The UEFA Cup. Of course, there were surprising upsets (the demolition of Arsenal by Spatak Moscow in the first round – 2-3 and 2-5) and unlucky draws, eliminating early strong teams (Manchester United losing to Valencia also in the first round), but more interesting was the new trend – the early elimination of the English clubs, all gone after the first round, and the decline of the West German clubs – half of them were eliminated in the opening round, the rest struggled against not so strong opponents, only 1. FC Kaiserslautern reached the ¼ finals and was eliminated there by unlikely foe – Romanian Universitatea (Craiova). On the other side were teams, which performed surprisingly well – Bohemians (Prague), Universitatea (Craiova), and Benfica (Lisbon) reached the semi-finals. Bohemians stood alone somewhat – it was just the strongest period of the club ever, but the other two represented more than club football – both Romanian and Portuguese football recovered from disastrous 1970s and rapidly were coming back to the spotlight. The club’s good performance was early sign, but in the case of Benfica it was great recovery and finally playing really strong football after years of mediocrity. At the semi-finals everything came back to normal, though – Anderlecht was simply too strong for Bohemians and after winning twice reached the final. Benfica had real difficulties and was unable to beat Universitatea – both legs ended in draw, but Benfica benefited from scoring away goal and went to the final.
The final, to most pundits, was between quite equal opponents and could go either way, but Anderlecht was considered slightly stronger. The reason were both historic and contemporary – Benfica was going to play its 5th European final, but the last one was in 1968. Anderlecht on the other hand reached its 4th final and all were recent. However, neither finalist played UEFA Cup final before and if Anderlecht maintained its strong European position successfully since 1975, Benfica rapidly improved just recently and finally had a team somewhat close to their great squads in the 1960s. On one hand, solid and reliable class, on the other – ascending squad,which must be hungrier. But it was to be a clash of equal opponents: Benfica had 7 current national team players, Anderlecht – 5. Benfica had exciting Yugoslav striker – Filipovic and rising Swede Stromberg, Anderlecht its own Yugoslav – Peruzovic – and talented, but erratic Dane Brylle. Both teams had good coaches – Paul van Himst and Sven-Goran Eriksson. Benfica perhaps the edge at the helm, but overall Anderlecht looked a bit stronger. But only a bit.
The opening leg in Brussels proved predictions right – it was tough, but not dirty, fairly equal match, in which Anderlecht was slightly stronger and more aggressive. Both teams displayed modern football, covering the whole field and swarming at the opponents. Benfica was quite surprising, for they were at last at the same level the top European clubs were.
The only goal was scored by Kenneth Brylle in the 29th minute – classy goal, finishing entertaining attack, which moved from the centre to the right flank, from where excellent cross was delivered. Benfica finished the game with 10 men, but this did affect their play.
Final 1st Leg, Heysel Stadium, Bruxelles, 4 May 1983, att 55000
RSC Anderlecht (1) 1 SL Benfica (0) 0
29′ 1-0 A: Brylle
RSC Anderlecht: Munaron; Hofkens, Peruzovic, Olsen, De Groote; Frimann, Coeck, Vercauteren, Lozano; Vandenbergh (Czernatynski 78), Brylle
SL Benfica: Bento; Pietra, Alvaro, Humberto Coelho, José Luis; Sheu, Frederico (Bastos Lopes 78),
Carlos Manuel, Chalana; Filipovic (Nene 68), Diamantino
Referee: Dotchev (Bulgaria)
Red card: José Luis 75
Before the second leg both sides were cautious – van Himst commented only that 1-0 was better than nothing. The match was pretty much the same as the first one: fast, pushing forward, well organized defenses, rapid counter-attacks at the first opporutnity. Anderlecht was still a bit better, more aggressive and dangerous, but Benfica scored first and equalized the result, thanks to Sheu in the 36th minute. It was short lived relieve – Lozano scored for Anderlecht two minutes later. And no more goals were scored to the end, although both teams had their chances.
Final 2nd Leg, Estádio da Luz, Lisboa, 18 May 1983, att 80000
SL Benfica (1) 1 RSC Anderlecht (1) 1
36′ 1-0 B: Sheu
38′ 1-1 A: Lozano
SL Benfica: Bento; Pietra, Humberto Coelho, Bastos Lopes, Veloso (Alves 62); Carlos Manuel,
Stromberg, Sheu (Filipovic 50), Chalana; Nene, Diamantino
RSC Anderlecht: Munaron; Peruzovic, De Greef, Broos, Olsen, De Groote; Frimann, Lozano, Coeck,
Vercauteren; Vandenbergh (Brylle 78)
Referee: Corver (Netherlands)
Anderlecht won 2-1 on aggregate and became the only 2nd clubs which won both the Cup Winners Cup and the UEFA Cup – the first was Tottenham Hotspur.
Vercauteren and Peruzovic proudly display the Cup after well deserved victory.
Losing in front of home crowd is usually more devastating… Standing from left: Sheu, Alvaro, Humberto Coelho, Diamantino, Zoran Filipovic, Bento.
First row: Jose Luis, Frederico, Pietra, Chalana, Carlos Manuel.
Benfica played well, but lost and that unfortunately is all that counts. It was just a tiny difference between them and Anderlecht and that difference was not in their favour. Benfica would have been unblemished winner, if they won – but they did not and instantly the reason was found: old curse was remembered. Years ago, when Benfica sacked Bella Gutmann, the angry Hungarian cursed the club to never win again. And they did not…
Anderlecht had nor trouble with mystic powers working against them – concerned only with the real, they extracted difficult victory. Standing from left: Luka Peruzovic, Walter de Greef, Ludo Coeck, Hugo Broos, Michel de Groote, Jean Munaron.
First row: Morten Olsen, Juan Lozano, Frank Vercauteren, Per Frimann, Erwin Vanderbergh.
Wonderful squad, managing to keep its strength year after year. To a point, it was similar to Benfica – deep team, well balanced, with various options, but a bit better, for Anderlecht’s players were may be a notch classier than Benfica’s and used to winning. Strong members of the great Belgian national team at the time, perhaps the best current Brlgian player – Juan Lozano – among them, vastly experienced foreigners, who were also regulars in their countries’ national teams – Luka Peruzovic and Morten Olsen. If Peruzovic was well known name for many years (key player of the strong Hajduk Split squad of the 1970s and member of the national team at the 1974 World Cup), but slowly and gradually became a starter in the talented and competitive Yugoslav national team, Morten Olsen, pretty much of the same age as Peruzovic, was just getting to the point of fame – along with the national team of Denmark. Anderlecht mastered well transitions, thus able to avoid the painful crisis of changing generations – only Coeck and Vercauteren remained from the squad, which excited Europe in the second half of the 1970s. Back then Vercauteren was talented reserve, pushing his way to the regular team and Coeck was fresh discovery, excellently keeping pace with stars like Rensenbrink. Now both were veterans and leaders. Van Himst also seemingly made well the transition from player to coach and now was able not only to inspire the team with his legendary status, but actually to keep them playing on contemporary level. Anderlecht won its 3rd European trophy in four finals – few clubs were able to do that. No Champions Cup for them, but numerically they surpassed Benfica this year – 3 cups vs 2.