On This Day – 10th March
It was on this day back in 1971 when Cardiff City recorded one of their greatest victories, beating Real Madrid 1-0.
The victory came in the first leg of the Quarter-Final of the competition at their Ninian Park ground.
47,500 was the official attendance that night but it is believed that many more crammed into the historic ground that night to witness City’s win. What was more extraordinary about the game was that Cardiff were in the old Third Division at the time.
City had qualified for the competition having won the Welsh FA Cup the season before.
Striker Brian Clark nodded home a cross from Nigel Rees after great work by Rees down the left wing. The teenager got past a couple of Madrid defenders before getting to the byline and delivering an inch-perfect cross for Clark to score.
City held on for a famous win before returning to business as usual in Division Three. They followed up their first leg victory with a 1-1 draw at Blackburn in front of 10,562.
A crowd of 60,000 watched the Second Leg at the Bernabeu two weeks later but sadly there was to be no fairy-tale ending. Real won 2-0 in the Spanish capital, winning the tie 2-1 on aggregate.
Real Madrid went on to reach the Final that season before losing to Chelsea in Athens. The Spanish giants were really given an almighty scare at Ninian Park on that March evening.
The European Cup Winners Cup came to an end in 1999 but will always be remembered fondly by Cardiff fans because of this game 49 years ago.
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