The second club competition to receive formal sanction from UEFA (predated five years before by the European Cup), the Cup Winners’ Cup was instigated in 1960 for the national cup victors in countries affiliated to the governing body of Europe.
At the outset of the 1960s the competition for league title winners of each country had already proved a great success, (particularly on the part of Real Madrid, the Spanish champions winning the European Cup in each of its first five seasons), the first year of the new decade bringing forth a new tournament for the cup winners of their respective country.
For the moment UEFA gave approval, but no official commitment to the Cup Winners’ Cup – the inaugural staging overseen by the Mitropa Cup committee, who had been hosting that competition, an invitation tournament for clubs from central Europe, since the late 1920s.
After being suspended during World War Two, the Mitropa Cup was resurrected and during the 1950s had been won by the likes of Rapid Vienna and Red Star Belgrade. Due to domestic cup football being viewed in dismissive manner in countries such as Spain and France, Atletico Madrid and Monaco declined the invitation to participate in the first Cup Winners’ Cup – but on behalf of England and Scotland Wolverhampton Wanderers and Rangers accepted as part of a ten club intake.
Despite an entry that just reached double figures, the Cup Winners Cup generated sufficient interest through the 1960-61 season, (notable attendances attached to every fixture played by Rangers on their route to and including the final), for UEFA to take control of the competition from 1961-62 onwards – a season that would see the number of entrants more than double. (While the Inter-City Fairs Cup had been around since 1955, it would not be formally recognised as a fully-fledged UEFA tournament until 1972 when revamped as the UEFA Cup).
As the 1960s unfolded English clubs would experience varying fortunes from their sorties into the Cup Winners’ Cup, nine years that returned two winners, but also excellent teams failing to make much headway on the back of FA Cup glory the previous season.
There would be near misses in the form of beaten finalist and losing semi-finalists, the decade bookended by the one and only excursions of Black Country neighbours Wolves and West Brom, each of whom failed where in between London rivals Spurs and West Ham succeeded.
Some great footballers – Denis Law, Bobby Charlton, Alan Ball, George Best, Gordon Banks, Pat Jennings, Roger Hunt, Ian St. John, Peter Broadbent, Ron Flowers, Jeff Astle – are all have-nots in regard to a winners medal from the competition. But a list of haves including Jimmy Greaves, John White, Danny Blanchflower, Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst is none too shabby either.
SAMTIMONIOUS.com hereby trawls the 1960s in separating the lauded from the losers among English clubs in the European Cup Winners’ Cup………
1960-61: England representatives – WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS: After featuring in the European Cup during the past two seasons following successive league title triumphs, Wolves, who were pipped by a point to the Championship by Burnley, became the first English club to contest the Cup Winners’ Cup – the disappointment of not landing a hat-trick of titles partially offset by 1960 FA Cup success.
Yet after so nearly achieving the league and cup double in 1959-60, Wolves struggled for consistency through the following campaign, eventually finishing seven points behind champions Spurs (who achieved the double feat), while surrendering the FA Cup in a surprise third round defeat at second division Huddersfield Town.
Such inconsistency was reflected in their opening Cup Winners’ Cup engagements against Rapid Vienna. With both sides entering at the quarter-final stage (effectively round one), on October 12 1960, Wolves were beaten 2-0 in the Austrian capital, but in the Molineux return on the final day of November scored five – John Kirkham (2), Bobby Mason, Peter Broadbent (2) – without reply in advancing to the last four.
At the semi-final stage they were paired with Rangers, the Glasgow side having also competed in the European Cup the previous season. Having come through a preliminary round fixture against Hungarian outfit Ferencvaros, Rangers had then dispatched Borussia Munchengladbach in the last eight, an 8-0 Ibrox demolition of the West Germans taking the overall margin of victory to 11-0.
On 29th March 1960 almost 80,000 were present as goals from Ralph Brand and Alex Scott (who would later become a Goodison Park favourite in winning league and FA Cup honours with Everton) saw Rangers to a 2-0 first-leg victory. The Molineux second-leg on April 19 occurred four days after Scotland had received a 9-3 trouncing off England, three Rangers players, full-backs Bob Shearer and Eric Caldow along with winger Davie Wilson (Brand and Jim Baxter members of the squad but not picked) in the team that had been walloped at Wembley.
