Malmo protagonists of the 1979 Champions Cup – from kathrynj.shop
article by Giovanni Manenti
The Sweden is a country with good football traditionsas demonstrated by the progress of his national team at the World Cup, an event which saw them qualify for the final stages on 12 occasions, being able boast defeat in the final round in the 1958 edition that she organized herself, as well as two third places in 1950 and 1994.
The same cannot be said for the behavior of the various clubs in European cupsand the reason is easy to say, namely the impossibility of competing with the rich salaries that the best clubs on the continent can offer their players, even in 80s the star of IFK Goteborg emerged, capable of winning two editions of the UEFA Cupin 1982 getting the better of the highly favored West Germans Hamburg in the final and, five years later, when the Scots Dundee United succumbed in the decisive act.
But not even Gothenburg – which from 1982 to 1996 he won 10 Allsvenskan titlesthe Swedish top division – manages to go a long way in the most prestigious competition for European clubs, namely the then European Cup, now renamed the Champions Leaguehaving obtained the best result semi-final of the 1985-’96 edition, when the dream of reaching the final, after the 3-0 of the first leg against Barcelonavanishes upon returning to “Camp Nou”, with the Catalans returning the same score, and then winning on penalties.
And if nowadays the feat of winning (or just qualifying for the final) the Champions League represents a pious illusion for Scandinavian clubs – given the participation with four, if not five, teams from the leading nations in the panorama continental –, such circumstance was certainly more possible with the “old” European Cup, so much so that on one occasion a Swedish team did itcoming close to winning the trophy.
We’re talking about Malmoe, a company founded in 1910 and which, despite boasting the record resulting from the greatest number of national titles wonhaving established himself on 23 occasions, lives his “period of glory” during the 1970s, when won five championships (1970-’71, 1974-’75 and 1977) being able to count on the performance of the “legendary” attacking midfielder Bo Larsson, capable of playing three consecutive editions – Mexico ’70, Germany ’74 and Argentina ’78 – of the World Cup.
And it is precisely from the last statement of the decade that the technical commissioner Georg Ericson draws heavily in drawing up the list of those selected for the 1978 Argentina World Cupgiven that of the 16 players belonging to Swedish clubs, 8 of them wear the Malmoe shirtalmost as if to predict the outcome of the future competitive season for the team coached by the Englishman Bob Houghton.
Playing your own championship with the formula “spring autumn” – i.e. from mid-April to mid-October – ensures that the team that wins the title “stopovers” of a year there participation in the Champions Cup, so that Malmoe was entered in the 1978-’79 edition which started in mid-September 1978 and not Oesters, champions of the 1978 tournament.
Il The draw places the Swedes in the match against the French side Monacowho had to face a preliminary round – given the presence of 33 registered teams -, overcome by having the better (3-0 and 0-2) of the Romanians of Steaua Bucharest, and the first match staged on 13 September 1978 at “Malmoe Stadium”, ended at 0-0 at the start, it only portends an immediate exit in the first roundas already happened in the autumn of 1971, 1972 and 1975, while in the 1977-’78 edition it was Bayern Munich who eliminated the Swedes in the round of 16.
This time, however, the music is different, in that in the Principality a goal scored shortly after half an hour by Jan-Olov Kindvall was sufficient (no relation to the much more famous Ove) for the definitive 1-0 which certifies the passing of a round characterized by sensational surprise of the elimination of the reigning champions Liverpoolwhich was fatal (0-2 and 0-0) when paired with compatriots Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, making their debut in the event, by virtue of the first (and to date only) First Division title won in the club’s history .
The urn for the pairings of round of 16 is not particularly lucky for Malmoe, given that they are paired with the very strong Soviet team Dynamo Kiev of the champion Oleg Blokhin and capable of winning the 1975 edition of the Cup Winners’ Cup, but, as in the previous round, the Swedes fully rely on the solidity of their defense centered on the three (Roland, Magnus and Roy) Andersson and, after to have emerged unscathed (0-0) from the first leg match,”they close the accounts” in the return leg, with a 2-0 already gained in the first halfsigned by Tore Cervin and again by Kindvall.
The round of 16 also holds quite a surprise, with this time ad to be there “crowned head” of Real Madrid to exit the scene at the hands of the Swiss Grasshoppers, who overturn the 1-3 of the “Santiago Bernabeu” winning 2-0 in the return leg, with “hero of the day” the center forward Claudio Sulser (already in the net in the first leg) who scored the brace, with the second, decisive, sharp just 4′ from the end.
With the eight teams qualified for the quarterfinals – with Nottingham defeated AEK Athens (2-1 and 5-1).like the Cologne (1-0 and 4-0) over Lokomotiv Sofia and of Dynamo Dresden (0-0 and 6-0) over Bohemians Dublin – to meet up next spring, that’s it when the tournament resumed, scheduled for 7 March 1979, Malmo had not yet resumed official activity, given that the Swedish championship begins in the middle of the following month of April.
