Champions League memories prevail of the night Speed inspired fightback

Speed is pictured wheeling away after scoring the opening goal in Leeds United’s 4-1 victory over Stuttgart in the 1992-93 Champions League.

Speed called it his greatest goal and it set the tone for a golden performance.

United, 3-0 down from the first leg, levelled the aggregate score after Speed’s 18th minute stunner ignited the blue touch paper.

After playing a short ball to Gordon Strachan in the centre circle, Speed – all long black hair and youthful endeavour – charged on, piston-like, to support the forward line.

Strachan, having paused momentarily to assess his options, launched a delightful reverse ball, right-footed, some 50 yards towards the left edge of the penalty area, where Eric Cantona out-jumped a defender to head it down.

Speed, arriving with split-second timing in the centre of the box, met the ball firmly on the volley, left-footed, and sent it fizzing high into the net.

It was a world-class strike from a world-class player – one whose life ended so tragically eight days ago at the age of 42.

If anything captured Speed at his best, it was that glorious goal on a September evening.

At a ground where so many tributes have been laid to him in the past few days, the Leeds supporters acclaimed a moment of true brilliance.

Within 15 minutes, however, those supporters were silenced when Andreas Buck, the Stuttgart midfielder, cancelled out Speed’s fulminating finish.

As the Leeds defence back-tracked, Buck was allowed to run to just inside the right corner of the penalty area, from where he angled a crisp right-footed drive past a despairing John Lukic.

At 4-1 down on aggregate and with an away goal for Stuttgart, there seemed no way back for Speed and his team-mates, despite their plucky domination of the early exchanges.

But five minutes later they were back in front; Lee Chapman was hauled down in the box by Guido Buchwald, and Gary McAllister did the rest with a deftly-placed penalty.

Leeds poured forward and, in the 66th minute, went 3-1 ahead when Cantona latched on to another probing Strachan pass to lob home from close range.

Then, 10 minutes from time, Chapman met a Strachan corner with a thumping header at the near post to make it 4-1 on the night and 4-4 on aggregate.

Stuttgart’s away goal, however, meant only a 5-1 victory was enough for Leeds and, try as they did, goal number five failed to arrive.

This, however, was no ordinary night – or indeed ordinary cup tie.

It later transpired that Stuttgart had fielded an ineligible player when Jovo Simanic was brought on as a substitute for Maurizio Gaudino.

At the time, Champions League rules permitted teams to field only a maximum of three foreign players, and Simanic, a Serb, represented a fourth.

Leeds were subsequently awarded the game 3-0 to make it 3-3 on aggregate, cancelling out the away goals, and a play-off match was ordered to take place between the sides in Barcelona.

Leeds were unhappy with the choice of venue – they argued the fixture should have been played at Elland Road and that the trip to Spain inconvenienced their supporters – but justice was done when they won 2-1 thanks to goals from Strachan and Carl Shutt.

Leeds’s interest in the competition, however, was short-lived. In the second round they lost 4-2 on aggregate to Rangers, who won both meetings 2-1.

In the first match at Ibrox, McAllister put Leeds ahead in the first minute only for Lukic to put through his own net on 21 and Ally McCoist to fire the winning goal on 37.

At Elland Road, Mark Hateley and McCoist fired Rangers 2-0 in front with an hour gone on the clock before Cantona clawed back a consolation five minutes from time. It was not enough to rescue Leeds’ European dream.

Victory sent Rangers through to the group stage, where they came agonisingly close to reaching the final.

Back then, the group stage consisted of eight teams divided into two groups of four, with the winner of each group contesting the final.

Rangers finished second in their group, one point behind Marseille after winning two and drawing four of their six group games.

Marseille went on to beat AC Milan 1-0 in the final at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, Basile Boli scoring the winning goal two minutes before half-time. For Leeds fans, however, the 1992-93 tournament will always be remembered for “that goal” by Speed.

It was a goal that not only epitomised the quality of the player but somehow embodied the essence of the man.

[email protected]