Everton - Everton vs Bayern Munich (DVD)

...Liverpool, England.

Everton (0) 3 v's Bayern Munich (1) 1

COST = I bought it for around £4.99 + postage from Amazon. Shop around, there are a number of different websites that will offer a good deal on football DVD's. The Everton club shop, accessible via the website www.evertonfc.co.uk will also sell the DVD, but they have released a better one, which also includes the Final.

EVERTON, still one of English ...
...their greatest moment in an Everton shirt. As the DVD blurb points out ... "Managers and players will tell you that winning a Semi-Final of any competition can be more exciting than the Final itself, and that was surely the case when Everton met Bayern Munich in the European Cup Winners' Cup at Goddison Park in April 1985."

This was a tremendous season for Everton, having come out of the doldrums to win the F.A. Cup the previous ... more

EUROPEAN CUP WINNERS' CUP SEMI-FINAL - 2ND LEG
Wednesday 24th April 1985 Goodison Park, Liverpool, England.

Everton (0) 3 v's Bayern Munich (1) 1

COST = I bought it for around £4.99 + postage from Amazon. Shop around, there are a number of different websites that will offer a good deal on football DVD's. The Everton club shop, accessible via the website www.evertonfc.co.uk will also sell the DVD, but they have released a better one, which also includes the Final.

EVERTON, still one of English football's most decorated Football Clubs, formed in 1878 In Liverpool, have a rich history and tradition in the game. The club have had many ups and downs, as have I watching them, but somehow sit as the 4th most successful English club with 9 league titles + 1 old division 2 title, 5 F.A. Cup successes, 9 Charity Shield successes, British Championship winners & British Club Champions, as well as the European Cup Winners' Cup title added in 1985. The clubs most successful eras have been the 1930's, 60's and 80's, the latter two being largely dominated by the club.

I was fortunate enough to grow up during one of the clubs most successful era's, the only negative being that I have had to endure over 20 years of dross and sadness since, as the club have declined and are quite possibly playing the worst football in the 125+ year history .... great !!

Anyway, this DVD is a great way to re-live one of Everton's past glories, with many of the players involved from the era sighting this particular game as their greatest moment in an Everton shirt. As the DVD blurb points out ... "Managers and players will tell you that winning a Semi-Final of any competition can be more exciting than the Final itself, and that was surely the case when Everton met Bayern Munich in the European Cup Winners' Cup at Goddison Park in April 1985."

This was a tremendous season for Everton, having come out of the doldrums to win the F.A. Cup the previous year (1984), they assaulted the League and climbed to the top, winning it by - at the time - a record 13 points, before winning the European Cup Winners' Cup, and finishing as runners up to Manchester United in the F.A Cup Final of 1985. In fact, it's amzing was a difference 20 years makes, as the tables of fortune and riches have ceratinly turned from my youhtful days ... A Manchester United fan website quotes on the game; "United wrecked Liverpool's hopes of a League, FA Cup and European treble with their win at Wembley in 1977. They repeated this victory when they met Merseyside's other famous team - the blues of Everton. It may seem strange to anyone under 20 years of age but Everton were the dominant team in England during the mid Eighties. In 1985 the trophy Room at Goodison Park was already home to the Canon League Trophy and the European Cup-winners Cup and Everton looked set to achieve something that no other club had done before - win the League and Cup Double and a European prize in the same season. United were unfancied by many having lost to Everton 5-0 in the league earlier that season at Goodison." - I still haven't forgiven Manchester United for that !

The DVD provides the full 90-minutes of football played, along with special features.

Chapters & Features;

1) Teams come out
2) Let Battle Commence
3) Sheedy free-kick
4) Bayern open the scoring
5) Second half
6) Graeme Sharp equalises
7) Andy Gray scores
8) Trevor Steven's Winner

SPECIAL FEATURES:

9) Howard Kendall interview (Then Everton Manager)
10) Graeme Sharp interview
11) Ken Rogers tribute to Everton
12) Everton Squad interviews
13) Photo Gallery

The 1st leg had ended in a very hard earned draw (0-0) in Munich and the intensity of the ocassion could have unsettled the players, but they remained determined to ensure this great season was not spoilt by a premature stutter prior to the final.
"The crowd inside Goodison Park that night was vociferous in the extreme, prompting Kendall to tell his players in the dressing room at half-time - 'Just get the ball forward and the Gwladys Street will suck the goals in!'" ... The wise man couldn't have been more correct as Everton over-whelmed Bayern Munich in the second half and marched on to victory, over-turning the first half deficit.

The players had no fear in the final, having already beaten Europe's most feared team, and compeltely outplayed Rapid Vienna to clinch the trophy with a 3-1 victory in Rotterdam. Everton where later voted World Club Team of the year 1985.

The DVD quality is very good, and the game remains enthralling and a MUST for any Evertonian, but certainly of interest to any lovers of Football.

Line-ups were as follows;

EVERTON v's BAYERN MUNICH
Neville Southall 1 Jean-Marie Pfaff
Gary Stevens 2 Wolfgang Dremmler
Pat Van Den Hauwe 3 Nolger Willmer
Kevin Ratcliffe 4 Norbert Eder
Derek Mountfield 5 Klaus Augenthaler
Peter Reid 6 Soren Lerby
Trevor Steven 7 Hans Pflugler
Graeme Sharp 8 Lothar Matthaus
Andy Gray 9 Dieter Hoeness
Paul Bracewell 10 Michael Rummenigge
Kevin Sheedy 11 Ludwig Kogl
Alan Harper 12 Raimond Aumann
John Bailey 13 Bernd Durnberger
Kevin Richardson 14 Bertram Beierlorzer
Ian Atkins 15 Norbert Nachtweih
Kim Arnold 16 Roland Wohlfarth
 

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