Willie Miller names the REAL Aberdeen 83 upset as Real Madrid glory day plays second fiddle to crowning glory

Aberdeen beat the mighty Madrid to lift the European Cup Winners’ Cup but captain Willie Miller reckons battering Bayern Munich was their Real crowning glory.

The Spanish giants are the most successful club on the Continent having lifted the European Cup 14 times. But back in the 1982-83 season the Dons skipper was adamant the Bundesliga was the benchmark. So when Sir Alex Ferguson’s took out Bayern at Pittodrie in the quarter-finals that was the moment the upstarts felt they could go all the way. Aberdeen didn’t disappoint, walloping Belgians Waterschei in the semis before facing the iconic Real Madrid in the final in the Ullevi Stadium.

There may have been pressure but for Miller it was all on their more illustrious opponents. Sir Alex’s shock troops went out confident they could go all the way. And Miller proudly recalled: “It wasn’t like, oh this is Real Madrid. We had already beaten Bayern Munich and the Germans were better than the Spaniards at that time, although Real Madrid were of course a huge name in football.

“But for us, we had already beaten the best team in the competition so why can we not beat Real Madrid?

“None of us were overawed by the occasion and the way we played showed that we were fully focused and ready to embrace what was coming our way. I think it is a build-up of belief and in particular beating the Germans – no disrespect to the English by the way, it was always fun beating them!

“But we had a feeling the Germans were the ones to beat and the Bundesliga was pretty special in the 80s with the players they had available.

“We had taken a couple of defeats in the years prior to beating Bayern so you get that belief by playing teams of that level but you are also building belief through