1974/75: Heynckes gives Weisweiler perfect send-off
Sunday 1 June 1975
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VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach (Logo) (©uefa.com)
VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach 0-0 FC Twente
FC Twente 1-5 VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach
(Drost 76; Simonsen 2 86p, Heynckes 9 50 60)
(agg: 5-2 to Mönchengladbach)
As with the previous summer's FIFA World Cup, so with the UEFA Cup competition that followed it. Dutch and West German teams vied for supremacy, with the latter coming out on top. That it was VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach who did so, in their last year under Hennes Weisweiler, pleased the neutrals. The coach had developed a fine footballing tradition on limited resources at the Bökelbergstadion. And his side were never in trouble from the moment they overturned a first-leg deficit against FC Wacker Innsbruck in round one.
Mönchengladbach cruise
The rest, in fact, was potted history: they registered eight wins and 23 goals in their next eight games, against Olympique Lyonnais, Real Zaragoza, FC Baník Ostrava and 1. FC Köln, en route to the final. Mönchengladbach's opponents there would be FC Twente, whom they had defeated in the 1973 semi-finals. The Dutch side had negotiated Ipswich Town FC, RWD Molenbeek and FC Príbram to make it two Eredivisie sides in the last eight. But while FC Amsterdam crashed out to Köln, the Enschede club beat first FK Velež, then, uproariously, Juventus FC home and away in the semi-finals.
Hero Heynckes
Dutch hopes soared further when Twente drew 0-0 at the Rheinstadion in Düsseldorf, scene of all Mönchengladbach's big European games. But experience told in the return, won 5-1 by the West German champions-elect. Allan Simonsen scored twice, Jupp Heynckes a hat-trick, to give the Barcelona-bound Weisweiler the perfect send-off.
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