On this occasion, however, it proved an altogether more gratifying experience for those in blue shirts, Scott scoring on the stroke of half-time to put Rangers firmly in control, a second half goal from Broadbent earning Wolves a draw but otherwise of no great consequence.
As the final whistle approached, a confrontation between Brand and Wolves England international half-back Eddie Clamp caused a hail of bottles to rain from the South Bank where many Rangers followers among the 45,000 crowd were gathered. While twelve months later events in Cuba brought the world to a halt, my late dad recalled this match being stopped by what he always referred to as the ‘Molineux missile crisis‘.
It would not the be the last time followers of an Old Firm side sent a Cup Winners Cup’ message via bottles.
In becoming the first British club to reach a European final, Rangers went down 4-1 on aggregate to Italian side Fiorentina, the only occasion when the Cup Winners’ Cup Final would be played on a home and away basis – Ibrox packed with 80,000 for the first-leg 2-0 defeat.
1961-62: England representatives – LEICESTER CITY: By virtue of Tottenham Hotspur becoming the first team of the 20th Century to achieve the League and FA Cup double, with White Hart Lane preparing for European Cup football, the Cup’ Winners Cup place went to Leicester City – the team beaten by Spurs in the 1961 FA Cup Final.
From a first season of only ten entrants, the number climbed to twenty three for the second, the Filbert Street side drawn in the preliminary round against Glenavon, the first club from Northern Ireland to take part.
On 13 September 1961, goals from Colin Appleton, James Walsh (2) and Ken Keyworth, emphasised the difference between a side who had finished sixth in Division One the previous season (including future England goalkeeper Gordon Banks) and the Belfast part-timers – who had still managed to take an early lead through Jimmy Jones before succumbing to a 4-1 defeat.
At Filbert Street a fortnight later, Gordon Wills, Keyworth and Hugh McIlmoyle were on target for the home side who completed the formalities in recording a 7-2 aggregate victory as Northern Ireland international Sammy Wilson replied for Glenavon.
The first round proper then brought Leicester the completely different proposition of Atletico Madrid, the first club to represent Spain in the competition. After a 1-1 Filbert Street draw on October 25 (Keyworth again scoring), the Foxes then went down 2-0 in the mid-November return as Atletico progressed to the last eight.
As the tournament continued to unfold, the Spaniards and holders Fiorentina kept avoiding each other until they eventually met in the Hampden Park final on May 10 1962 – this Glasgow encounter ending in a 1-1 draw, but with the World Cup in Chile looming and players from both clubs selected for their national sides, it was agreed to delay the replay until start of the following season.
In Stuttgart four months later, Fiorentina were denied retention of the trophy as Atletico registered a 3-0 victory, leaving Leicester the belated consolation of being eliminated by the eventual winners.
1962-63: England representatives – TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: During a frenetic 61-62 season that followed their double winning campaign, Tottenham Hotspur reached the semi-finals of the European Cup, signed the incomparable Jimmy Greaves from AC Milan, finished third in the table and retained the FA Cup.
Hence Spurs carried English hopes into the ensuing Cup Winners’ Cup campaign – the English, nay British wait for a European trophy, almost at an end.
Not required for preliminary round duty, their first round opponents Rangers were, the Ibrox side overcoming Spanish opposition Seville by a 4-2 aggregate margin.
With three notable Scotsmen – Bill Brown, Dave Mackay and John White – in their own ranks, Spurs played host to Rangers on Halloween night 1962. Taking advantage of a first half horror show from the visitors defence, White, Greaves and Les Allen (2) all netted for the North Londoners, who themselves were breached by Jimmy Millar and Willie Henderson – the latter in the Rangers team that would lose the 1967 final and still on the books at Ibrox (although not in the side) that lifted the trophy in 1972.
England centre-half Maurice Norman ensured Spurs had a three goal buffer to take north of the border when his header completed the scoring in a 5-2 victory. After the return was delayed by a week due to Ibrox being shrouded in fog on the original date, come December 11 there was more gloom for Rangers when Greaves struck from the visitors first attack and although Brand levelled, by the break Spurs were back in front through Bobby Smith.
