Man Utd legend Paddy Crerand on 1968 European Cup success - a triumph tinged with regret
by David McDonnell, https://www.mirror.co.uk/authors/david-mcdonnell/For Paddy Crerand, Manchester United’s historic 1968 European Cup triumph is tinged with regret.
United became the first English club to lift the trophy 52 years ago today, beating Eusebio’s Benfica 4-1 in a dramatic final at Wembley.
It was an emotional and poignant victory, coming 10 years after the 1958 Munich tragedy, which claimed the lives of eight United players and left boss Matt Busby close to death.
Winning the cup was vindication of Busby’s decision to take United into Europe in 1956, against the wishes of the FA, and paving the way for future English clubs in the competition.
Crerand was part of that triumphant United team – inspired by Bobby Charlton and George Best – and recalled the momentous night, as well as his regret the team could not repeat the triumph.
“It was massive,” Crerand told me. “More so for Matt than anyone else.
“Matt was the leader of English football in Europe when almost everybody else was against it.
“But we didn’t feel pressure, as such, it was more the will to win it, after everything that had happened to the club.
"We felt we couldn’t let anyone down, with the history that the club had been through with Munich.
“It was a tear-jerker for Matt and it meant so much to him and Bobby, Bill Foulkes and Matt’s assistant Jimmy Murphy. But it also meant a lot to everybody, to win the European Cup.
"Celtic had won it the year before, under Jock Stein, and I think Matt thought, ‘If a Scottish club can win it, anybody can win it’.
“I don’t mean that disrespectfully, because Celtic had a magnificent side, but you felt if they could do it, we certainly could. But the big, big regret is not winning it again.
“I felt we should have won it in 1969, the following year.
“I was 29, but the team was quite young, with George, David Sadler, Brian Kidd. They were all around 20, 21, 22, so we should have won it more than once.
“But a big factor was Matt deciding to retire.
“That will to win went out of the window for a lot of people when Matt retired at the end of the next season, having achieved his ambition of winning the European Cup.”
Crerand, now 81 and a pundit for MUTV, said he and his United team-mates felt supremely confident they would beat Benfica, despite needing extra-time, with the score 1-1 after 90 minutes.
Crerand recalled: “We felt so confident we’d win, you wouldn’t believe. We’d played Benfica a couple of years before that, in 1966, beating them 5-1 in Lisbon and 3-2 at Old Trafford.
“We should have won it that year, but we went out to Milan in the semi-finals.
“Benfica were a great team, but I don’t think they had that ‘badness’ we had in our team – and I’m talking about Nobby Stiles, more than anyone else.
“We had a few lads you wouldn’t want to play against and that can frighten players sometimes.”
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