On 26th February 1962, a freezing cold Monday night, Spurs played the second leg of their European Cup Quarter Final tie against Dukla Prague. Less than a fortnight earlier, the Czech team had won the first leg 1-0, with the single goal coming half way through second half. Despite no away goal (Bobby Smith had one disallowed for offside), Bill Nick was satisfied with the result and expected us to finish the job once we got them back to White Hart Lane
Despite the snowbound, frost ridden pitch that was bone hard, there seemed little doubt on the night that Spurs would win the second leg.
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This expectation was quickly made reality, with Spurs ahead 2-0 inside 15 minutes. The first goal came after 11 minutes when White flicked on a Blanchflower free-kick and Smith hammered the ball home from close range. Just five minutes later, White found Mackay, who brought the ball under control with his left foot and smashed the ball into the net with his right foot.
In the opening seconds of the second half, an error by Marchi allowed Jelinek to level the scores on aggregate. In effect, the Czech side were ahead because they had succeeded in scoring an away goal. But Spurs were not to be denied their place in the semi final. Five minutes after Jelinek’s goal, Smith headed home a super cross from White. Just a minute later, a crisp free kick taken by Baker was backheaded by Smith to Mackay, who raced into the penalty area and cracked in a beautiful goal with his left foot.
A real glory, glory night inder the lights at the Lane. GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH! SPURS GO MARCHING ON! rang out all around the Lane from the 55,388 crowd, with the boys in their all white strip (on an all white pitch!). A one sided match, that saw Spurs progressed to the European Cup Semi Final at their first attempt. So one sided was the match that Bill Brown was only troubled once, apart from the goal.
Spurs team:- Brown; Baker, Henry, Blanchflower, Norman, Marchi, Medwin, White, R. Smith, Mackay, Jones
Spurs were drawn against Benfica in the Semi-Finals. Everyone thought the winners of this tie would probably go on to win the European Cup. And sadly for Spurs ….. they were right