With another 80,000 Ibrox gate looking on, Davie Smith levelled for the hosts but even then the visitors were not done, Smith scoring late on to clinch a 3-2 win and 8-4 aggregate triumph.
By the time Spurs came to face Czech side Slovan Bratislava in the March quarter-finals, their league title aspirations had begun to falter (they would finish third, six points behind champions Everton), with defence of the FA Cup coming unstuck at Burnley who they had defeated to lift the trophy eight months before – the Cup Winners’ Cup therefore the only hope of silverware as the season entered its final straight.
Hopes of progression on the European front then looked parlous on suffering a 2-0 defeat in Bratislava, but on March 14 1963, the 61,000 inside White Hart Lane witnessed Spurs in irrepressible form. Goals from Greaves, Mackay and Smith overturned the deficit by half-time, with Greaves (again), White and Welsh winger Cliff Jones adding more after the break as the stunned visitors were hit for six.
The semi-final draw paired Spurs with OFK Belgrade, Bill Nicholson’s side going behind the Iron Curtain for a tempestuous first-leg on Wednesday 24 April. White gave Spurs the lead, the home side levelled from a disputed penalty and Greaves was sent off for retaliation (the only dismissal of his career). Despite provocation from the hosts’ that even enraged the normally mild-mannered Nicholson, ten man Tottenham found sufficient composure to win the tie with a goal from Smith in the closing stages.
Seven days later, even without the suspended Greaves, they were still far too strong for the visiting Yugoslavians, White Hart Lane packed again as Mackay, Smith and Terry Dyson secured a 3-1 victory as Spurs reached the final by a comfortable 5-2 margin.
In their attempt to become the first British club to win a European competition, Spurs would have to overcome holders Atletico Madrid, who themselves had taken the the trophy from Fiorentina, winners in the previous season.
For the final in Rotterdam on Wednesday 15 May, Spurs had Greaves back in harness but were without the hugely influential Mackay who was absent through injury. Physical and direct, Madrid had the better of the opening exchanges, but when Spurs countered with a sweeping move Greaves was on hand to give them a 16th minute lead. Eight minutes before half-time White doubled the advantage and although Atletico reduced the arrears with a penalty on the hour, Dyson restored the two goal cushion shortly afterward.
The outcome was effectively sealed when Greaves tapped home a fourth, the rout completed by Dyson who scored his second in finishing off a 5-1 victory ninety seconds from the end.
When charismatic skipper Danny Blanchflower held the cup aloft, it meant the name of British club would go onto a European trophy for the first time, fitting also it should be that of Spurs – whose style and purpose in winning the double had done much to progress the game in their homelands.
Yet that remarkable night in Rotterdam would also prove culmination of their towering achievements. Mackay and Blanchflower would be plagued by injuries thereafter and White would die tragically when struck by lightning on a golf course in the summer of 1964.
By the mid-60s, the masterful double side had all but broken up – but in the short and longer term, the Cup Winners’ Cup had not seen the last of Tottenham Hotspur.
1963-64: England representatives – TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR/MANCHESTER UNITED: When the fourth season of the Cup Winners’ Cup came about, for the first time England had dual representation – holders Spurs joined by FA Cup winners Manchester United, their paths destined to quickly cross.
Victory over Leicester City in the 1963 FA Cup Final restored United to Europe for the first time since the Munich Air Crash of February 1958. The tragedy had claimed (among others), eight of a supremely-gifted young team, disaster striking on return from Belgrade where they had secured a European Cup semi-final place (a hastily assembled team of replacements losing out to AC Milan in the last four).
With manager Matt Busby, a survivor of the crash, continuing to rebuild the side, the first major prize to come their way in the aftermath of Munich suggested he was on the right path, although a 1-1 September draw away to Dutch side Willem II was not the most auspicious start – Scottish striker David Herd having the distinction of scoring and being sent off.
