Zatman Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 37 minutes ago, Robbie09 said: Went to the UEFA game in Bilbao and it ranks amongst the best experiences I’ve had following Villa. Despite all the political issues surrounding them, we couldn’t have had a warmer welcome. We went to Madrid later in the competition and their fans and police were awful. Basque people are awfully nice though. Friendy and super sense of humour. They only have political issues with Spain not the people 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted July 7, 2019 Share Posted July 7, 2019 Bilbao is a lovely city generally. Went there on a stag do last year and fell in love with it. The food is incredible. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 (edited) One of my favourite foreign clubs. Weird also that I was only watching highlights of our UEFA Cup game against them in the 90s yesterday afternoon. Edited July 8, 2019 by Rugeley Villa 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 40 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: One of my favourite foreign clubs. Weird also that I was only watching highlights of our UEFA Cup game haunts them in the 90s yesterday afternoon. We played so well that night. Still remember Yorke feigning to shot about three times and the just sticking it into the bottom corner. Also the keeper dropping a cross and Ian Taylor tapping it in. They had a very good team that season, think they actually finished 2nd in La Liga (ahead of Atletico Madrid) and played in CL the next season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 Exciting days. We had a hard fought goalless draw over at their place. We made ourselves difficult to beat away from home in the UEFA Cup that season. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 8, 2019 Share Posted July 8, 2019 17 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: Exciting days. We had a hard fought goalless draw over at their place. We made ourselves difficult to beat away from home in the UEFA Cup that season. Was reading Sir Brian Little's second autobiography last week, he admitted for the infamous Helsingborgs tie we were very underprepared, hardly watched them (this was the mid 90s when you couldn't just switch on a stream and watch the Swedish league) and he wasn't even sure how the away goals rule worked. Fixed it the next season and as you say we were very good at scrapping out results away and keeping ties alive for the second leg, think we were at home second leg for all four ties. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 The Helsingborg game was a nightmare. Getting knocked out by part timers and the next day at school Didn’t we also get knocked out again by an utter crap team? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 (edited) 1 hour ago, Rugeley Villa said: The Helsingborg game was a nightmare. Getting knocked out by part timers and the next day at school Didn’t we also get knocked out again by an utter crap team? I thought it was Litex Lovech but apparently we beat them 4-2 on agg. Edited July 9, 2019 by AVFC_Hitz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 1 hour ago, Rugeley Villa said: The Helsingborg game was a nightmare. Getting knocked out by part timers and the next day at school Didn’t we also get knocked out again by an utter crap team? Rapid Vienna dumped us out twice and Varteks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Just now, Zatman said: Rapid Vienna dumped us out twice and Varteks Varteks ! That’s the one. Rapid weren’t great either but at least I’d heard of them. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 rapid did it 2 years on the trot didn't they? can remember their fans being incredible can also remember looking at Vienna, it being expensive compared to prague and hamburg the year before and arrogantly thinking nah **** it ill wait for the group stage.... on that EL group in the old format, can you imagine that group in the proper 2 game format, ajax, hamburg, sparta prague, would have been mind blowing 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 25 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said: Varteks ! That’s the one. Rapid weren’t great either but at least I’d heard of them. Was only about 7 games into season but I am sure we were top of the league when we played them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Regionalism is much more of a thing in Spain, especially in the Basque Country and Catalonia. Zonal Marking have been running a series of podcasts this summer about the great teams of Europe from the past quarter of a century and when they went to Spain they chose the national team of 2008-2012 which won three tournaments in a row. (link) and they had Alavro Romeo on who is a Basque football journalist to talk about them and even though it was just a throwaway line in the show he mentioned the first time he saw anybody in the street wearing a Spanish national team shirt was after Euro 2008. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave J Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Rapid and Bilbao were the best away fans I have seen at VP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 14 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said: The Helsingborg game was a nightmare. Getting knocked out by part timers and the next day at school Didn’t we also get knocked out again by an utter crap team? Trabzonspor in 94 I think was also seen as a bit of a disaster as Turkish league was nowhere near as strong then as it got in late 90s when their teams started doing well in europe. Varteks was a wierd one. We've actually beaten some decent teams in winning Intertoto (Lille and Basle who went on to knock Liverpool out of the CL the next season with most of the same 11) then it seemed we weren't bothered about playing in the Uefa cup. Think we played a scratch team in the first leg, lost and then the demage was done despite going full strength in the return leg. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 22 minutes ago, Dave J said: Rapid and Bilbao were the best away fans I have seen at VP. Ajax were really good aswell, non stop signing from them from first minute to last. Might've been a bit more of an "edge" with them away from the ground though although I was in Brum for most of the afternoon leading up to the game and didn't see any trouble. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 30 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Trabzonspor in 94 I think was also seen as a bit of a disaster as Turkish league was nowhere near as strong then as it got in late 90s when their teams started doing well in europe. Intimidating though, Lawro actually tells a story that scariest game he ever went to as one fan brought a gun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugeley Villa Posted July 9, 2019 Share Posted July 9, 2019 Trabzonspor! I remember watching the away leg highlights on tv. I don’t think the game was live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted July 10, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 10, 2019 On 07/07/2019 at 21:49, Zatman said: Basque people are awfully nice though. Friendy and super sense of humour. They only have political issues with Spain not the people Yeah. I had a mate I used to be in a band with who moved down to Biarritz - French side of the border, but loads of Basques round there. He had a band there, with a couple of Basque lads, and they were great blokes. I also played football in Bradford with a Basque lad who'd had trials for Athletic (although, as he admitted, pretty much ANY boy round there who could kick a ball got a trial). He was a good player, too, if a bit of a primadonna striker who would never track back. Our coach got so annoyed with him, he once subbed him for me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted July 10, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 10, 2019 13 hours ago, VillaChris said: Trabzonspor in 94 I think was also seen as a bit of a disaster as Turkish league was nowhere near as strong then as it got in late 90s when their teams started doing well in europe. Was that the game after we’d beaten Inter Milan? that made it extra disappointing having just knocked out an Italian giant. I remember watching that and being young enough (I was 8 ) that I didn’t understand the away goal rule. So I thought we were heading for extra time and penalties and then suddenly we’d lost Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts