The return of a European football giant to north-east Scotland was marked with a reprint of a 25-year-old paper.

Bayern Munich played Aberdeen FC in the Uefa Cup last night prompting the city’s Evening Express to print the entire paper from the last time they met.

Managed by Sir Alex Ferguson, Aberdeen famously beat the German giants 3-2 in March 1983 in the quarter-finals of the now defunct European Cup Winners’ Cup.

They went on to win that trophy as well as the Scottish Cup and the European Super Cup in 1983.

The exact reprint, minus a couple of old court cases, was slipped inside last night’s edition as an extra freebie for readers.

And on the Evening Express’ website fans can download videos of Aberdeen’s goals from that victory.

The day after the night before – Aberdeen celebrates a famous victory

Editor Damian Bates told holdthefrontpage: “That was a glorious season. We were the complete underdogs then and also now.

“There was a great mood of optimism although that optimism is not that bright now.

“We just wanted to tap into that and have some fun. There’s an appetite for nostalgia.

“It was great to show Dons legends like Gordon Strachan’s and Alex McLeish’s reactions at the time. It’s just a really nice look back.

“We reproduced a broadsheet paper as it was then and put it into copies of the tabloid format as it is now.

“It’s not as difficult as you might think. Nothing that couldn’t be overcome with a little bit of creativity.”

Comments

Sean Graham (17/02/2008 00:22:58)
Great idea,I was up at the match and bought an Evening Express and it was great to read a report from the match that has gone down in Pittodrie history as the greatest match ever seen at the ground and Aberdeen went on to lift the Cup Winners Cup in 1983.Some of the team were at the match and came on at half-time.It was a great idea as some of the kids who went to the match were too young to remember the heroes of Gothenburg.It was a great achievement by the Dons all those years ago and they will be celebrating 25 years of that fantastic victory over Real Madrid on May 11th this year,let’s hope the papers bring out another special edition of the paper.