Herd netted again in the mid-October return, the visitors put to the sword at Old Trafford by a Denis Law hat-trick with Maurice Setters and Bobby Charlton also making the scoresheet in a 6-1 win. After Spurs received a first round bye, round two brought the English clubs together, United travelling to North London in good heart for the early December first-leg after a 4-1 home win over Tottenham the previous month (the game yielding another Law hat-trick). But under the midweek lights of White Hart Lane, second half strikes from Mackay and Dyson saw Tottenham to a 2-0 triumph.
At Old Trafford seven days on, a brace from Herd restored parity, the advantage then back with Tottenham when Greaves reduced the deficit on the hour. Among any number of top class players spread between the two sides, Law and Greaves had ‘match winner status‘ – a category in which they were joined by Bobby Charlton, the England man scoring twice in the last eleven minutes as United recorded a 4-1 win, Spurs eliminated by a 4-3 margin on the first defence of their trophy.
At the risk of the narrator repeating himself, when Sporting Lisbon rolled up at Old Trafford for the quarter-final first-leg on February 26 they were felled by a Law hat-trick (he scored a club record 46 goals during 1963-64, going on to win European Footballer of the Year the season after) and with Charlton also on target United built up a commanding 4-1 lead for the trip to Lisbon – the Old Trafford encounter also notable for marking the European debut of a Belfast-born eighteen year-old named George Best.
The prodigiously gifted teenage winger kept his place for the return, but a team containing Law and six players who four years later would taste European Cup glory, suffered the most curious reversal United have ever suffered in Europe – the 5-0 defeat no doubt revealing to Busby there were still pieces of the puzzle to be found. Yet a strong end to the season, that saw them finish second to champions Liverpool and reach the FA Cup semi-finals, also suggested the outline of the jigsaw was in place.
Elsewhere Celtic made impressive progress to the semi-finals, but at this stage they too failed to make good on a three goal first-leg advantage – losing 4-0 to MTK Budapest after a 3-0 Parkhead triumph, this a momentary set-back for the enviable team being assembled by Jock Stein.
In the Brussels final on May 13, United conquerors Sporting Lisbon and MTK Budapest shared six goals, the Portuguese side winning the Antwerp replay by the only goal two days later – Portugal the fourth different country to produce a winner of the Cup Winners’ Cup in four years.
1964-65: England representatives – WEST HAM UNITED: Returning to just a single entry, English hopes rested upon West Ham in the next Cup Winners’ Cup campaign – faith that would not be misplaced.
Under manager Ron Greenwood, in situ since April 1961, West Ham had built a reputation for playing precise, thoughtful football, the team gaining renown for finesse rather than physicality.
On their first excursion into Europe, where a short passing game would serve them well, The Hammers began with a first-leg win in Ghent, a Ronnie Boyce effort (his last cup goal being the FA Cup Final winner against Preston North End the previous May) earning victory on Belgian soil – John Byrne scoring a second-leg leveler as West Ham squeezed through on being held to a 1-1 Upton Park draw.
Late November brought a second round opponents in the form of Sparta Prague to East London, West Ham still unable to call upon skipper Bobby Moore, who publicly was out with a groin injury while privately battling testicular cancer. Second half goals from John Bond and Les Sealey earned a 2-0 victory, an early John Sissons goal in the second leg then proving crucial as did a penalty save from goalkeeper Jim Standen. The hosts scored twice late on as West Ham succumbed to a 2-1 defeat, but held their nerve to progress 3-2 on aggregate.
At the quarter-final stage there was a two-strong British contingent, Cardiff City pulling off the noteworthy feat of knocking out holders Sporting Lisbon in round two – English and Welsh kept apart in the last eight draw as West Ham were paired with Swiss side Lausanne while the Bluebirds faced Real Zaragoza.
During the three months which passed before a return to European action, Moore had come back into the team as West Ham found the consistency to maintain a top-six berth, their hold on the FA Cup, however, relinquished in a fourth round defeat to Chelsea. On 16 March 1965 the visitors, with goals from Brian Dear and Byrne recorded a 2-1 win in Switzerland, but at Upton Park a week later any pretense of a cagey encounter was soon dispelled as Lausanne struck first to level the tie, The Hammers hitting back through an own goal and Dear as they regained control of proceedings.
