1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final
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The 1972 European Cup Winners' Cup Final was a football match between Scottish team Rangers and
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
team Dynamo Moscow. It took place at the Camp Nou in
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
on 24 May 1972 in front of a crowd of 35,000. It was the final of the
1971–72 European Cup Winners' Cup The 1971–72 season of the European Cup Winners' Cup football club tournament was won by Rangers, who defeated Dynamo Moscow in the final. Preliminary round First leg ---- Second leg ''4–4 on aggregate; Austria Wien won on away goa ...
, one of three football competitions run by
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
at the time. It was the 12th European Cup Winners' Cup final in history. Both teams had to go through four qualifying rounds to get reach the final. Rangers won three of their four qualifying ties in regulation time, with their second round tie against
Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,
going into extra time. Dynamo was required to win a penalty shootout to beat Dynamo Berlin in their semi-final. The final was the Rangers' third in European competition, having lost the previous two in 1961 and 1967. This was the first time a Soviet team had reached a European final. Rangers scored two goals before half time and added a third minutes into the second half. Dynamo pulled a goal back midway through the second half and scored a late second towards the end of the game. The match finished 3–2 to Rangers. The end of the match was overshadowed by a pitch invasion just before full time. The fans were cleared so the final minute of the match could be played. Fans made their way back onto the pitch once the final whistle had been blown, causing Rangers captain John Greig having to be awarded the trophy inside the stadium buildings. Despite the off-field violence the victory is considered to be the greatest in the club's history and the team was given the nickname the Barcelona Bears.


Route to the final


Rangers

Rangers began their route to the final by beating Stade Rennes 2–1 on aggregate. The first leg was drawn 1–1 with Willie Johnston scoring for Rangers. Rangers won the return leg 1–0 through Alex MacDonald. The second round saw Rangers play
Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,
from Portugal. Rangers led the first half of the first leg 3–0, but lost two goals in the second half to lead 3–2 going into the second leg. The second leg finished 3–2 to Sporting, 5–5 on aggregate. Willie Henderson scored for Rangers in extra time but Rangers then lost a goal with six minutes left to make it 6–6 on aggregate. What followed has been described as being one of the most bizarre incidents in the history of any European tournament. The Dutch referee Laurens van Raavens failed to recognise that Rangers, having scored three
away goals The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...
to Sporting's two, had won the tie. But the referee made both teams take five penalties each, with Rangers losing the
shootout A shootout, also called a firefight, gunfight, or gun battle, is a confrontation in which parties armed with firearms exchange gunfire. The term can be used to describe any such fight, though it is typically used in a non-military context or to ...
. After Rangers manager Willie Waddell pointed out the away goals rule to
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
, the referee was overruled, the result overturned and Rangers were heading into the next round. Rangers then played
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, Italian league leaders at the time, and won 2–1 on aggregate. In the semi-final Rangers played Bayern Munich, who had beaten Rangers in the final five years previously in Nuremberg. Rangers progressed 3–1 on aggregate to reach their third European final.


Dynamo Moscow

Dynamo Moscow began their campaign by defeating Olympiakos 3–2 on aggregate, before beating the Turkish side
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3–0. Moscow's quarter final was against
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from Yugoslavia, who had reached the semi-final of the European cup the previous year. Moscow made it through 3–1 on aggregate again. In the semi-final Moscow played Dynamo Berlin from Germany. Scores were drawn 1–1 after both the first and second leg. Dynamo Moscow went through after a penalty shootout to become the first Russian club to reach a European final. The Russian players could have been awarded the coveted title Master of Sport, had they won in Barcelona.


Match


Background

Dynamo Moscow were the first Soviet team to reach the final of a European football competition and as a result were not used to playing in such a high-profile match. Before the team left Moscow they were presented ideological speeches from Communist Party bosses aimed at motivating the players. Before the event, many concerns were expressed for possible troubles between Spanish police and Russian supporters. Due to the political background of the time in Spain, with the last years of
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...
's right-wing
dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...
. Dynamo Moscow had an array of talented forward players including Gennady Evryuzhihin, Vladimir Kozlov, Anatoly Kozhemyakin, Michail Gershkovich, Anatoly Baydachny and Vladimir Eshtrekov. The manager Konstantin Beskov normally played three or four forwards in all of their matches. Rangers had played in two previous European finals and were the first Scottish club to do so in 1961. Having been narrowly beaten in 1967 by Bayern Munich, Rangers were wanting to make amends. The previous year 66 Rangers supporters had died in the Ibrox disaster, a memory that was very recent in the minds of the support and the team. Rangers captain John Greig had grown a beard which he explained after Rangers victory against Sporting that it was a good luck omen and he would only shave it off when they were put out of the competition.


