Competition Overview

Two weeks after the creation of the Champions Cup, in 1955 some executives of World football decided the creation of a competition to promote trade fairs. It was common to have some friendly matches during these fairs, so the teams where from cities that hosted a trade fair. Barcelona, Roma, Valencia, Zaragoza, Ferencvaros, Dinamo Zagreb, Leeds United, Newcastle United and Arsenal won the Cup at least once, but it was never recognized by UEFA and the trophy is not part of the European record of the clubs.

History

The UEFA Cup was born. English and German in the first 10 years

UEFA took the Inter-Cties fair in 1971, changing its name into UEFA Cup. During the last years of the previous competition, the fair criteria was left and it became being the “Runners-up Cup”. No more than one club per city was admitted, but in 1975 Everton appealed as they were kept out (they finished fourth in the First Division, while Liverpool finished second), and the rule was cancelled. First edition saw 64 teams participating, and the two legged final was between two English sides: Tottenham won 2-1 in Wolverhampton, and the 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane was enough fot the team coached by Bill Nicholson to lift the trophy. Northern Ireland goalie Pat Jennings was the most famous player of the Spurs. Another English side, Liverpool, won on 1973. In that edition, there was a tremendous 21-0 on aggregate of Feyenoord over Luxemburg team Rumelang. Liverpool knocked-out title holders Tottenham for the away goal rule, and in the final, after defeating Mönchengladbach 3-0 at Anfield. The German striker Jupp Heynckes scored two goals in the second leg, but it was not enough and the Reds won the Cup. Rijsbergen and Ressel gave the Cup to Feyenoord, in 1974, four years after the Dutch won Champions Cup and Intercontinental Cup. Jupp Heynckes had his revenge in 1975, when he gave Mönchengladbach the Cup: very strange how the finals went. The German side drew 0-0 at home against Twente, but in the second leg the German won 5-1, with a hat-trick by Heynckes and two goals scored by the small Danish Allan Simonsen. Again Liverpool, before their winning cycle in Champions Cup, won another UEFA Cup with again the King, Kevin Keegan and Jimmy Case scoring decisive goals. Juventus was the first side winning the Cup on away goals over Spanish Athletic Bilbao, after knocking out Manchester City and Manchester United. With the Champions Cup participation of the National Champions only, the UEFA Cup had a very high level, and a lot of top teams were in the competition. The 70s finished with wins by Eindhoven over French side Bastia and again by Mönchengladbach with a penalty in sthe second leg, again by Simonsen.

The roaring 80s, also UEFA Cup is in Real Madrid's record

Incredible in 1979-80: the 4 sides qualified to the semifinals were all from West Germany. Bayern Munchen, Mönchengladbach, Stuttgart and Frankfurt gave birth to a domestic tournament, won by Frankfurt (3-3 on aggregate, win on away goals rule) over Mönchengladbach. Then Bobby Robson's Ipswich Town won over the Dutch Team of AZ Alkmaar, with two important Dutch players, Arnold Mühren and Frans Thijssen. In 1982, Kaiserslautern won incredibly 5-0 over Spanish giants Real Madrid, but were knocked-out by IFK Goteborg. The Swedish, coached by 34 y.o. Sven Goran Eriksson, won the UEFA Cup (4-0 on aggregate over Hamburger SV), after they went almost bankrupt during the season and got some money by the Fans Association to travel to Valencia for the quarter final game. One year later, Anderlecht was the first Belgian side to win UEFA Cup, for the Paars-wit is the third European trophy. 80.000 at the Estadio da Luz were not able to lead Benfica to the win. Anderlecht tried to win their second Cup in a row, but they lost in the final after penalties,decisive the mistake of Arnòr Gudjohnsen. Real Madrid is know as the most titled club in the World, but they won their first UEFA Cup only in 1985. The knocked out Inter after a great comeback (0-2 in Milan, 3-0 at Bernabeu) and won easily the final over Hungarian side Videotòn. They won again in 1986, again defeating Inter in semifinal (1-3 in Milan, 5-1 in Madrid after extra time), before defeating Köln, 5-1 in Madrid and 0-2 in West Germany. Real Madrid did not take part to the UEFA Cup in 1987, as they won the Spanish League. At the end, IFK Goteborg won their second title, in an underdog final against Scottish Dundee United (3 years before qualified to the Champions Cup semi-final). Both the 1988 teams were at their first final, and Leverkusen, after knocking out Barcelona in the quarter-finals, with an incredible comeback (lost 0-3 the first leg, won at home with the same result) defeated the other Barcelona team, Espanyol.

