Chelsea v A C Milan - 16th February 1966

Back in 1966, I had been a Chelsea fan for three years, having moved to London to start work in 1963. Halfway through season 1964/5 I was given a season ticket for the main stand. The father of a fellow trainee at George Wimpey worked for Reuters was relocated to somewhere in Europe. But the following season I was back on the terraces. However, I was transferred to Leeds in 1963 where I went to watch United, so that was the end of following the Blues. Having returned to London in 1967, I hardly went to any games. Recently, I have been sorting through old boxes and found a number of old Chelsea programmes, together with a piece I had written about the night that Chelsea played A C Milan in front of a capacity 59,541. Here it is.

It was Wednesday night on the 16th February 1966. Chelsea met A C Milan, the European Cup Champions of 1963, in the second leg of the third round of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup at Stamford Bridge. Milan won the first leg 2-1, Chelsea scraping a late goal to have a chance in the second leg.

Unbeaten were Chelsea since the start of the year and four days ago they had beaten Leeds 1-0 in the fourth round of the FA Cup, so putting out the previous years finalists.

What a night. I had agreed to meet Ray outside Fulham Broadway station half an hour before the kick-off. That was half an hour too late! The police were moving on the packed crowd outside the station. Chelsea had been having middling crowds during the season, but outside the station it seemed that half on London wanted to see this tie. So I couldn't wait for Ray, and I didn't want to be locked out.

A huge solid mass of people stretched to my usual turnstiles, where I queued for twenty minutes compared to the usual fifteen seconds. Inside I had never seen anything like it., there were so many people packed in the open stadium. My usual place halfway down close to the corner flag was invisible.

I tried the first gangway, which itself was already packed. After a while, I wondered how I was going to get up onto the terracing, when there was no need to wonder anymore. The throng carried me up there. From that point on, I was likely to stay on the same step for for about a minute with the swaying of the solid mass.

The game matched the excitement on the terraces. A story book game n the first half. (George) Graham, a lethal header of the ball, put one in with classical simplicity from a corner after 11 minutes to put us level on aggregate. The noise was deafening, and if it hadn't been for the crush, I would have been able to jump up and down. In the twentieth minute, Osgood received the ball outside the penalty area, with a packed defence in front of him. Somehow he shot. I thought the ball missed the target as I lost sight of it. But Osgood was pawing the air in exultation before becoming lost in his colleagues. The ceaseless din rose to greet the miracle and that how it stayed until half time.

But for the break, Chelsea must surely have carried all before them, but in the second half Milan regained their composure and equalised the aggregate. All was set for a final pulsating quarter as Chelsea battered the Milan goal, but to no avail. All that was left was the outcome of the toss to decide the play off venue. Milan won the toss and this dampened a little a wonderful Chelsea victory, two great goals and the greatest nighttime crowd I have experienced.

The play off resulted in a 1-1 draw, and the tie was decided ON THE TOSS OF A COIN, which Chelsea won. They also won the 4th round against TSV Munchen 1860 on a 3-2 aggregate to go through to play Barcelona in the Semi-Final. I guess that losing the away leg 2-0 had an effect on the attendance as it is recorded as only 40,073. But two own goals once again made the aggregate level and yet another play off was required. Chelsea lost the toss again and on the 25th May 1966, it was the first ever European match to be shown on closed-circuit tv in England. This may have been my last visit to the ground as it used to be, unfortunately to see them lose another semi-final, having lost to Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup. This game at Villa Park was the biggest disappointment of all.

I can never remember Ray's surname. But we used to go to many matches together, and not just to see Chelsea. He showed me the advert in the London Evening Standard for season tickets for the World Cup in 1966, and we were able to see every game at Wembley. And the last game there probably made up for not seeing Chelsea in a final.