![]() List of British clubs to retain the European Cup/Champions League: In the second leg of their semi-final, they had pulverised Real Madrid 5-1.įorest though, the ‘Miracle Men’ held little truck with any of that and famously so. This was to be Keegan’s farewell outing for Die Rothosen.įurthermore, Hamburg had carved out a reputation as a ferocious attacking unit. Hamburg, the German champions, were sprinkled with internationals who would that summer win the Euros while running their shows was Kevin Keegan, winner of the Ballon d’Or six months earlier. ![]() There was additionally a further cause for concern, that being Forest’s opponents. ![]() Miracles don’t tend to strike twice, especially not in quick succession. The thing that, had our European football tips been around back then would have seen us backing Hamburg, even though the Tricky Trees had impressed once again, beating Ajax and the like on route to another marquee final, this time held at the Bernabeu. Only here’s the thing, the thing that was factored into the thinking a year later. It was a victory viewed at the time, and now, as a miracle, the kind that only a truly maverick genius such as Brian Howard Clough could conceive, never mind pull off. And here they were, shaking an entire continent to its core. It was a team that shone alongside the Trent, not the Mersey, or the Rhine, or the Po. In a decade that saw the competition otherwise dominated by a great Ajax side, and a great Bayern Munich machine, and a formidable Liverpool creation, along came a team made up of players previously considered past their prime or bought for peanuts from the lower divisions. Their success in ’79, in a manner, defied logic, for all that Forest were the reigning English league champions. Similarly, they were seriously unfancied in 1979, before navigating a tough path to Munich and becoming champions of Europe against all the betting odds and every expectation. Despite winning the tournament twelve months earlier, Nottingham Forest were the underdogs going into the 1980 European Cup final.
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