Highbury Memories - European Nights #1 April 1980

In 1980 I started going to midweek games, my mum finally thinking I was big enough to handle nightime in London. My earliest midweek memory was of the European Cup Winners Cup Semi-Final against Juventus. In those days (before the excess of the Champions League) European nights were special and to play against a team like Juve was a "once in a lifetime" experience, or so we thought. The press were full of stories about all of London's Italian restaurants & cafes being shut and the atmosphere was so different from the usual league games. The game ended 1-1 and everyone agreed that we were out, Juve never lost at home and never lost to english clubs - well the late Paul Vaessen proved that wrong - even if we were to lose disappointingly against Valencia in the final.