These are “the pros and cons“calendar”spring autumn” – that is, being in shape at the start of the event, discounting this circumstance when the cup resumes –, with in this case the urn to lend a hand matching the Swedes with the certainly not irresistible Poles of Wisla Krakow who, despite inflicting Malmoe’s first defeat of the tournament by 1-2 in the first leg, they collapse in the return leg after even taking the lead at the start of the second halffor the final 4-1 determined by triplet di Anders Ljungberg and from Cervin’s high note.
Having reached an unexpected semi-final, it begins to be interesting to verify the potential of the rivals, including the Nottingham continues its immaculate path, clearly defeating Grasshopper (4-1 and 1-1).s “Lawbringer” of Real Madrid – which he can console himself with Sulser top scorer with 11 goals scored in just 6 matches -, while they barely advance the Colonia (1-0 ed 1-1 ai Glasgow Rangers) and the surprising Austria Vienna which, in German-speaking comparisoneliminates (3-1 and 0-1) Dynamo Dresden.
There is no doubt that the Swedish leaders hope for a draw that pits them against the Austrians and, in this case, the “prayer is answered”, while the specialized press already coined for the Nottingham Forest-Cologne match the much but overused label of “early ending”.
It must be said that the Rhineland team includes players of the caliber of Schumacher, Konopka, Cullmann, Neumann, Bernd Schuster and Dieter Mullerin addition to the Belgian van Gool, which makes it a serious contender for the trophy, a prediction even more supported by the outcome of the first leg across the Channel which ended with a pyrotechnic 3-3 that saw the Germans go 2-0 (goals from van Gool and Muller), and then suffer a comeback from the home team to make it 3-3 (by Birtles, Bowyer and Robertson the scores), before that Japanese substitute Okudera is responsible for restoring parity 9′ from the end.
In Nottingham, on the other hand, there are players who are also destined to write important pages with the English national team such as Peter Shilton, Viv Andreson, Garry Birtles e Tony Woodcockalthough the return to “Mungersdorfer Stadion” is decided by one of the “very loyal” by Brian Clough, that is Ian Bowyer, whose center midway through the second half represents the passport to the final of Munich.
Waiting for Nottingham, a Malmoe who once again relied on defense, imposing a 0-0 draw in the first leg played atPrater” of Vienna, and then thanked striker Tommy Hansson, whose goal at the start of the second half proved to be sufficient to punch the ticket for the final act, thereby writing the history not only of the club, but of the entire country, being the first Swedish team to reach such a finish line.
So meet up at 30 May 1979 at the “Olympic Stadium” in Munich where 68,500 spectators converged to witness an unprecedented final, given that the previous 8 editions of the decade had seen Dutch Ajax triumphed on three occasions (1971-’73).with to pick up the baton for similar trio (1974-’76) the Germans Bayern Munichbefore handing it over in turn to Liverpool, which won in the two-year period 1977-’78.
New air, therefore, in the relative roll of honour, when the Austrian match director Erich Linemayr kicks off at 8.15pm with an important novelty in the English lineup, with coach Clough to propose a more attacking formation thanks to the inclusion of Trevor Francis on the right wing in place of midfielder Martin O’Neill.
Curious story, that of Francis, who Nottingham had purchased in February 1979 from Birmingham for the then record sum of one million poundsbut that he would not have been able to play in Europe until the final – he could have played in the semi-finals if the transfer had taken place by 15 January -, so it can be said that Clough abbia “played the joker” at your disposaland, comforted by the fact that in the 20 championship matches played the new signing scored six times.
In front, however, it is there a team that has conceded only 3 goals in 8 matches, and this says a lot about the compactness of the Scandinavian defence, moreover directed from the bench by an English coach who therefore knows the qualities of the opponents and, in fact, the match is struggling to take off, with Nottingham atplay the game” and Malmoe to defend themselves with order.
Rare are the opportunities for the English, the best of which lands on Birtles’ feet who, on Jan Moller’s exit, goes over him with a lob which however also goes over the crossbar, before “the key episode” materializes at the end of the first half, with the left winger John Robertson to evade the double marking of two defendersmove to the bottom and perform a cross that goes over the opposing goalkeeper to be collected at the opposite post by Francis for the diving header into the net.
In the second half, the two are about to repeat a similar action with the roles reversed, with this time Francis gaining the baseline on the right to deliver a low assist to the advancing Robertson whose first-time shot crashes onto the post to Moller’s rightuntil it was Woodcock’s turn, at the end of an insistent personal action, to execute something halfway between a cross and a shot which Birtles almost managed to deflect into the net.
Absolute master of the pitch, Nottingham subsequently had no problem “freeze the ball” waiting for final whistle crowning him European championwhile in all likelihood Malmo was already satisfied with having managed to play the final, even if perhaps a little “he could try”.
For sure, will always be able to boast the distinction of being the only team from their country to compete the “big-eared cup”…
2024-02-06 20:15:20
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