But just after half-time the visitors, who contained seven Swiss and one Dutch international, came back to level things up at 2-2, the game turning again as West Ham were put back on track by a Martin Peters header. To show they had not given up Lausanne mustered another equaliser, a breathless night at the Boleyn finally settled when Dear secured a 4-3 victory – Greenwood’s side through to the semi-finals on account of a 6-4 success.
They would not be joined in the last four by Cardiff who succumbed to a 3-2 aggregate defeat against Real Zaragoza, the draw pitting West Ham against the free-scoring Spaniards, who were also holders of the Fairs Cup. In what amounted to the ideal start, Dear and Byrne both converted chances that came their way in ensuring the home side were 2-0 up by the 23rd minute, but more opportunities were allowed to go begging, the tie taking a different complexion when Zaragoza struck back on the hour.
With only slender lead to defend, West Ham could have well done without Byrne sustaining an injury while playing for England against Scotland between the first and second legs, this an unfortunate end to the season for a player who had contributed much to the Cup Winners’ Cup run.
But on the visit to Spain on 28 April, West Ham and England captain Moore produced one of the peerless displays that were becoming his trademark. The Hammers were finally breached when Spanish international Carlos Lepetra netted to level the tie, but in sticking to the purist principles of Greenwood the visitors continued creating openings, one which came the way of Sissons whose equaliser secured a 1-1 draw and place in the final.
At Wembley on Wednesday 19 May, West Ham would face West German outfit 1860 Munich, who had come through with victories over Porto, Legia Warsaw and Torino.
Saving their most complete display of the journey until the end The Hammers remained patient and composed, eventually making the breakthrough when Alan Sealey, deputising for Byrne, slotted home with twenty minutes to go – Munich still reeling when the same player scored again barely two minutes later.
With Greenwood vindicated for his commitment to positive football with a European trophy, Moore climbed the steps to the Royal Box to collect a second, but different, cup in twelve months.
Only a year away from the World Cup, some began wondering if these things went in threes……..
1965-66: England representatives – WEST HAM UNITED/LIVERPOOL: Liverpool: For the second time in three seasons, England had two runners in the field, West Ham joined by Bill Shankly’s Liverpool, who had not just come off the back of winning the FA Cup but also a run to the semi-finals of the European Cup, where they had lost in agonising fashion to eventual winners Inter Milan.
Through the next nine months there would be contrasting fortunes for the English pair, starting with the Cup Winners’ Cup first round. West Ham received a bye while Liverpool drew Italian giants Juventus, losing to a late goal in the Stadio Comunale on 29th September 1965. But before almost 52,000 at Anfield on October 13 they turned the tie around, first half goals from Chris Lawler and Geoff Strong enabling progress into round two.
Making their seasonal bow against Greek outfit Olympiacos on November 24, Geoff Hurst scored a brace (his first goals in Europe) that was added to by efforts from Byrne and Peter Brabrook as the holders notched a 4-0 first-leg home win – Martin Peters netting twice in the return as West Ham negotiated their way through with a 2-2 draw. Liverpool meanwhile made even shorter work of Standard Liege, two more European goals from full-back Lawler and one from winger Peter Thompson ensured there was a 3-1 lead going to Belgium, where on December 15 Shankly’s side registered a 5-2 aggregate win, internationals Roger Hunt (England) and Ian St. John (Scotland) on target in a 2-1 victory.
Avoiding each other in the quarter-final draw, when the ties came to be played in early March, Liverpool had realistic aims of landing their second league title in three seasons, but West Ham were bumping around in the lower reaches burdened by inconsistency – yet still in the running for two trophies having progressed to the latter stages of the League Cup.
Faced with East German side FC Magdeburg, The Hammers were thankful to a Byrne goal in having a lead to take into the Eastern Bloc and while the Germans did manage to restore parity in the second leg, Sissons struck in the 79th minute to earn West Ham a draw and with it a place in the semi-final. On their visit to the Nep Stadium, Budapest in facing Honved, Liverpool came away with a goalless draw, onward progress then clinched at Anfield with more goals from Lawler and St. John.
In keeping the English clubs parted, the semi-final draw, while presenting the prospect of an all-England Hampden Park final, posed stern challenges for both – West Ham facing Borussia Dortmund of West Germany, with Liverpool meeting Celtic.
