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Another blog from the past by our very own Billy Campbell's ghost. His 1992 blog takes talks abut our win against the Italian giants in 1971-72 season. Enjoy

While all Rangers fans are rubbing their hands at the prospect of a European Cup Final against the seemingly invincible Italians of A.C. Milan, Dundee fans can recall with some pride our club's record against the Latin giants. We look back to another article written back in 1992 from our very own Billy Campbell's Ghost - Enjoy! A.C.MILAN - AGAIN For the record it reads: P W D L F A %Success 4 2 0 2 4 8 50% These were home and away legs in the European Cup and UEFA Cup in1963 and 1971 respectively and although Dundee lost both ties on aggregate they put up some magnificent displays which I will elaborate on later. I have actually had the good fortune to have attended a match at the San Siro Stadium as it is more commonly called although its official name is the Stadio Guiseppe Miazza, after a famous Inter player of the Fifties and in fact it has been called this for a number of years now. For the record, San Siro is a district in Milan and the name is still used, as tradition is hard to change. Witness our own 'Dens Park Stadium' - it will aye be Dens Park to me! I was in Italy on holiday in November 1979 with an Aberdeen based Dee fan and we headed for Milan as soon as we heard that they were at home that night to Borussia Munchengladbach in a second leg UEFA tie with the first leg score at 1-1. Finely balanced and with no love lost between the Italians and Germans – probably since the end of the war! We didn't have a ticket so it was a bit of a shot in the dark and ours fears were confirmed when the gates were locked around one hour before kick-off! We heard the roar of Milan going one up and at half-time they opened the gates so we piled in with what seemed 10,000 others and squeezed into a space at the highest point of the terracing - it was like watching a game of Subbuteo, the players were so small! Shock, horror, Borussia equalised and the tie thus went into extra-time. Milan took an early lead as the crazed Italians went berserk, lighting bonfires on the terracing and hurling missiles at the German goalie just for the fun of it. Fortunately he was protected by high netting behind the goal - missile throwing was obviously fairly standard over there. The teams turned around and Borussia did the unthinkable – they scored twice to win the game 3-2 on the night and the tie 4-3 on aggregate and if we thought we had seen crowd frenzy, the best (or worst) was yet to come! A small band of German supporters were immediately set upon and the blood really did flow and sent a feeling of real fear through us, as with our accents we did not want to be mistaken for German fans and suffer the same fate! Fortunately, we did escape the mayhem and headed off into the night to relive the excitement of the positive sides of the game. What stands out more than anything is the fanaticism of the fans and I'm sure an Old Firm game is not a patch on the Milan derby for atmosphere especially as the element of religious bigotry is missing. In Italy, the Milanese rivals are known as simply Milan and Inter. Milan were formed by British ex-pats as the Milan Football and Cricket Club in 1909 and the introduction of laws banning quotas of foreign players led to a split within the ranks and the offshoot became Internationale, more commonly known as Inter Milan with their name reflecting their team make up. Both clubs had relative success before the Second World War but since then they have enjoyed great Championship wins and regular European triumphs. If you are a viewer of Channel Four's 'Soccer Italia' you will notice on certain team jerseys there are gold stars above the club crest. Each gold star represents ten Serie 'A' championship wins. See how many you can spot - I think only Milan, Inter and Juventus have the coveted gold star - or stars! On the subject of team jerseys, has anyone noticed how the Italian clubs never mess with their strip design thus adding to the aura surrounding the traditions of these clubs- wouldn't it be nice to see your team wearing a strip that the players and opponents respected instead of whatever jazzy design that the marketing men produce each year? Dundee's tie in 1971/72 was epic and will always remain in the memories of fans who were there that cold December night a few weeks after an incredible victory over Cologne. Dundee crashed 3-0 in the first leg in Milan with star striker Romeo Benetti hitting two and the Golden Boy of Italian soccer, Gianni Rivera the only survivor from the 1963 encounter against Dundee. A modest crowd of around 16,000 turned up at Dens hoping Dundee could repeat the same amazing comeback they had achieved against Cologne with a few thousand stay-at homes convinced it was beyond them. Duncan Lambie played normally as a winger but that night manager John Prentice pulled a master stroke by moving him into an old-fashioned inside-forward role as he realised the Italians did not relish players running at them and Duncan had tremendous ability to take players on - and usually beat them! The teams that walked out that night on the 8 December 1971 were: Dundee: