- 5 March 1980: Gothenburg (Sweden) (H) Cup-winners’ Cup 5-1
- Attendance: 36,323
- Jennings, Devine, Nelson, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Brady (Hollins), Sunderland (McDermott), Stapleton, Price, Rix.
- Scorers: Sunderland 2, Young, Brady, Price.
It was cold. Very very cold. Which presumably gave Gothenburg the advantage The score was gold but Brady Sunderland and Stapleton all hobbled off, either with footballing injuries or frostbite, it was hard to tell.
Goteborg took the lead after some serious misfiring from Arsenal, but after five semi-attempts Stapleton found Brady, Brady found Sunderland and in it went. Then a Brady Talbot Price combination resulted in the second.
After that Sunderland turned up again (getting his injury en route) before Brady scored a magnificent goal on the hour on receiving a chip from Devine. For the next Young jumped with the goalkeeper, possibly impeded him, but the ref let it stand.
After this game Arsenal moved on immediately to the FA Cup, and then to the League. Here are the results between the CWC quarter final first leg and the second leg.
- 8 March: Watford (A) FA Cup 2-1
- Attendance: 27,975
- Jennings, Devine, Nelson, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Brady, Sunderland (Gatting), Stapleton, Price, Rix
- Scorer: Stapleton 2.
- 11 March: Bristol City (H) 0-0
- Attendance: 21,559
- Jennings, Devine, Nelson, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Brady, Vaessen, Stapleton, Price, Rix.
- 15 March: Manchester City (A) 3-0
- Attendance: 33,792
- Jennings, Devine, Nelson, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Brady, Vaessen, Stapleton (Gatting), Price, Rix.
- Scorers: Brady 2 (1 penalty), Stapleton.
- 19 March: Gothenburg (Sweden) (A) Cup-winners’ Cup 0-0
- Attendance: 40,044
- Jennings, Devine, Nelson, Talbot, O’Leary, Young, Brady, Vaessen, Stapleton, Price, Rix.
This was supposed to be a case of Arsenal showing their Swedish fans what they were all about but it was a poor match and the fans were highly disgruntled, throwing cushions onto the pitch not to protest about the referee but about the whole quality or lack of it.
Being 5-1 up the tie was never in doubt . Gothenburg played the long ball game but Arsenal showed they could deal with that all day long. Gothenburg played a tight defence which kept it s shape and that did work . In the end it was stalemate. 4-4-2 might be ok for a home side if they want to snatch a one goal victory, but not when you need four. It wasn’t a good match, but Arsenal were in the semis.
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- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
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