ONLY when they returned home the following day were they able to grasp the magnitude of what had been achieved. In their luggage were the jerseys of those they had conquered, in their heads the memories that would last them a lifetime, and in the frenzied coverage of every Scottish newspaper was a photograph that had readers rubbing their eyes. The scoreboard at the Nou Camp read: Barcelona 1, Dundee United 2. They don’t make them like that anymore, at least not on Tannadice Street. It is 17 years since Jim McLean’s fabled corner shop of Scottish players stormed the Catalan capital to secure a place in the UEFA Cup semi-finals, and it will be longer still before it is likely to happen again. From Thomson, Narey and Hegarty to Bannon, Sturrock and Clark, the game in Scotland is richer for their home-grown heroics.
This week, Barcelona are back in this country, for a fourth-round tie against Celtic, relieved perhaps that their duties do not include a trip to Dundee. Famously, they have played United four times, and lost on each occasion. Terry Venables, the Barcelona manager in 1987, tipped McLean’s men to go on and win the trophy that year, and they would have done had it not been for an exhausting 67-match season that caught up with them in the final against IFK Gothenburg.
It was a monumental campaign, so much so that, like everything special in life, it was tinged with melancholy, tempered by the knowledge that it would never happen again. These last few days, it has all been flooding back to Jim McInally, the youth development coach at Celtic, whose tenacity in the United midfield was vital to their success that season.
"When we got to the end of that season, I can remember thinking that, whatever else I did in my career, it was bound to be downhill after that," he says. "I knew that we would never get to another European final. You would have to be silly to think that you would. I tend not to look upon loser’s medals with any pride, but I can look at that one and know that it really means something."
The Barcelona matches were the highlight of McInally’s career, even though he won a Scottish Cup medal with United in 1994. By his own confession, he was a better player without the ball, so the more possession his opponents wanted, the more it suited him. The Spanish giants had plenty of it in the first leg at Tannadice, and the home side’s midfielder was man of the match.
Venables was in the dugout, Mark Hughes and Gary Lineker on the pitch, and while Paul Sturrock was inspired in a free role down the left, it was a solitary, oddball goal that separated the sides in front of 21,000 fans. Kevin Gallacher, down by the right-hand touchline, inexplicably hit a first-time volley that sailed into the box and over goalkeeper Andoni Zubizaretta, prompting debate down the years as to whether he meant it.
"It was a cross," says McInally with a smile. "I used to train with him every day, and he wasn’t that good. He argued blind it was a shot, but it wasn’t."
United were encouraged further by a suspension which meant that Carrasco, Barcelona’s influential midfielder, was out of the second leg. They were not so encouraged by a midweek Scottish Cup match against Forfar Athletic, when only a late penalty by Iain Ferguson enabled them to escape with a 2-2 draw. From the ridiculous, they went to the sublime.
The Nou Camp was, well, new to United on that historic March evening, when the team from Tayside did damage to Catalonia. The dressing rooms, recalls McInally, were the size of swimming pools, and on the long walk out to the pitch, there was a side door, leading to a chapel. "I remember Jim McLean making sure that all the chapel-goers went in and said a wee prayer. He was superstitious like that."
They needn’t have bothered. It was one of those nights when everything went right for United, from the saturated pitch that suited them down to the ground, to the crowd of just 41,000 rattling around in a stadium that could hold more than twice that.
Barcelona levelled the tie with a goal by Caldere just before half-time, but it did nothing to appease a disenchanted home support. "The atmosphere was a big factor because all the hostility was towards their own team," says McInally. "Mark Hughes, in particular, was getting a torrid time."
And so, with just five minutes left, the unthinkable happened. Sturrock, again a teasing presence on the left, was fouled by Gerardo and, when Ian Redford swung in the free-kick, John Clark’s thundering header smacked off the underside of the crossbar and over the line. It was all too much for McLean, who jumped up and hit his hand on the roof of the dugout, so that blood was streaming from it for the rest of the evening.
That was not the end of it. The match was televised live and, in the closing stages, viewers could hear McLean screaming at McInally to keep the ball. "Out of sheer panic, I slipped it to Sturrock, and he picked out Ferguson for the winner. Looking back on it, going on and getting that second goal was what made it all so special. At the time, we would have killed for a 1-1 draw, but it is lovely to say that we won there."
The white handkerchiefs were waving in protest, and the next day Venables was talking about a future elsewhere. At least he had been gracious enough to give his team’s jerseys to the United players. "Obviously the Barcelona guys weren’t interested in having our jerseys," says McInally, "but we wouldn’t have been allowed to give them away anyway. You know what wee Jim was like.
"The good thing about what we achieved was that you couldn’t accuse Barcelona of complacency. Venables knew the British game, and he gave us respect. Only three years before that we had been in the semi-final of the European Cup. We were respected throughout Europe."
This week, Barcelona will encounter another phenomenon in Celtic, and their incredible home record. McInally is a regular viewer of the Spanish side on satellite television, and maintains that, despite the undoubted talent with which they are blessed, from Ronaldinho up front to Philip Cocu in midfield and Carles Puyol at the back, they are beatable.
"We can score against them because there is no doubt they give you chances. It would be nice to take a 1-0 lead to Spain, just as we did with United. You have to give yourself a chance, something to go and defend. They have picked up recently, but they seem to be more relaxed on their travels, and that might suit us. Expectation is high at the Nou Camp, and the crowd can get on their backs."
McInally speaks from experience, albeit with a different kind of team. After those surreal scenes of 17 years ago, the United players stayed in Barcelona overnight. Just a few hours after their finest moment, McInally was sitting in his hotel room with John Holt, who had been exceptional against the Spaniards, if only in his customary understated way.
"I am going to join Forfar," said Holt.
"You have just been man of the match in the Nou Camp, and you are going to join Forfar?" asked McInally.
"They are giving me a car," came the retort.
McInally has a video of both matches, but never watches them. He doesn’t know whose jersey he was given as a keepsake, although it should have been Victor, the captain he matched in both legs. His conversation with Holt said more about that United team than their success. "He didn’t realise how good a player he was," says McInally. "We were a humble bunch really."
Scotland on Sunday 7 March 2004
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