Top 5 UEFA Cup Finals: # 1

By: Dan | May 20th, 2009

1975-1976 Liverpool 4 – Club Brugge 3

At least this didn’t get shoehorned into Sloop John B…

As we all know, and probably could comfortably live for the next century without being reminded again, Liverpool have won five European Cups. Their UEFA Cup wins are less celebrated, but the 1976 UEFA Cup final clash with Belgium’s Club Brugge is arguably the best European tie they ever participated in. (Yes, that includes that night in Istanbul.)

What makes this final so special is that it was so tightly contested over both legs. Liverpool definitely proved worthy of the victory, but if Brugge had managed to score one more time and win on away goals, Liverpool could hardly have had any complaints either.

Finding themselves two goals down, at Anfield, within fifteen minutes must have been galling for Liverpool, although Brugge did display some tidy passing work themselves. It’s also somewhat surprising that they didn’t actually break through until the second half, as they were all over the Belgians. The first goal was a great strike from the edge of the penalty area by Kennedy, and the second goal proved, once again, the danger of possessing a superlative player like Kevin Keegan. Three defenders converged on him, allowing him to slide the ball to an unmarked Kennedy, who hit the post before Jimmy Case tapped in the rebound. The penalty for the third goal was, to say the least, questionable.

If the first leg was defined by Liverpool’s comeback, the second leg was heartbreak for the Belgians. Brugge got their own soft penalty early in the second leg to cancel out Heighway’s dive, but couldn’t defend an indirect free kick strike from Keegan. Liverpool did well to hold off Brugge for the remainder of the game. They didn’t create as many chances as Liverpool did during their first leg fight back, but they were the more likely of the two teams to score. A shot by Raoul Lambert that absolutely smashed against the near post proved to be a fatal missed opportunity.

It’s no wonder when Liverpool and Brugge met again in the 1978 European Cup final, that Brugge were content with trying to kill the game. As for 1976, you couldn’t ask for a better example of why we all get so worked up about 22 men kicking a ball around.