European Champions Cup. The draw was fine at first – the big teams, either in fact or by reputation had easy opponents. The only tough pairs: St. Etienne was eliminated in the preliminary round by Dynamo Berlin, 1-1 and 0-2, signaling the end of the long successful run of the French champions. In the first round Juventus eliminated Celtic 0-1 and 2-0. CSKA Sofia produced a minor surprise by eliminating Real Sociedad 1-0 and 0-0 – the Bulgarians played with hearth, but the Spanish champions were not the same class as Real Madrid, Barcelona, or Atletico Madrid.
The Bulgarian champions had very easy draw in the second round and now it was their turn to fret to the last second: they won the home leg against Northern Ireland’s Glentoran 2-0 and the job was seemingly done, but the Irish came back with a vengeance in the second leg, equalized the result and only a gola scored in the extra time qualified CSKA. Meantime, Anderlecht destroyed Juventus, full of still future world champions 3-1 and 1-1, Benfica lost to Bayern 0-0 and 1-4, and AZ’67 – to Liverpool 2-2 and 2-3. Aston Villa, having it easy at first (Valur Reykjavik), now had stronger opponent – Dynamo Berlin – and only an away goal propelled them to the quarter-finals: the English champions won 2-1 in East Berlin, but lost 0-1 in Birmingham.
Once again Lady Luck smiled at the big clubs: except Dinamo Kiev – Aston Villa, there was no other problematic pair and it looked like that three semi-finalists were known before any match was played. The Soviet clubs had problems with spring games for years – not only their season was just beginning, so their teams were not at their best form, but it was too cold to play at their home grounds and international matches were scheduled in Southern cities – Aston Villa managed a 0-0 tie in Simferopol, then easily won 2-0 in Birmingham. Anderlecht won both legs against Crvena zvezda 2-1 and 2-1. Bayern assured their win away in Craiova, where they beat their Romanian hosts Universitatea 2-0. The second leg was a formality and without pressure, it ended 1-1. So far – exactly as expected. And reigning cup holders Liverpool facing CSKA was perhaps the easiest pair on paper. Liverpool won 1-0 at home and the Bulgarians played surprisingly strong football. But Liverpool won and perhaps learned a lesson, so nothing strange so far. Except that CSKA eliminated Nottingham Forest the year before… after that, however, Liverpool utterly destroyed CSKA. Well, that was the last year – this time CSKA was more than a match for Liverpool, played very determined second leg, scored a goal, then one more, and Liverpool was out 0-2. Liverpool lost in overtime, but so what – they were out. A big surprise, making CSKA a killer of champions, for they eliminated so far three cup holders: Ajax in 1973, Nottingham Forest in 1980, and now – Liverpool.
The semi-finals provided little in terms of convenient opponents, but Bayern was lucky – they faced CSKA. Traditionally, West German teams won matches with Bulgarians. However, CSKA was in splendid form and Bayern was not as formidable as it used to be. The opening match in Sofia started shockingly for the West Germans: CSKA quickly scored 2 goals, Bayern managed to return one, but soon it was 1-3. At the end, with great effort, Bayern managed to lose 3-4 – the result still gave them a better chance, but it was extracted with great effort. Unlike Liverpool, Bayern learned and in the home leg steamrolled CSKA, winning 4-0. No schemes, just pushing for the most possible score – otherwise would have been too risky. In the other semi-final Aston Villa was praised in the British press for ‘discipline’ – they eliminated Anderlecht 1-0 and 0-0.
Bayern – Aston Villa. Exciting final – West Germans vs English, the leading nations in club football against each other. Bayern wanting to come back with a 4th Cup, Aston Villa never won European cup before. Given the squads, the bets were on the Germans. But that was on paper. And even more than paper – Aston Villa had a problem: Jimmy Rimmer, their regular goalkeeper and one of the few well known players in the team, suffered heavy injury, eventually driving him to retirement. It was not sure at all he would be able to play. But he stepped on the pitch in Rotterdam. The referee gave the start of the final and something amazing happened – such thing never happened before and was never repeated. In the 9th minute Aston Villa replaced Rimmer with his entirely unknown substitute Spink, who so far appeared only in a handful of matches. Since it was well known that Rimmer was with career threatening injury, it looked like that Aston Villa fielded him not to play, but only as a tribute to venerable veteran. It was something only an English club would do – to put aside the importance of a final, only to pay tribute to a player, risking a loss either by an easy early goal or because of wasting one of the two allowed substitutes. They were playing against the German machine Bayern, for God’s sake! Spink hardly had any experience and not even starting the match could have been a big liability. But the risk paid back: Aston Villa played great and Spink was very strong between the goalposts. As for Bayern, there was already known problem – the team was too mechanical. Good fighters, but without much of a spark. Breitner was by far the only player showing real class and imagination. Thus, to a point, Aston Villa benefited by the straight-forward German football – it was familiar game to the rather plain English team. Running, tackling, pushing ahead – that was the football Aston Villa played in the English league. More eager than the Germans, the English actually looked the more interesting team and gradually – the stronger one.
