Aston Villa sealed their place in the semi-finals of the European Cup on this day in 1982 as they progressed past Dynamo Kyiv.
Following a hard-fought goalless draw in the first leg in eastern Europe, Villa secured a famous 2-0 home triumph to confirm their progress into the last four of the competition – which would eventually see the club lift the famous trophy on a memorable night in Rotterdam.
The first leg of the quarter-final saw plenty of openings, the hosts hitting the woodwork and having a goal disallowed while Villa, for whom Tony Barton was in charge, were thwarted as Gary Shaw was denied by a brilliant save from Kyiv goalkeeper Viktor Chanov.
Having secured a crucial first-leg clean sheet, almost 40,000 fans were at Villa Park for the return encounter on 17 March, 1982 and they were celebrating early on as Shaw opened the scoring within the opening stages of the encounter.
On a challenging sandy and muddy playing surface, Villa’s No.8 won possession on the edge of the penalty area and drove towards the byline before finding the net at the near post with a left-footed strike from an impossible angle.
And the Villans doubled their lead on the stroke of half-time when Ken McNaught rose highest to meet Gordon Cowans’ corner and head home – sealing a 2-0 aggregate success, albeit with the loss of captain Dennis Mortimer late on to an arm injury following a heavy fall.
Progress past Kyiv, following wins over Valur and Dynamo Berlin, set up a semi-final showdown against Anderlecht.
As we continue to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the club's European Cup success, join Shaw and Cowans plus Villa team-mates Tony Morley, Des Bremner and Kenny Swain to relive our quarter-final triumph over Dynamo Kyiv en route to the final.
