The Football Tragic

By the 1977/78 season, Ernst Happel's Bruges were probably at their peak. With two domestic championships and two commendable international cup runs behind them, they were not going to be underestimated by anyone in Europe this time around. And it proved to be their best season, almost culminating in the biggest club prize of all.

After an easy win in the first round of the European Cup, they narrowly saw off Panathinaikos in their next tie and faced Spanish champions Atlético Madrid in the quarter-final. The Rojiblancos, coached by the respected Luis Aragones, were a side that combined flair with tough defence; within their ranks were several Spanish internationals as well as the brilliant Argentinian attacker Ruben Ayala and the daunting Luis Pereira, Brazil's defensive lynchpin at the 1974 World Cup.

Bruges produced a fine performance in the home leg, which exemplified many of their best qualities. Non-stop pressing and scrapping saw them overcome Atlético's greater technical skill. In the early stages, Daniel De Cubber hit the base of the post and club icon Raoul Lambert, battling ferociously for every ball, had a shot cleared off the line. "A very spirited side, this Bruges," remarked an impressed Spanish commentator. Perhaps ironically, after a half in which enthusiasm had outdone subtlety, it was Bruges' most skilful player, Paul Courant, who opened the scoring: taking advantage of a bad mistake by the Atlético defender Miguel Ruiz, he swerved splendidly past Pereira and fired the ball home from a tight angle.

In the second half, although Atlético might have had a penalty, Bruges kept up the pressure and went further ahead when a shot from De Cubber was deflected unluckily past Miguel Reina in goal. Atlético deserved something from the game, and almost got it when a deflected goalkick sent Ruben Cano racing into the box, only to be tripped by Georges Leekens. This time a penalty was awarded, but Birger Jensen made a magnificent save from Marcial's spot-kick. Bruges too should have had a penalty when Alberto brought Courant down in the box fifteen minutes from the end, but 3-0 would definitely have been harsh on Aragones' team.

In the return leg, a stylish Atlético performance saw them romp to a 2-0 first half lead. But another of Julien Cools' priceless thunderbolts pulled a goal back for the Belgians on the hour, and the ever-reliable Lambert scored another from a deflection in the box eight minutes later. It finished 3-2 on the night, but Bruges were through to the semi-finals, to face Juventus. The unsung hero of the tie for Bruges was the solid, hard-working left-back Jos Volders, who had done a great deal to keep the talented Ayala in check.

Along with defending champions Liverpool, Juventus were among the favourites of the competition. Their side featured several of the players who were to shine at the World Cup in Argentina a few months later, including young stars such as Claudio Gentile, Marco Tardelli and Gaetano Scirea; not to mention the strong, shrewd Roberto Bettega up front, and Franco Causio working his tricks on the right wing. 

If Bruges had advanced to the semi-finals thanks to their pressing and energy, in Turin they gave a fine display of controlled, organised defence and counter-attack, making excellent use of the offside trap. The game featured few chances; De Cubber and Cools went close for Bruges, Jensen once had to rush out of goal to smother a shot from Causio. But throughout the evening the Juventus forwards were constantly caught offside; Ernst Happel's tactic of condensing the midfield and defensive lines was working a treat, and the players' discipline in enacting it was first-rate. "Offside...just for a change," commented the witty Italian commentator Nando Martellini, when Bettega had strayed beyond the last Bruges man yet again.

And Volders, once again, was giving a stirring performance, shackling and frustrating Causio throughout. Juventus finally notched a goal six minutes from the end when Causio for once got the better of Volders and pulled the ball back for Bettega to score, and the young Antonio Cabrini, on as a substitute, almost pinched a second with a marvellous run through the defence two minutes later. But it finished only 1-0, and Bruges, who had won all their home games comfortably thus far, were in the driver's seat.

They were made to work hard back in Belgium: although right-back and club captain Fons Bastijns snuck in on the blind side to score a fine early goal, they had to wait until extra time for the winner. The Danish winger Jan Sorensen hit the left-hand byline and pulled the ball back for René Vandereycken to apply a close-range finish, and Bruges became the first (and so far, only) Belgian team to reach the European Cup final.