Summary

Dynamo were missing Kozlov and Kozhemyakin through injury and tried to play a more defensive type of game to contain Rangers. Rangers employed an attacking line up and had a two-goal lead by half time. The first was scored by forward Colin Stein with the assist provided by Dave Smith. The second was scored by Willie Johnston after he headed in a Dave Smith pass with six minutes to go before half time. Rangers went 3–0 up minutes into the second half as Willie Johnston scored his second after a long kick out by goalkeeper
Peter McCloy Peter McCloy (born 26 November 1946) is a Scottish retired football goalkeeper who played for Motherwell and Rangers. He was a member of the team which won the European Cup Winners Cup in 1972, and was Rangers' first-choice goalkeeper for most ...
. Dynamo Moscow came back into the match when with thirty minutes left for play Eshtrekov scored after a defensive mistake from the Rangers back line. Dynamo continued to pressure however the Rangers keeper Peter McCloy twice made fine saves from Gershkovich and Sandy Jardine cleared off the line from Evryuzhihin. Moscow found their second with three minutes left with a goal from Makhovikov. Rangers held on to secure their only trophy in Europe in front of almost 25,000 people, albeit there was no award ceremony in the stadium due to the Rangers fans pitch invasion. The end of the contest was overshadowed by a pitch invasion by hundreds of Rangers supporters one minute before the final whistle, which held the game up for several minutes. In the sixties and seventies it was common to see pitch invasions at matches, including European finals - this generally happened after the end of the game, which was not the case in this match. At the time Spain was still under political oppression by fascist dictator
Francisco Franco Francisco Franco Bahamonde (born Francisco Paulino Hermenegildo Teódulo Franco Bahamonde; 4 December 1892 – 20 November 1975) was a Spanish general and dictator who led the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalist forces i ...
and revolts were violently repressed by armed Policía Armada (Armed Police). In 2015 interview Yozhef Sabo said that the pitch invasion occurred about seven minutes after Eshtrekov scored a goal which caused the game to be paused and then again soon after the Makhovikov's goal after which the referee simply ended the game. Verbytsky, I.
Yozhef Sabo: In Moscow I was constantly called fascist
'. UA-Football. 4 March 2015.
While it was argued that the pitch invaders may simply have been celebrating victory prematurely due to the misinterpretation of the final whistle (the referee had blown for a throw-in) the Dynamo Moscow team believed that the pitch invasion was a calculated action by the fans designed to stop the Soviet side's momentum. In the final minutes, Dynamo were pressing hard to equalise but the sudden pitch invasion gave the Rangers defenders respite.Russia's woes weigh on CSKA
UEFA.com, 18 May 2005
Colin Stein later reflected on the game and stated that he believed the pitch invasion made it harder for the Rangers side during the final minutes of the game. Dynamo players claimed that they were attacked during this invasion, while bottles were thrown at police, whose actions have been described as heavy-handed. After the game's final whistle there was a larger pitch invasion by Rangers supporters and as a result of this the trophy was presented to Rangers captain John Greig inside the stadium buildings.


Match details


Aftermath


Rangers reaction to victory

Rangers victory meant that they qualified for the 1972 European Super Cup where they played the 1972 European Cup winners
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, however they lost the final 6–3 over two legs. Rangers victory in the final has been heralded as one of the greatest achievements in the club's history. Sandy Jardine who played in the final placed the victory at the very top of the club's achievements. The team that won the final became known as the ''Barcelona Bears''. In 2006 Rangers opened ''Bar 72'' in the Govan stand which was named in honour of the team that won the Cup Winners Cup. In 2012 Rangers celebrated 40 years since winning the trophy by wearing a 2012–13 home strip of a similar style as the one worn during the 1972 final.


Reaction to pitch invasion

In the days following the match, Dynamo Moscow and the Soviet FA demanded a replay on the grounds of the pitch invasion which took place before the final whistle. Rangers supporters later complained about the severity and indiscriminate nature of the beatings from the police, in which many jubilant rather than violent supporters were caught up. Veteran Scottish broadcaster Archie MacPherson, who covered the game, has stated that the trouble was "eminently avoidable" and relates how Reuters' correspondent at the match remarked to him that, "What you are seeing down there is Franco's Fascist police in action". After initially denying his club's culpability, the then Rangers manager Willie Waddell criticised the fans who had invaded the pitch. While UEFA initially seemed sympathetic with the Russians and some neutral commentators agreed that the game should be replayed, no replay was ever scheduled and Rangers kept the trophy. However, Rangers did lose the right to defend the trophy as they were handed a two-year ban from European competition following their fans' behaviour. This was later reduced to a one-year ban.


See also

* 1972 European Cup Final * 1972 UEFA Cup Final * FC Dynamo Moscow in European football * Rangers F.C. in European football


References


External links


UEFA Cup Winners' Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
{{FC Dynamo Moscow matches Fin Cup Winners' Cup Final 1972 Cup Winners' Cup Final 1972 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finals UEFA Cup Winners' Cup Final 1972 International club association football competitions hosted by Spain
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...
Sports scandals in Scotland Association football riots European Cup Winners' Cup 1970s in Barcelona Football competitions in Barcelona European Cup Winners' Cup Association football matches in Spain