team was – interestingly – managed by Chelsea Chairman Joe Mears, whose family had been directors of the club since its inception. Now there’s an idea.
To prevent fixture congestion, that first tournament was intended to run across two seasons. As it turned out it, actually ran for three. To cut a long story short, the London XI team reached the final and faced a Barcelona (the city, not the club) XI that featured just one Espanyol player. The first leg at Stamford Bridge ended 2-2, with the Blues’ goal machine, Jimmy Greaves, scoring one of the goals. The return fixture saw the Catalans run out 6-0 winners.
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Fast forward eight years. The London XI was defunct, and Chelsea were in the competition in their own right. The previous season they had won the League Cup, finished third in the First Division and were London’s top team.
Not much changes, and all this from a team that ‘has no history’.
The Blues’ entry into the Fairs Cup saw them miss out on defending the League Cup. The club elected to enter the European tournament instead. Chelsea progressed through a shortened version of the knockout stages, leading to Barcelona in the semi-final.
Like the current Champions League format, the tie took place over two legs, the first being in the Camp Nou. Originally scheduled for Stamford Bridge on April 20, manager Tommy Docherty engineered a postponement. He later admitted to asking the London Fire Brigade to flood the pitch prior to the game in order to delay the game as he wanted to allow some of his squad time to recover from injury. The match was moved to the Camp Nou a week later.
Chelsea conceded a first-half goal but acquitted themselves well defensively. Like the game three weeks ago, all that hard work was undone when Barcelona doubled their advantage with a very late goal that would make Chelsea’s task so much harder back at the Bridge.
The return leg at Stamford Bridge played out on a pitch still heavy with water. The surface did not suit the Catalans, who struggled to get their free-flowing game moving. Chelsea attacked but were unable to find the goals they needed to progress into the final. Having had a defender, Eladio Silvestre, sent off for a wild swipe at John Hollins, Barcelona were masters of their own downfall in a frantic final twenty minutes of play.
A side renowned then, as it is today, for attacking, Barcelona managed to succeed where Chelsea could not. They put the ball into the back of their own net, not once, but twice, to draw the game level on aggregate. The first goal came via a Charlie Cooke header, which deflected in off midfielder Francisco Gallego. The father of Liverpool’s ex-keeper Pepe Reina, Miguel, also a keeper, flapped at a Peter Houseman effort, diverting the ball in during the process. That tied the game at 2-2.
Various options had been trialled to decide the results of drawn games by the football authorities. Extra-time would not enter the rules of football for a few more seasons, and penalties only occurred within the game’s standard 90 minutes. The game had to be decided by the only option then available: a third meeting, with the venue decided by the toss of a coin. The game headed back to Spain but would not take place until May 25, nine days after the English season ended.
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Some footballers can be guilty of having a tendency to be “on the beach” long before the season ends, never mind after it’s finished. As it turned out, the game was a bit of an anti-climax for Chelsea. They lost the deciding tie-breaker game 5-0. Over 270 minutes of football, nine goals had been scored, all by Barcelona, in game tie the Catalans won 7-2 on aggregate.