Having lost a two-legged League Cup Final to West Brom the previous month (the last in this format before being moved to Wembley), West Ham now staked everything on keeping the Cup Winners’ Cup. Standing between them and a trip to Glasgow were two games against a side containing seven West German internationals, three of whom, goalkeeper Tilkowski along with forwards Emmerich and Held, would feature in another London fixture staged three months later.
On April 5, Peters put West Ham ahead early in the second half, only for Emmerich to score twice in the last five minutes as Dortmund left Upton Park firm favourites to advance on the strength of a 2-1 win – the tie and any hope The Hammers had of going further extinguished when the same player scored in the opening minute of the return.
Emmerich netted again before the break and although Byrne managed to pull one back, a third goal for the hosts as the final whistle loomed wrapped up a 3-1 win that manifested into a comprehensive 5-2 overall victory. Dortmund now had a final to prepare for, while for West Ham, despite shortly being able to put a World Cup winning trio of Moore, Hurst and Peters on the team sheet, the rest of the decade would bring diminishing returns, European football not contested again until 1976.
The other semi-final brought together the current league leaders in Scotland and England for a couple of fixtures that put old friends and managerial giants Jock Stein and Bill Shankly in opposition – Liverpool travelling north to Celtic Park on April 14, where in front of almost 75,000 a 52nd minute goal from Bobby Lennox separated the sides in giving Stein’s side an advantage in going to Anfield the following week.
By the 67th minute of the Merseyside second leg goals from Geoff Strong and Tommy Smith had turned the tie around, Liverpool edging ever closer to Hampden when in the closing seconds Lennox broke free to score, his effort the crucial away goal that would instead send Celtic through – only for green and white celebrations to be curtailed by an offside flag, the Glasgow Evening Times thus reporting the scenes that followed:
‘Bottles, beer cans, tumblers rained onto the pitch as players, officials, police and photographers ran for their lives. I cannot remember when so many missiles were thrown at a game in such a short space of time.‘
In leaving the dug out to appeal for calm, physio Bob Rooney was struck by a glass object, the Evening Times going on to say Rooney and trainer Neilly Mochan, ‘ran straight into the fusillade and holding up both hands appealed to their own fans for the peace that would give the team thirty more seconds to save the day.’
When the debris had been cleared Belgian referee Joseph Hannet restarted the game, but then quickly blew for time, Liverpool, who less than a fortnight later would secure the league title, through to their first European final – although for eight of the Celtic side a day of destiny in Lisbon was only 13 months away.
With a place in Europe already assured by winning the championship, Shankly and his men headed to Scotland for the meeting with Dortmund aiming to become the first English side to win a domestic and European honour in the same season. At Hampden Park on Thursday 5 May they encountered a rainswept night (a factor in keeping the attendance to 41,657) and a West German outfit who played in compact, well-drilled manner.
Following an uneventful first half, Dortmund opened the scoring with a sweetly struck drive from Held on the hour, but eight minutes later Hunt, soon to be a World Cup winner, fired an equaliser – German defenders protesting the cross from winger Peter Thompson which led to the goal, had gone out of play before he pulled it back.
At full-time the score still stood at 1-1, the match decided in the 107th minute when Reinhard Libuda lobbed Liverpool ‘keeper Tommy Lawrence but the ball, on hitting the bar, ended up in the back of the net after rebounding off skipper Ron Yeats.
In holding on to win Borussia Dortmund became the first German club to win a UEFA trophy, in the process denying Tommy Smith and Ian Callaghan the only European medal not to come their way. Both, (along with Lawler), would be members of the Liverpool side who in 1972-73, won the league title and UEFA Cup – while eleven years on from the disappointment of losing to Dortmund, Smith and Callaghan would be there in Rome when not only Europe was conquered for the first time, but a league and European Cup double completed.
1966-67: England representatives – EVERTON: Winning the 1966 FA Cup Final offered the blue side of Stanley Park to go one better than Liverpool managed, Cup Winners’ Cup wise, the previous season – expectation in the land of Evertonia further increased by the August 1966 acquisition of England World Cup wonder Alan Ball.
