Flashback... Cork City's draw with Bayern will never be forgotten

TUESDAY'S clash with Rosenborg will mark the first time that Cork City have competed in two European competitions in the one season.

Having exited the Champions League with defeat to Legia Warsaw, City dropped into the Europa League, though they received a bye through the second qualifying round and into the third, where they were drawn against the losers of the Celtic-Rosenborg tie.

The Europa League, or the Uefa Cup as it was previously known, is the competition in which City have featured the most – these will be the club’s 29th and 30th games in it.

Their first and second were back in 1991, a tie that will live long in the memory, as they were drawn against German giants Bayern Munich.

City were in China at time, competing in the Shanghai Marlboro Cup, and the draw in Geneva was kind to them, with Bayern having been in the European Cup semi-finals only two months previously, losing out to eventual winners Red Star Belgrade due to a last-minute own goal.

Of course, with such a plum draw came other considerations, not least the fact that Turner’s Cross, with little in the way of infrastructure beyond the famous Shed behind the Curragh Road goal, was not up to the standards required.

With Páirc Uí Chaoimh obviously unavailable, Musgrave Park was the natural choice, and City had used it for friendlies against Celtic, Leeds United and Manchester City that summer.

In order to comply with Uefa regulations, City had to undertake to erect a two-metre-high fence at a cost of around IR£5,000, while Mark Woods of The Cork Examiner estimated that the away leg would require an outlay of IR£30,000, taking in flights to Munich and a stay at the Sheraton hotel in the Bavarian capital.

The Munster Branch had given an undertaking that no rugby games would take place on the Musgrave turf ahead of the first leg on September 18.

Approximately 4,500 were present for the Wednesday afternoon kick-off and it was to prove to be a hugely memorable occasion, even though City were deprived of the presence of Philip Long, new signing Johnny Glynn, Declan Hyde and Cormac Cotter due to injury.

Mick Conroy, having graduated to a player-coach role and with just one reserve game under his belt, was drafted into midfield and was outstanding, but it is a game which will always be associated with one of his colleagues, Dave Barry.

In the 26th minute, he wrote himself indelibly into League of Ireland European folklore. After Conroy won the ball from Bernardo, he played it forward to Barry, who turned sweeper Rolan Grahammer and fired a low shot past goalkeeper Gerald Hillringhaus.

For 16 glorious minutes, the home faithful dared to dream of a most unlikely upset, but just before half-time Bayern drew level through Germany international midfielder Stefan Effenberg, slotting home after Thomas Berthold’s shot was blocked.

Mazinho – who would win a World Cup medal with Brazil in 1994 – should have scored for Bayern early in the second half but Phil Harrington made an outstanding save while Franz Wohlfarth should have scored as well.

Barry drew a save from Hillringhaus at the other end and Anthony Kenneally could have netted too, though Bayern sub Manfred Schwabl nearly got the winner at the death, his shot coming back off the post.

Neverthless, it was a famous result and goal hero Barry was happy to relive his role.

“I could see this big German sweeper coming across me at speed,” he said.

“I knew if I beat him I was in with a chance of scoring, so I faked a shot with my left foot and he went flying by.

“Because their goalkeeper was so good, I thought I had better hammer in a shot on target rather than trying to place it, so I decided to let fly and although he got a touch to it, the ball ended up in the net.”

Having conceded the away goal, it was obviously an uphill task for City as they headed for the second leg at the Olympiastadion on October 1.

While there were ‘only’ 13,500 present, they were forced to wait until the closing stages to see their heroes finally get the result many expected to be a foregone conclusion as City defended brilliantly.

Early on, Conroy made a great stop on the line to deny Mazinho while Harrington saved from Hans Pfugler and Bruno Labbadia twice went close before finding the net on the stroke of half-time only for the offside flag to save City.

Harrington twice saved from Schwabl in the second half and City had a couple of chances of their own. When Hillringhaus saved from Barry, the ball fell just behind Paul Bannon and John Caulfield fired over from Pat Morley’s pass.

The introduction of Wohlfarth brought an extra dimension to Bayern’s play and he set up the opening goal on 75 as he squared for Labbadia to net from close range.

Even then, a City goal would have forced extra time but they couldn’t engineer a chance and Bayern made sure of the win in the final minute as Christian Ziege netted from the penalty spot following a handball.

City were out, but far from down after holding their own against a side of such renown.