Cup Winners Cup

 

Cup Winners Cup. AS Roma was the curiosity of the tournament – they advanced on coin toss and they were eliminated on coin toss. Benefited by the coin against PSV Eindhoven in the second round (1-0 and 0-1), but in the semi-finals the coin favoured their opponents, Gornik (Zabrze). The teams met three times: 1-1, 2-2, then playoff in Strasbourg (France), which also ended 1-1 after overtime. The coin propelled Gornik to the final.

Final, Prater Stadium, Vienna, 29 Apr 1970, att 10000

Manchester City          (2) 2  Gornik Zabrze            (0) 1
11' 1-0  MC: Young
43' 2-0  MC: Lee (pen)
70' 2-1  GZ: Oslizlo




Manchester City
        Corrigan; Book, Booth, Heslop, Pardoe; Doyle (Bowyer 23), Towers, Oakes;
        Bell, Lee, Young
Gornik Zabrze
        Kostka; Oslizlo, Florenski (Deja 85), Gorgon, Olek; Latocha, Szoltysik,
        Wilczek (Skowronek 75); Szaryniski, Banas, Lubanski
Referee: Schiller (Austria)

Happy winners.

Gornik (Zabrze) lost minimally, but to this very day remains the only Polish squad reaching European club final. The photo is not from the final; it is from the dramatic semi-final. The squad was strong, perhaps one of the all-time best teams of Gornik, full of national team players (including the reserve goalkeeper Jan Gomola) and two players will be outstanding during the 1970 – Wlodzimierz Lubanski and Jerzy Gorgon. This explains why Gornik reached the final, yet, the road was not easy and rather lucky: in the first two rounds – no problems: they eliminated Olympiakos (Piraeus) 2-2 and 5-0, then Glasgow Rangers 3-1 and 3-1. Elimination of Levski-Spartak (Sofia) was difficult: 2-3 in Sofia and 2-1 in Zabrze, away goals saved their skins in the quarter-finals. The semi-fnal was the big drama: 3 games plus overtime and no winner: 1-1, 2-2, and 1-1 after overtime in the third match in Strasbourg against AS Roma. And then the referee tossed the coin and Gornik won by sheer gambler's luck. At the final the boys did their best in the second half, but were unable to equalize and lost. Great echievement, but no Cup...

Manchester City won their first European trophy with their striped kit – a reserve kit, used perhaps supersticiously: they won the FA Cup with it as well. Since the photo has nothing to do with the Cup Winners Cup final it is used here only to point at the colours.

Manchester City won the Cup Winners Cup.