On Friday, Manchester City were drawn in Group A of what this blog still thinks of as the UEFA Cup despite the fancy new title (I'm becoming ever more a stick-in-the-mud as I get older!). Age has its advantages, though. One is that I can remember City playing in Europe in the seventies - only hazily, as I was still a kid then, but I recall it nonetheless. The club effectively relinquished its membership of English football's elite around 30 years ago, and only now does its knocking on the door for readmission seem to be becoming convincingly insistent; as a result, our heritage in European competitions lags way behind that of other clubs, comprising fewer than 60 games as opposed to the hundreds played by some of the continent's superpowers. But there's enough there for draws against Italian, Polish and Austrian opposition to evoke memories of some epic battles past. I'll look at them in more detail in coming weeks, but for now, here's a little overview of our past European involvement with each of those three countries.
Let's deal with them in turn:
AUSTRIA
The pairing with Red Bull Salzburg - our first opponents in the group when we travel to their historic and beautiful home city on September 16 - will actually create a first: we haven't ever faced Austrian opponents in a competitive match. But, surprising as it may seem to the idiots who spout the 'no history' line because they think that football began in 1992, we have actually won a European competition. And we did it in Austria, arguably the finest moment in the club's existence coming some 40 years ago in torrential rain before a small crowd in what was then called the Prater Stadion in Vienna. (Now the rebuilt Ernst Happel Stadium stands on the same site). The underrated Neil Young and a Francis Lee penalty that fizzed under the goalkeeper were enough to ensure a 2-1 win against Polish side Gornik Zabrze.
ITALY
Juventus visit Eastlands in the first home game in the group phase, which will cause older fans like me to remember that two of Maine Road's great European nights came against Italian opponents - on one occasion, Juve themselves.
We went out to Juve in the first round of the UEFA Cup in 1976/7. The bare facts are that we enjoyed a narrow triumph on our own patch, Brian Kidd - now a member of Roberto Mancini's staff - scoring the only goal against opponents to whom we'll politely refer as uncompromising. A fortnight later, the slender advantage proved insufficient in Turin, as Juve scored two without reply to ensure that they progressed to the second round. (Where, interestingly enough, they met an obscure bunch of no-hopers called Manchester United). The home game, though, was a wonderful night: a raucous, passionate crowd under lights cheering a fine side City to victory over the toughest of continental teams.
Two seasons later, in December 1978, we faced AC Milan with a quarter final berth at stake having already seen off Twente Enschede and Standard Liege. We drew 2-2 in the San Siro in the first leg having been 2-0 up with not long left, and, as I recall, we'd have been at that stage the first away team to win at Milan in European competition. The Italians came back at us with two late goals though, so we missed the record - even though it was a great result. An oddity is that the game was played on the Thursday afternoon, having been originally due to be played on the Wednesday night but being called off due to fog. The exertions took their toll, with the Blues losing 2-1 at home to Ipswich 48 hours later.
But the second leg, a further week and a half after that, was simply wonderful. City were three up at the break and maintained that winning margin after a goalless second half. It was effectively the last hurrah of Tony Book's fine mid and late seventies team - in a month, Malcolm Allison was back and he decided completely to rebuild the side. But I fell in love with football as a kid watching those players, and when I recall this game, it's easy to recall just why.
(We were eliminated in the last eight, incidentally, by Borussia Monchengladbach against whom we lost 3-1 in the away leg having held them 1-1 at home. No one could have believed then that we wouldn't play another European tie for 25 seasons).
In 1976/7, Juve won both Serie A and the UEFA Cup. In 1978/9, that Milan side ended up Serie A champions (and Monchengladbach took the UEFA Cup for good measure). Having seen us mix it like that and give a good account of ourselves against the top European sides as a kid, it was pretty heartbreaking to see us become as utterly hopeless as we did for much of the intervening period. Heartfelt thanks to Mansour for giving us the chance to make up for last time! :)
POLAND
City's win over Gornik in Vienna in April 1970, landing the club's only European trophy in the process, was only the first of eight matches against Polish opposition in Europe. In October and November, the tally will reach double figures
Having beaten them in the 1970 final, we again played Gornik again in the European Cup Winners Cup in 1970/1 - this time, in the quarter final. Having lost 2-0 away, we beat them 2-0 at home. There were no penalty shoot outs then, so the tie was instead decided by a replay on a neutral ground in Copenhagen which we won 3-1. We lost to Chelsea in the semi with a very injury hit side.
The UEFA Cup in 1977/8 brought two encounters with Widzew Lodz in the first round. A year before, it had been obvious that the fates had delivered the toughest possible pairing when drawn against Juve; this time, the tie was regarded as eminently winnable, but pride came before a fall. City had the home leg first and we were 2-0 up and cruising, then - inspired by some unknown (at that point!) called Boniek who later went on to achieve big things - they pulled one back, we had Willie Donachie sent off and they levelled. It was goalless over there and so we went out on away goals. It was a big disappointment as we fancied ourselves to have a real crack at winning the competition.
In 2003/4, City's first at the new stadium, Kevin Keegan's team - having qualified only through the fair play route - faced Groclin in November, having seen off TNS of Wales and Lokeren of Belgium. The tie was very reminiscent of the Lodz match up nearly a quarter of a century before. Again, the home leg came first, City went in front and were looking good, but ended up drawing the home leg (1-1 on this occasion). Again we exited the competition on away goals after another 0-0 stalemate in Poland.
Finally, while non-competitive games don't count in this context, it's also worth noting that we played home and away friendlies against Legia Warsaw as part of the deal for Kazi Deyna. We lost 2-1 in Poland, in 1979, with Deyna playing a half for both teams and scoring for both.
We then played a pre-season match at Maine Road against them in August 1980 as well. Deyna again played for both and the Poles absolutely battered us 5-1 in a very impressive display albeit against a rather hopeless City side who illustrated the failure of Malcolm Allison's radical rebuilding programme.
* * *
I'll be looking to put some flesh on these bones in the coming week. I loved watching European football in the seventies, and am determined to enjoy it again this season. I reckon Mancini will take the competition seriously, as a chance to announce to Europe that City are starting to be a force, and if he's successful, no one will take more pleasure from that than I will. But if there are echoes of the past in whatever happens in the here and now, I'll enjoy looking back at them too.
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