First round games against Aalborg BK in the autumn of 1966 came amidst a twelve match unbeaten run, a goalless draw away to the Danish cup holders followed by a 2-1 home success in which Ball and winger Johnny Morrisey were on target.
Indeed, their first defeat in a dozen outings happened on November 9 with a 2-0 defeat to Real Zaragoza – and although Scottish defender Sandy Brown halved the arrears in the return two weeks later, not even a near 57,000 Goodison crowd could affect the outcome as Everton made a second round exit.
In the next round Zaragoza (winners of the competition in 1964) went the way of holders Borussia Dortmund in being eliminated by Rangers – home and away semi-final victories over Slovan Sofia then taking the Ibrox men through to their second Cup Winners’ Cup Final, on this occasion taking on the might of Bayern Munich, who they would face on German soil.
On May 31st 1967, six days after Celtic had become inaugural British winners of the European Cup (Glasgow the first city to have two teams contest UEFA finals in the same season), Rangers travelled to Nuremberg – but like Liverpool twelve months before succumbed to German opposition in extra-time, a Bayern side containing future West German World Cup winners, Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Muller, sealing victory with goal from midfielder Franz Roth.
1967-1968: English representatives – TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: If a top class goalkeeper and great goalscorer (Maier and Muller for example) were prerequisites for success, then with Pat Jennings and Jimmy Greaves in the team Tottenham had good reason to feel confident when heading out on their latest Cup Winners’ Cup foray.
The side, much changed from the one who triumphed four years earlier, still had the penalty box prowess of Greaves to rely on – 31 goals the previous season, that climaxed with Spurs beating Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, he was again in rich scoring form, Greaves and Jimmy Robertson netting in a 2-0 first-leg victory over Hajduk Split on September 20 1967.
At White Hart Lane the following week, Spurs progressed by winning an exciting second-leg by the odd goal in seven, Robertson (2), Alan Gilzean and future England boss Terry Venables finding the net in a 4-3 triumph.
The portents for round two, however, were not good and on losing by the only goal away to French side Lyon, White Hart Lane was again treated to a second-leg goal feast. But this time a 4-3 victory did not suffice – goals from Greaves (2), Gilzean and Jones all in vain as Spurs exited on away goals.
1968-69: England representatives – WEST BROMWICH ALBION: After English involvement in the Cup Winners’ Cup began with Wolves at the start of the decade, it was somewhat ironic the 60s should end with their West Midland rivals West Brom flying the flag for England.
An entertaining team, infused with the goal threat of Jeff Astle and Tony Brown, Albion had become perennial cup challengers, culminating in the 1968 extra-time FA Cup Final win over Everton, victory secured by a typically smart Astle finish.
In round one Club Brugge proved a tougher obstacle than may have been anticipated, a goal from young Scottish midfield man Asa Hartford proving vital as The Baggies suffered a 3-1 first-leg defeat – Hartford and Brown coming up with the goods in The Hawthorns return as Albion went through on away goals.
November 1968 brought second round meetings with Dinamo Bucharest, another Hartford goal allowing Albion to return from Rumania with a 1-1 draw – West Brom finding their feet on home turf where Graham Lovett, Astle and Brown (twice) all struck in a resounding 4-0 triumph.
In the last eight Albion were drawn against Dunfermline Athletic, the Scots hosting a goalless first leg on January 15 1969. Four weeks later on a frozen Hawthorns surface, the tricky underfoot conditions had no effect on the Pars who scored with a Pat Gardiner header after just two minutes. They spent many of next 88 in their own half but were resolute in defence, breathing a sigh of relief when Astle had a goal disallowed for offside. The commanding display of central defender Roy Barry brought him to the attention of English clubs, Coventry City paying £40,000 for his services at the end of the season.
At the semi-final stage Dunfermline went down 2-1 on aggregate to eventual winners Slovan Bratislava, but where the Cup Winners Cup’ and English clubs were concerned, the 1960s had produced two triumphs, some ironic twists of fate and a number of coincidences.
None bigger than the sense of symmetry in Wolves and West Brom being the first and last in – but both knocked out by Scottish opponents.
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NEIL SAMBROOK is the author of ‘MONTY’S DOUBLE‘ – an acclaimed thriller now available in paperback and as an Amazon Kindle book.