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With Tottenham and Real Madrid going head-to-head in the 2017/18 Champions League, this week I am taking a look back to their 1985 UEFA Cup quarter final, and two particularly harrowing games for Steve Perryman.

It said a lot regarding the recent fortunes of Real Madrid that, in the eyes of many, they went into their 1985 UEFA Cup quarter final with Tottenham as underdogs. A recent run of just one win in ten matches had seen the club slip out of the race for La Liga, something not made easier by the fact that Terry Venables' Barcelona were on their way to the title. Manager Amancio Amaro was under heaps of pressure, especially with President Luis de Carlos standing down, and Ramon Mendoza expected to take his place in the summer of '85.

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There is not much hope of Arsenal overturning their four goal deficit against Bayern Munich in the Champions League, but in 1984 QPR threw away the same advantage in their UEFA Cup tie with Partizan Belgrade.

The beginning of the 1980s was an exciting time for QPR supporters. Under the management of Terry Venables, the club were FA Cup finalists in 1982, won Division Two at a canter during the 1982/83 campaign, and a fifth-placed finish in their first season back in the top flight saw the team qualify for Europe. But there was trouble ahead.

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This article first appeared in issue 261 of The Gooner
There are times in the life of a football fan when you have to simply take defeat on the chin. You can't always blame the referee, manager, board, players, or the fact that you didn't have your lucky pants on, for your team being on the receiving end of a tonking. Sometimes the adage of being beaten by the better team on the day rings true, and although disappointing, at least you can accept the loss by compartmentalising it in this way.

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Not every story has a happy ending. Sometimes the boy doesn't get the girl and not everyone lives happily ever after. Sport is no different, the very nature of the beast meaning that more often or not there will be a tale of woe to be told, with plenty of visits to the hotel named Heartbreak. When the disappointment arrives after months of hope and expectation, it makes it an even more bitter pill to swallow.

Take Dundee United's gruelling 1986/87 season. A nine month campaign comprising of 67 matches in four different competitions (70 in five if you include the Forfarshire Cup), the season saw the Tayside club bring joy to their supporters and provide Scottish football with a boost when it was needed. Yet during five days in May the dream turned into a nightmare, two final defeats leaving Jim McLean's side without a pot to show for their efforts. Sport hurts.

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