Our showdown with Manchester United will be the first meeting between the two teams in the Champions League, but not the first in Europe, where Atletico eliminated England in the second round of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1992...
At 04:00 Beijing time on Thursday, the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinals, we will face Manchester United at home. It will be the first time the two teams have met at the Wanda Metropolitano and europe's top venues, but not the first time they have met in Europe.
The last time the two sides met was in the distant 1991/92 season, when we met Manchester United in the second round of the European Cup Winners' Cup (16-8). The already discontinued tournament brought together 32 teams that had won the top cups in their respective countries at the time and has been held for 39 sessions. In the first round, we beat Fehringen from Norway 8-2, while Manchester United, led by Sir Alex Ferguson, beat Greek side Athens 2-0.
The European Cup Winners' Cup is not an unfamiliar event for Atletico, as we won the title as early as 1962 – we drew 1-1 in the first leg of the final against Fiorentina and in the rematch that followed we lifted the trophy with a 3-0 victory. Rosso's legendary goalscorer Joaquín Perot scored in both matches, with the other two goals in the rematch being scored by Mendonsa and Jones respectively, and Atletico won the first European trophy in history.
Atletico beat Mallorca in the final of the Copa del Rey in 1991 with a goal from Alfredo Santalena to qualify for the Cup Winners' Cup next season, a goal that still shines in the memories of Atletico fans. Manchester United, on the other hand, are the defending champions of the Cup winners' Cup. Needless to say, the encounter between the two teams must have been an extremely fierce confrontation.
The first leg was played at the Calderon Stadium on 23 October 1991 and our manager Luis Aragonés started with 11 players: Abel, Thomas, Ferreira, Juanito, Solo Saba, Sole, Biscano, Schuster, Moya, Manolo and Futre. In this evenly matched match, Portuguese striker Futre opened the scoring for us – he tricked Danish goalkeeper Schmeichel with a brilliant fake move in the penalty area to rewrite the score to 1-0. In the 88th minute, Futree scored twice, and in the 90th minute, Manolo extended the score to 3-0. This victory laid a solid foundation for our subsequent second leg in Manchester.
In the second leg at Old Trafford, Luis Aragonés sent Abel, Thomas, Solo Saba, Donato, Tony, Juanito, Schuster, Moya, Biscano, Manolo and Futre to start. Man lenovo relied on home advantage to achieve a reversal, and just four minutes after the opening, Hughes opened the record for Manchester United with a header, and the score came to 1-0. However, our team knew how to maintain the advantage, tenaciously defended the Red Devils' attack after wave, and relied on the shots of Manolo, Moya and Donato to force Schmeichel to save again and again. But in front of Schuster's free-kick in the 69th minute, the Dane was unable to stop us from scoring. The two sides fought 1-1 in the second leg and we managed to reach the quarterfinals.
In the 1991/92 Cup Winners' Cup, we stopped in the quarter-finals, but two red and white fighters were on the podium of the tournament – Manolo Sanchez Delgado and Paul Futre. They are tied for second place on the top scorers list with five goals. The first place was Hungarian player Pete Richep, who scored six goals.