Battle of Britain '92: Ibrox
The team playing at Rangers were the champions, and after 69 seconds Gary McAllister made winning the European Cup feel like a real possibility.
Here, right at the start, was one of the great modern Leeds United goals. Gary McAllister. Ibrox. The Battle of Britain. The European Cup — the Champions League. The second minute. A volley. A silent stadium.
It was a beautiful goal that hushed the all-home crowd — away fans were banned from both legs. Gordon Strachan's corner was headed away at the front post by David Robertson, and McAllister tilted his body to volley the ball fast and true into Andy Goram's top corner. The quiet that followed in the moments before Ibrox found its voice again had a kind of purity, and I wonder if it isn't the last moment of purity Howard Wilkinson's champions produced.
It was probably the high point of optimism for this team. The team playing at Rangers were the champions, with only Jon Newsome and Eric Cantona varying the eleven everyone had learned by heart. Winning promotion to the First Division was a job well done but winning it was a dream come true, and just when Stuttgart threatened to wake us up, they sleepwalked through UEFA's rulebook and kept the European dream alive. Playing off in the Nou Camp meant Leeds took Stuttgart's place in the seedings and got a much tougher draw than from going straight through, but after 69 seconds at Ibrox McAllister made winning the European Cup feel like a real possibility.
Twenty minutes later John Lukic punched a Rangers corner into his own net and Leeds United's alarm clock was ringing at last. It had been ticking away in the early months of the season; Leeds had already conceded nineteen goals in six away games, and Wilkinson was bemoaning his team's inability to defend set pieces, something that in the last three seasons had been a point of pride. Lukic was calm and forthright after the game. "I'll tell you exactly what happened," he said. "As the ball came across I've come to collect it, and at the last minute it's vanished in the light and I've lost it. A hundred times out of a hundred I'd make exactly the same decision to punch it, and a hundred times out of a hundred would get a good punch on the ball. This time it just came off the top of my glove. It was just unfortunate on the night."
Unfortunate was an understatement. Writing in The Times, Stuart Jones said that if Leeds didn't come through the tie and missed out on £4 million for qualifying for the European Cup group stages, 'the mistake will be seen as the most expensive made in the domestic game'. Lukic steadfastly refused to be fazed. "You just rationalise things, it's as simple as that," he said. "These things happen. I don't need other people to tell me my job."
He didn't look so calm in the moment. Between the ball bouncing backwards off his gloves and Tony Dorigo desperately failing to reach it before it crossed the line, the fans behind the goal knew it was in; they started cheering as soon as Lukic touched the ball. For a while Lukic just stood with an expression of horror on his face until, as if he was realising what he'd done, he mouthed, 'Aw, fucking hell.' Perhaps that was the moment he rationalised it.