There they would meet Bob Paisley's mighty Liverpool, who had overcome last season's finalists Borussia Moenchengladbach in the other semi with relative ease. All the auguries were against Bruges: the match, held at Wembley, would be a virtual home tie for the Reds. Two key attacking players, Lambert and Courant, were injured. In place of the latter, Happel surprisingly gave a start to the former Hungarian international Lajos Ku, playing only his third game for the club. On top of that, his experienced sweeper, Eduard Krieger, was struggling with a rib injury. Not since 1956 had a team playing in its home country failed to win a European Cup final, and before the match Happel hailed Liverpool as clearly the best team in Europe.

The match, however, was closer than expected.

In most histories of the European Cup, the 1978 final has gone down as a dull, predictable affair. In Rab MacWilliam's comprehensive account, the match is dismissed as "disappointing", with Bruges characterised as the "boring Belgians". This is, to put it mildly, not entirely fair. If not the finest of all European Cup finals, it was very far from the worst, and contained plenty to engage the neutral viewer. Certainly, by comparison with the previous year's thrilling Liverpool-Borussia showpiece, the match came off badly; but it was, for instance, infinitely better than the following year's Nottingham Forest-Malmö snoozefest.

To add to the pre-existing factors favouring his team, Paisley made a shrewd personnel choice. The young, red-haired David Fairclough had been known mainly up to then as a "super-sub", having played this role to perfection in the vital tie against St. Etienne in the previous season. But Paisley unexpectedly gave Fairclough a start, and the youngster proved just the man to throw Bruges' famed offside tactic out of kilter. Roaming all around the forward line and hanging off first one shoulder, then another, Fairclough seriously disturbed Bruges' tactical discipline and was, along with the commanding defender Phil Thompson, Liverpool's best player on the night.

Liverpool dominated the game territorially from the outset. Young Gino Maes, preferred to Volders at left-back for his pace, had to make a saving tackle on Jimmy Case after Fairclough burst through on the left. Ray Kennedy shot wide after a weak clearance from Krieger, clearly struggling for fitness. Jensen, who was to have a splendid evening in goal, saved from Case's free kick on 35 minutes, and after another surge by Fairclough, Jensen's half-clearance rebounded to Graeme Souness, who shot just over the bar. An ineffective Ku failed to make the most of Cools' dangerous right-wing cross at the other end, and just before half-time it was only a brilliant double save from Jensen that kept the score at 0-0. A reverse ball from Terry McDermott put the ubiquitous Fairclough through; Jensen rushed off his line to block, and then saved again from Alan Hansen's header. Somehow, Bruges had battled their way to the interval without conceding.

When Fairclough again got free early in the second half, Jensen had to plunge at Kenny Dalglish's feet to save; it was clear that Bruges' offside trap had completely unravelled. McDermott, played through by Dalglish, had another good chance, but Jensen made another excellent save.

Oddly enough, Liverpool seemed to be losing the thread of the game somewhat as the minutes ticked by, and it seemed as if an unlikely shift in the momentum was about to occur. But then, almost against the run of play, came the deciding goal. A weak header out by De Cubber reached Souness, and as the Bruges defenders pushed out, the Scot picked out his fellow countryman Dalglish with a deft through-ball. The offside trap was breached once again, and Dalglish chipped the advancing Jensen nicely to score.

That was clearly that. The Liverpool fans were by now in deafening voice, Thompson was completely dominant in the air, Souness was bossing the midfield, and Bruges' feints at goal began to look ever more desperate. They needed a gift, and surprisingly they almost got it when a slack back-pass from Hansen was intercepted by Sorensen: Ray Clemence was quickly out to smother, but the ball fell to the striker Jan Simoen, whose shot was cleared off the line by Thompson. A very lucky escape.

The Cup was Liverpool's once again, and Emlyn Hughes and his men ascended the thirty-nine steps to collect their prize. The unfashionable Belgian team were condemned to be a footnote in the history of the competition, and their time had passed: next season, they were dumped out of the competition early by Polish champions Wisla Krakow, and never again scaled the same heights. Ernst Happel, after another near-miss a month later with Holland at the 1978 World Cup, moved on as he always did, this time to Hamburg, to gain a second European Cup triumph in 1983.

But the journeymen of late-70s Bruges deserve to be commemorated. A team of unheralded professionals who formed a tight, resilient unit who overcame some of Europe's best in their three-year heyday, they remain the only Belgian side that has reached European club football's showpiece match.

# posted by Mike Salter @ 3:43 PM