Hewitt, R.Wilson, Houston, Steele, Philip, Stewart, Duncan, Lambie, Wallace, Scott, J.Wilson. A.C. Milan: Cudicini, Sabatini, Zignoli, Anguiletti, Schnellinger, Biasolti, Villa, Bennetti, Bignon, Rivera, Prati. There was great anticipation in the air as the crowd gathered at Dens prepared to give the Italians the traditional booing which seems to be reserved for Italian sides - probably a throwback to their invention of the 'catenaccio', the lock, which made massed defending an art and this along with their reputation for the cynical foul made them a target for the boo-boys. Once the game had started, it was Dundee, as expected, who threw everything into attack and hit the Italians with a flurry of near things. It was only a matter of time till the Dark Blues scored and sure enough it was John Duncan who slotted one in early in the first half. By this time Duncan Lambie was causing havoc in the normally cool Milan defence and his darting, penetrating runs were running them ragged! Just before half-time Dens Park erupted as Gordon Wallace made it 2-0 with a close-range effort to put the home fans in the land of make-believe and dreaming of Euro-glory. There was still the second half after all. As time wore on into the second period Dundee grew more and more frustrated as Milan learned to cope with the onslaught and time ran out too quickly for Dundee. A despairing miss by Gordon Wallace had the Dens crowd almost hysterical and suddenly it was all over - it was one of those games when you expect a few minutes of injury time and the ref blows exactly on the 90 minutes! It was all over and Dundee for the second time in ten years had bowed out to the Italian giants, but again were far from disgraced and had perhaps even given them the fright of their lives. With the likes of Papin, Van Basten, Lentini and Rikaard, the Rangers team that may get the chance to play them should not only have a night to remember but make the most of the privilege as should the supporters because the current Milan crop are even more awesome than their predecessors with a run of over 50 games undefeated. In fact, Rangers may be the team with the last chance to defeat them this season if they reach the final of The Big One on 26 May 1993. One things sure, if they do break the unbelievable sequence they will become legends. One final thought - if Rangers succeed, does that make us European Champions on the strength of our 4-3 win earlier this season? - Just a thought, honest!

We look back to another article written back in 1992 from our very own Billy Campbell's Ghost - Enjoy! A.C.MILAN - AGAIN For the record it reads: P W D L F A %Success 4 2 0 2 4 8 50% These were home and away legs in the European Cup and UEFA Cup in1963 and 1971 respectively and although Dundee lost both ties on aggregate they put up some magnificent displays which I will elaborate on later. I have actually had the good fortune to have attended a match at the San Siro Stadium as it is more commonly called although its official name is the Stadio Guiseppe Miazza, after a famous Inter player of the Fifties and in fact it has been called this for a number of years now. For the record, San Siro is a district in Milan and the name is still used, as tradition is hard to change. Witness our own 'Dens Park Stadium' - it will aye be Dens Park to me! I was in Italy on holiday in November 1979 with an Aberdeen based Dee fan and we headed for Milan as soon as we heard that they were at home that night to Borussia Munchengladbach in a second leg UEFA tie with the first leg score at 1-1. Finely balanced and with no love lost between the Italians and Germans – probably since the end of the war! We didn't have a ticket so it was a bit of a shot in the dark and ours fears were confirmed when the gates were locked around one hour before kick-off! We heard the roar of Milan going one up and at half-time they opened the gates so we piled in with what seemed 10,000 others and squeezed into a space at the highest point of the terracing - it was like watching a game of Subbuteo, the players were so small! Shock, horror, Borussia equalised and the tie thus went into extra-time. Milan took an early lead as the crazed Italians went berserk, lighting bonfires on the terracing and hurling missiles at the German goalie just for the fun of it. Fortunately he was protected by high netting behind the goal - missile throwing was obviously fairly standard over there. The teams turned around and Borussia did the unthinkable – they scored twice to win the game 3-2 on the night and the tie 4-3 on aggregate and if we thought we had seen crowd frenzy, the best (or worst) was yet to come! A small band of German supporters were immediately set upon and the blood really did flow and sent a feeling of real fear through us, as with our accents we did not want to be mistaken for German fans and suffer the same fate! Fortunately, we did escape the mayhem and headed off into the night to relive the excitement of the positive sides of the game. What stands out more than anything is the fanaticism of the fans and I'm sure an Old Firm game is not a patch on the Milan derby for atmosphere especially as the element of religious bigotry is missing. In Italy, the Milanese rivals are known as simply Milan and Inter. Milan were formed by British ex-pats as the Milan Football and Cricket Club in 1909 