The Italian domination in the 1990s With the 1988-99 season, an incredible period for the Italian sides started, 8 of the following 11 editions were won by a club from the Bel Paese. Napoli could not win Serie A, they finished second but won the UEFA Cup after defeating Juventus in quarter-final and Bayern in semifinal. Then, Maradona's team won 5-4 on aggregate over Stuttgart. This was just the beginning, in 1990 Juventus and Fiorentina knocked out respectively Köln and Bremen, then in the final Juventus won 3-1 in Turin and the second leg was played in Avellino, neutral ground, and the game ended 0-0, with Fiorentina angry with Spanish referee Soriano Aladren for some discussed decisions. That season Italy won all the European Cups (Champions won by AC Milan and Cup Winner's Cup in the hands of Sampdoria) Another all Italian final in 1990-91, when Inter won their first UEFA Cup defeating Roma. The comeback against Aston Villa (a 3-0 win in San Siro after a 0-2 defeat at Villa Park) was one of the most important moment, the Inter won the final's first leg 2-0, conceeding just one goal in the second leg at Olimpico. Only the away goal rule and the refereeing of English Worrall stopped the Italian domination, and Torino deserved the Cup the same as Ajax : 2-2 in Turin, 0-0 at Olympisch Stadion. Torino knocked out Real Madrid in the semifinal, the other Italian side Genoa won at Anfield , showing the Italian league was on the top of Europe those years. Just a one year stop, then Juventus restarted the Italian wins, hammering Dortmund (6-1 on aggregate, with the two Baggios (Dino and Roberto, not even relatives) scoring together 5 of 6 goals. That was the third Juventus win, and they got the record of wins that year. Just like in 1990, after Juventus , Inter . Cagliari knocked out Juventus in quarterfinal, Inter defeated Cagliari in the semi-final, and won the Cup with a double 1-0 over Salzburg , first at Prater Stadium, then in San Siro . The history repeating: in 1995, like in 1990, two Italian sides ( Juventus and Parma ) knocked out two teams from Germany ( Dortmund and Leverkusen ). Once again Dino Baggio was the man of the final, but in the meantime he transferred to Parma , that won the Cup (2-1 on aggregate, curiously Juventus decided to play their home game in San Siro , and the Milan stadium was full, with an attendance of more than 80,000). In the meantime, the number of countries affiliated to UEFA was growing, and thgough the format was still with knoockout games only, a preliminary round was necessary. In 1996, no Italian teams qualified even to the semifinals, and Bayern won their first UEFA Cup over Bordeaux of a young Zinedine Zidane. The cup remained in Germany in 1997, when the underdogs of Schalke defeated Inter on penalties (1-1 on aggregate) with the decisive save by Jens Lehmann on Ivan Zamorano's penalty). This caused Inter coach Hodgson's resignation. The qualifying rounds, that year, became two.

Another important change in the format was about the final, no more in two legs but just in one match in neutral ground. Paris and Parc des Princes was the venue of Lazio - Inter , again two Italian sides and Inter won on May 6, 1998: 3-0 with goals by Ivan Zamorano, Javier Zanetti and Ronaldo . Inter had their revenge against Schalke (in a quarter-final that finished after extra time), and two great comebacks with French sides Lyon and Strasbourg . Inter reached Juventus on the Top with 3 cups. That was the last year with top teams from top nations in the UEFA Cup, anyways in 1999 the final at Luzniki Stadium in Moscow was great and Parma won over Marseille their second UEFA Cup; this time Crespo and Chiesa were the men of the match. After that, Italy disappeared from the list of winners, the Serie A level remaining great at a Top Four Level (with Top 4 in Champions League) but the average level was lower than the past.

