First watched : 25 May 1977
The 1977 European Cup Final was another milestone in my engagement with football, the second full match I ever watched.
It was Liverpool's first appearance in the Final and they were playing just four days after being defeated by Manchester United in the FA Cup Final. They were the third English club to reach the Final after United's victory in 1968 and Leeds' controversial defeat in 1975. They were playing the German side Borussia Monchengladbach in Rome. The match was also going to be significant as Kevin Keegan's last appearance for Liverpool as negotiations for his move to the German club SV Hamburg were now public knowledge.
Although Keegan didn't score in the game he was probably man of the match leading perennial fall guy Berti Vogts who was marking him, a merry dance. The moment I remember best is veteran hatchet man Tommy Smith putting Liverpool back in front from a corner and commentator Barry Davies's delighted surprise at this unlikely scorer. The match ended 3-1 to Liverpool and began a long run of unbroken English success in the competition involving three different clubs.
Keegan was not the only player whose Liverpool career was coming to an end. His usual strike partner John Toshack was felt not to have recovered sufficiently from injury for the game and only made five appearances the following season before being allowed to join Swnsea City as player-manager. His replacement on the bench Alan Waddle left for Leicester in the summer and another unused sub Alec Lindsay went to Stoke. Reserve goalkeeper Peter McDonnell left for Oldham a few months later having never made a League appearance for the Reds. Smith had planned to make the match his last but was persuaded to continue and made another 34 appearances before joining Toshack at Swansea .
The game was probably the pinnacle of Borussia Monchengladbach's 1970s heyday although they won the UEFA Cup two years later. In the eighties they slipped back, unable to compete financially with the likes of Bayern Munich and haven't regained their former standing since.
Liverpool retained the trophy the following year, having the advantage of playing at Wembley against Belgian champions FC Bruges. Ray Clemence was a virtual spectator in that game as the Belgians camped in their own half although he needed to rescue the situation after a bad back pass from young centre half Alan Hansen after eighty minutes. Kenny Dalglish scored the only goal with a chip over the keeper from a tight angle. Record appearance holder Ian Callaghan was an unused sub for the game before he too went to Swansea.
Liverpool only qualified for the following year as holders, having lost the domestic title to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. As Forest had no European pedigree they weren't seeded and so conceivably could be drawn against Liverpool. That's exactly what happened and Clough outwitted Paisley to see Forest through 2-0 on aggregate. That hurdle negotiated Forest went through to the Final after surviving a real wobble in the semis against FC Cologne. Their unlikely opponents were Sweden's Malmo FC managed by Englishman Roy Hoghton who had somehow scraped their way through.
Malmo played as defensively as Bruges the year before but Forest had an ace up their sleeve in £1,000,000 man ( how quaint that seems now ) Trevor Francis making his European debut. I remember my Mum thrilling to one of his runs and my retorting "Well you don't pay a million pounds for nothing !" Francis duly stamped his mark on the competition by settling the game with a headed goal from a John Robertson cross.
The following season Forest got to the Final again with Dinamo Tibilisi removing Liverpool ( who had regained the title in emphatic fashion ) . Now featuring former Leeds man Frank Gray at left back, desperate to make up for the disappointment of five years earlier, Forest faced SV Hamburg including Kevin Keegan. To be honest I don't recall much of the match which was settled by a John Robertson goal in the first half. Forest's veteran striker John O' Hare made his last appearance as a substitute in the Final.
I can't remember who ended Forest's run in the competition in 1980-81 but it wasn't either of the Finalists, Liverpool and Real Madrid. Liverpool won with a goal from Alan Kennedy but deep into revision for my O Levels I didn't watch the game.
Liverpool didn't make it to the next Final but we were represented by 1980-81's surprise domestic champions Aston Villa. I watched this one with great trepidation feeling sure England's run would be over now. Villa had little European experience, had made a poor defence of their title finishing ninth in the League and had lost their manager Ron Saunders just a couple of months earlier. My fears increased when goalkeeper Jimmy Rimmer had to come off after 10 minutes and be replaced by Nigel Spink making only his second appearance for the club. He held his nerve though , and his place in the side for the next decade, and Villa won 1-0 with a headed goal from Peter Withe.
But all good things come to an end and neither Liverpool nor Villa made it to the Final in 1983 so I had no interest in watching that one. Liverpool made the next one which they won via a penalty shoot-out when Bruce Grobbelaar did his famous wobbly legs routine. I was at University by then and I have a feeling I only caught the tail end of that one. I have a feeling that the following year I walked out of the room before the game itself had begun having seen enough with the violence at the Heysel Stadium. Liverpool lost the game and English clubs had to sit out European competition for the next five years.
The next one I watched was the 1991 final between Red Star Belgrade and Marseilles. I had become captivated by Yugoslavia after their performance in the 1990 World Cup and they seemed to be the coming nation with players like Prosinecki, Pancev and Savicevic all of whom were in the Red Star line up. Red Star had further endeared themselves to me with their utter demolition of Rangers in the Second Round. Marseilles ironically had the greatest Yugoslav player of all in Dragan Stojkovic though he was so doubtful through injury that he only appeared as an extra-time substitute. Unfortunately Red Star decided their best tactic was playing for penalties from the first minute and the game was a crushing bore decided by Pancev's nerveless penalty in the shoot-out. Then the reason why Yugoslavia under-achieved internationally became all too obvious as ethnic tensions tore the country apart and that great team was rent asunder. The successor nations have had their moments but none have ever looked strong enough to really challenge for the big prizes. Stojkovic sadly wasted the latter part of his career playing second rate football in Japan and remains there as a successful manager.
After the 1992 Final of course things changed completely. I don't consider the Champions League to be a continuation of the European Cup so that will have to come later.
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