Rummenigge covered by Mortimer – the big star having the edge, as was expected.
May be so, but the unknown Spink was unshakeable and save whatever had to be saved.
Bayern knew very well the traditional English football, which Aston Villa played – and made sure no cross would ever reach the English center-forward.
But Aston Villa was not at all giving up – Augenthaler tries to attack here, only to be tackled immediately.
Aston Villa did not play defensive football at all, but attacked constantly and, with time, more dangerously than their opponents.
Until the 67th minute, when Peter with escaped from German police and scored.
The picture tells it all. And there was no other goal.
Final, Feyenoord Stadion, Rotterdam, 26 May 1982, att 46000
Aston Villa (0) 1 Bayern München (0) 0
67′ 1-0 AV: Withe
Aston Villa (trainer Barton)
Rimmer (Spink 9); Swain, Evans, McNaught, Williams; Bremner, Cowans, Mortimer; Shaw,Withe, Morley
Bayern München (trainer Csernai)
Muller; Dremmler, Weiner, Augenthaler, Horsmann; Mathy (Guttler 51), Breitner, Kraus Niedermayer 78), Dürnberger; Rummenigge, Hoeness
Referee: Konrath (France)
The best moment in life.
Deserving heroes – tired and happy. First ever European cup for Aston Villa and what a cup!
Losers, standing from left: Weiner, Horsmann, Augenthaler, Dieter Hoeness, Rummenigge, Breitner.
Crouching: Durnberger, Kraus, Muller, Mathy, Dremmler.
Let’s face it: this version was not equal to the great Bayern of the first half of the 1970s. Yes, bit stars and half the team knew the touch of the European Champions Cup, but… Durnberger, Horsmann, and Kraus were mostly reserves in the old team and never became stars. Augenthaler and Dremmler were not at their peak yet, Dieter Hoeness playing for Bayern was unthinkable in the days when his brother was playing, and 1982 was not Rummenigge’s year. Not a memorable performance at the final and apart from feeling sorry for Breitner, nothing else one can say.
The new European champions at their finest: standing from left: Withe, Blair, Spink, Heard, Shaw, McNaught, Evans, Mortimer, Rimmer.
First row: Geddis, Gibson, Cowans, Williams, Morley, Bremner, Swain.
On ane hand, a splendid victory of the underdog, but on the other – the English clubs dominated
European club tournaments for a long time, so one more victory was just a natural continuation. Aston Villa, however, was different – nothing like Nottingham Forest and especially Liverpool. It was a squad of underachievers – Jimmy Rimmer spent years as a second goalkeeper of Manchester Untied. Peter Withe also got old without making impression anywhere – he was even with Nottingham Forest a year or two ago. Of the rest, only after the final some players were recognized as potential stars – Dennis Mortimer, Des Bremner, Tony Morley, and particularly Gary Shaw. Players for the future, however… yes, they played for their countries a bit, even the approaching Peter with, but nobody developed into huge star. Collective play and discipline was their biggest quality and although this was their year, it was quite clear it was not going to be repeated – the team was not classy enough and the club did not have money to add big stars to the roster. This made their success even more pleasant, for it was a great display of courage and determination and also was fine tribute to some players: at last Jimmy Rimmer won international trophy, for instance. The big hero – and hero precisely of the underdog – was Nigel Spink. Perhaps his wonderful and brave performance at the European final propelled his career – a star he never became, but a respected goalkeeper – yes. It was very touchy – no matter was it intentional or accidental – to risk starting with injured goalkeeper and to substitute him after a few minutes, thus giving him a chance to be part of the European final and, after the final whistle, a rightful winner.
The pride of Birmingham and the team deserved it entirely! One more name added to the list of European champions.