Third millennium, Golden and Silver goals, and some upsets

Cup Winners Cup was cancelled in 1999-2000, so National Cup winners were admitted to UEFA Cup since that edition. Before that, only some nations qualified to the UEFA Cup their League Cup Winners. For the first time, teams that finished third in the first group stage were admitted to the UEFA Cup Last 16 round. That year there was a big upset, with Galatasaray coached by Fatih Terim defeating after penalties favourite Arsenal (both sides coming from Champions League ) in Copenhagen. Hagi and Sükür were the stars of the yellow-red team. Unfortunately, before the semifinal between the Turkish and Leeds , in Istanbul, there were riots and two Leeds fans (probably hooligans) died. Danish police unfortunately could not prevent incidents during the final, but after Heysel in 1985 again hooliganism became a big problem. Much better one year later, when Liverpool won in a spectacular final in Dortmund, 5-4 over Deportivo alaves, with an (own) Golden goal by Delfi Gelì. Alaves was very unlucky, after a great tournament, they knocked out Inter with a 2-0 win in San Siro , and 9-2 on aggregate in the semifinal agains 1.FC Kaiserslautern. That year Liverpool won all the Cups (UEFA, FA Cup, League Cup and Community Shield) and reached Juventus and Inter on the top of the competition record, with 3 wins. Feyenoord and Borussia Dortmund knocked out respectively Inter and AC Milan in 2002 semifinals, the final was in Rotterdam, giving an advantage to the Dutch side. Dortmund defender Kohler got a red card, and Feyenoord won 3-2 at the end. José Murinho started his winning cycle at Porto with the UEFA Cup in 2003, defeating in Sevilla Celtic Glasgow (that knocked out the other Porto side, Boavista ) for the first and only time by a Silver Goal scored by Derlei on minutes 115. Ricardo Carvalho , Deco , Maniche , Paulo Ferreira were almost unknown that time, then became very famous next year by winning the Champions League. Another coach that would have sign for a Premier League side, Rafa Benitez, kead his Valencia to a historical double Liga-UEFA Cup in 2004, knocking out two Turkish teams, then Bordeaux and, in a semi-final derby, Villareal . In Gothenbug, Vicente and Mista scored decisive goals, Marseille top scorer Dider Drogba played badly, withouth scoring a goal. In 2005, another big upset, for the first time after the end of USSR, a Russian team won an European Cup, CSKA Moscow with Brazilians Vagner Love and Daniel Carvalho defeated Sporting Lisbon in their own Stadium, the José Alvalade. Nobody though the Russians could win, after Sporting took the lead with Rogerio, but in 18 minutes they scored three goals (A. Berezutskiy, Zhirkov and Vagner Love), lifting the trolphy. In that edition, a Group Stage (8 groups of 5) with single games was introduced between first round and Round of 32. Two last editions were won by Andalusian side Sevilla . In 2006, they hammered Middlesbourgh (4-0 in Eindhoven), while the next season they could take the trophy after defeating another Spanish team, Espanyol , after penalties (1-1 after 120 mins. Then Andrès Palop saved three penalties from the Catalans, becoming the hero of the tournament. He also scored a goal in the Last 16 Round, during injury time, scored a goal, giving his side the chance to get through after extra time. Also Italian goalkeeper Amelia , of Livorno , scored the 1-1 goal in the very last minutes of Partizan - Livorno , with a header. In 2006-07, Feyenoord was banned, due to riots in the game the Dutch teams played against French side Nancy . Once again, violence in a UEFA Cup game.

UEFA Cup 2007/2008

The UEFA Cup 2007/2008 was the 37th edition of the UEFA’s second tier club football competition. A total of 88 teams from all over Europe participated in the contest. The Russian club Zenit St. Petersburg and the Scottish team Rangers F.C became the ones that made it into the final. The tournament was a coming of age for the Russian team as they won their first international competition by a score of 2-0. Andrei Arshavin, the lead striker and Pavel Pogrebnyak, the lead scorer made the biggest impact for the team during the competition.

UEFA CUP 2009

The UEFA Cup 2008 / 2009 should be another highly anticipated tournament. Teams from all over Europe will again battle for one of the most prestigious trophies in football. New club teams will emerge as champions and new players will become superstars. Dreams will become fulfilled and hopes will shatter as players will be representing not only their teams but also their home country. Even though the outcome of next years tournament will be impossible to predict, the only thing that is for certain is that there will be drama, chaos and excitement as the best football teams from all over the continent of Europe compete for honors, pride and the title of UEFA Cup champions.

Trophy

Team Honours

Past Winners

Most Successful Teams

Important Links

References