and the introduction of laws banning quotas of foreign players led to a split within the ranks and the offshoot became Internationale, more commonly known as Inter Milan with their name reflecting their team make up. Both clubs had relative success before the Second World War but since then they have enjoyed great Championship wins and regular European triumphs. If you are a viewer of Channel Four's 'Soccer Italia' you will notice on certain team jerseys there are gold stars above the club crest. Each gold star represents ten Serie 'A' championship wins. See how many you can spot - I think only Milan, Inter and Juventus have the coveted gold star - or stars! On the subject of team jerseys, has anyone noticed how the Italian clubs never mess with their strip design thus adding to the aura surrounding the traditions of these clubs- wouldn't it be nice to see your team wearing a strip that the players and opponents respected instead of whatever jazzy design that the marketing men produce each year? Dundee's tie in 1971/72 was epic and will always remain in the memories of fans who were there that cold December night a few weeks after an incredible victory over Cologne. Dundee crashed 3-0 in the first leg in Milan with star striker Romeo Benetti hitting two and the Golden Boy of Italian soccer, Gianni Rivera the only survivor from the 1963 encounter against Dundee. A modest crowd of around 16,000 turned up at Dens hoping Dundee could repeat the same amazing comeback they had achieved against Cologne with a few thousand stay-at homes convinced it was beyond them. Duncan Lambie played normally as a winger but that night manager John Prentice pulled a master stroke by moving him into an old-fashioned inside-forward role as he realised the Italians did not relish players running at them and Duncan had tremendous ability to take players on - and usually beat them! The teams that walked out that night on the 8 December 1971 were: Dundee: Hewitt, R.Wilson, Houston, Steele, Philip, Stewart, Duncan, Lambie, Wallace, Scott, J.Wilson. A.C. Milan: Cudicini, Sabatini, Zignoli, Anguiletti, Schnellinger, Biasolti, Villa, Bennetti, Bignon, Rivera, Prati. There was great anticipation in the air as the crowd gathered at Dens prepared to give the Italians the traditional booing which seems to be reserved for Italian sides - probably a throwback to their invention of the 'catenaccio', the lock, which made massed defending an art and this along with their reputation for the cynical foul made them a target for the boo-boys. Once the game had started, it was Dundee, as expected, who threw everything into attack and hit the Italians with a flurry of near things. It was only a matter of time till the Dark Blues scored and sure enough it was John Duncan who slotted one in early in the first half. By this time Duncan Lambie was causing havoc in the normally cool Milan defence and his darting, penetrating runs were running them ragged! Just before half-time Dens Park erupted as Gordon Wallace made it 2-0 with a close-range effort to put the home fans in the land of make-believe and dreaming of Euro-glory. There was still the second half after all. As time wore on into the second period Dundee grew more and more frustrated as Milan learned to cope with the onslaught and time ran out too quickly for Dundee. A despairing miss by Gordon Wallace had the Dens crowd almost hysterical and suddenly it was all over - it was one of those games when you expect a few minutes of injury time and the ref blows exactly on the 90 minutes! It was all over and Dundee for the second time in ten years had bowed out to the Italian giants, but again were far from disgraced and had perhaps even given them the fright of their lives. With the likes of Papin, Van Basten, Lentini and Rikaard, the Rangers team that may get the chance to play them should not only have a night to remember but make the most of the privilege as should the supporters because the current Milan crop are even more awesome than their predecessors with a run of over 50 games undefeated. In fact, Rangers may be the team with the last chance to defeat them this season if they reach the final of The Big One on 26 May 1993. One things sure, if they do break the unbelievable sequence they will become legends. One final thought - if Rangers succeed, does that make us European Champions on the strength of our 4-3 win earlier this season? - Just a thought, honest! View full blog

In what turned out to be another famous European night at dens park despite the outcome favouring our opposition over two legs, Dundee beat Italian giant's AC Milan 2-0 in the UEFA cup 3rd round return match in the competitions inaugural season. The Dark Blues had been well beaten 3-0 in the first leg at the San Siro so it was always going to be an uphill task but the home side certainly made it a nervy occasion for the Rossoneris. Gianni Rivera gave Milan the lead after only fourteen minutes into the 1st leg and they would double it just five minutes into the second half when George Stewart turned the ball into his own net. The victory was all but wrapped up when Romeo Benetti netted AC Milan’s third goal with twenty minutes left to play. A crowd of 15,500 turned up at Dens Park on the 8th December 1971 in the hope that their heroes could do the unbelievable and knock the Italians out of the cup. In attendance that night also hoping to see Dundee defy the odds was former League winning manager Bob Shankly. Dundee would go ahead on the 38th minute when a Duncan Lambie cross was headed home by Gordon Wallace. Dundee would continue to look for the equaliser but despite the pressure they were applying to their opponents, the Dark Blues would find it hard to make another break through against a defence who would only concede seventeen goals in the league that season. Of course, it wasn’t just the Italians lineage of quality defending that kept Dundee at bay, it was also the blatant time-wasting tactics that they resorted to with the Dee ramping up the pressure. We would score another goal with sixteen minutes left on the clock when Duncan Lambie’s long-range drive struck the post and then fell into the path of John Duncan who slotted home the rebound to make It 2-0 and set up a grandstand finish. The home side would push for the goal that would take the tie into extra-time but despite a frantic last ten minutes for Milan, they were able to see out the tie to win 3-2 on aggregate and book their spot in the Quarter Finals to face Belgium side Lierse S.K. who they would beat 3-1 over both legs. This would set up a semi-final clash with eventual winners Tottenham Hotspur who would defeat the Italian side with a certain Alan Gilzean (who previously faced Milan during our run to the European Cup Semi-Final back in 1962-63) in their side. Even though the end of the night had seen another European campaign come to an end for Dundee, the crowd gave the players a standing ovation as they left the pitch after they had served up a performance that if we had struck earlier, could very well have went on to get the result that would have seen us and not Milan get our hats into the draw for the next round. This win however continued our undefeated streak at home in Europe since our maiden campaign in 1962/63. We had gone twelve games without a loss at home and this was our tenth victory at Dens against some of Europe’s finest teams. This tie also signalled AC Milan’s second visit to Dens Park and just like the first one, they would fail to score on our turf and taste defeat. Of course, on both encounters, the results at the San Siro would give us an uphill battle and eventually be the results that got them through. Still, isn’t nice to say that a team who have been champions of Europe seven times have played twice at Dens, lost twice and failed to score. Dundee Line Up Hewitt, B.Wilson, Houston, Steele, Philip, Stewart, Duncan, Lambie, Wallace, J.Scott (80), J.Wilson (46) Subs: Johnston (46), I.Scott (80) AC Milan line Up Cudicini, Sabadini, Zignoli, Anquilletti, Schnellinger, Biasiolo, Sogliano, Benetti, Bigon (46), Rivera, Prati Subs: Villa (46) Match Highlights

In what turned out to be another famous European night at dens park despite the outcome favouring our opposition over two legs, Dundee beat Italian giant's AC Milan 2-0 in the UEFA cup 3rd round return match in the competitions inaugural season. View full news article

After covering all our European home ties from 1962/63 against Cologne, Sporting Lisbon and Anderlecht, it's now time to have a look at our semi-final. We continue our programmes with the past with our last game in the European Cup that came at Dens Park in a 1-0 victory over AC Milan on the 1st May, 1962. The scene was set but the it was to be an uphill battle for Dundee in this Semi-Final 2nd leg after AC Milan had beat us 5-1 at the San Siro. Alan Cousin got our goal in that tie, becoming the first British player to score at the Italian venue. It was later revealed that the referee for the tie in Milan, Vincente Caballero, was found guilty of being wined, dined and accepting lavish gifts from the AC officials and was banned from officiating any other games. Also, the Italian press situated their selves behind the Dundee goal and every time Bert Slater went for the ball, the camera flashes were blinding him. So, it was onto the second leg at Dens Park with 38,000 fans descending onto to Dens with the hope that their club could stage an unlikely comeback. The first half was constantly interrupted for fouls being committed but the Dee would take the lead before half time when Alan Gilzean headed home from a Gordon Smith cross. This was Gilzean’s ninth goal in this competition and to this day, remains the clubs top goal scorer in all European competitions There would be no more goals in the second half and despite winning the tie 1-0, Dundee would exit the competition 5-2 on aggregate. Alan Gilzean would also be sent off when after becoming frustrated by the Italians rough tactics, lashed out with minutes to go. It was the end of Dundee’s European adventure and despite being disappointed with missing out on reaching the final at Wembley, the team had not only done their city proud, but also Scotland. The teams that night were: Dundee: Slater, Hamilton, Seith, Stuart, Ure, Penman, Smith, Wishart, Cousin, Gilzean, Houston AC Milan: Ghezzi, Benítez, Maldini, Trebbi, Rivera, Altafini, Barison, Mora, Pivatelli Attendance: 38,000

After covering all our European home ties from 1962/63 against Cologne, Sporting Lisbon and Anderlecht, it's now time to have a look at our semi-final. View full news article