1968–69 European Cup

1968–69 European Cup

Final positions
Champions	Milan (2nd title)
Runners-up	Ajax
Tournament statistics
Top scorer(s)	Denis Law (9 goals)
← 1967–68 1969–70 →

The 1968–69 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won by Milan, who beat Ajax 4–1 in the final, giving Milan its first European Cup title since 1963, and its second overall. A number of Eastern European clubs withdrew from the first two rounds when UEFA paired up all of the Eastern European clubs against one another.

Substitutions of two players at any game time were allowed; obligatory match dates were introduced (two weeks between the legs) and fixed on Wednesdays; the away goal rule was extended to the whole competition.

Manchester United, the defending champions, were eliminated by Milan in the semi-finals.

First round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Malmö FF	3–5	Milan	2–1	1–4
Saint-Étienne	2–4	Celtic	2–0	0–4
Red Star Belgrade	(w/o)	Carl Zeiss Jena	–	–
Waterford United	2–10	Manchester United	1–3	1–7
Anderlecht	5–2	Glentoran	3–0	2–2
Rosenborg	4–6	Rapid Vienna	1–3	3–3
Real Madrid	12–0	AEL	6–0	6–0
Nuremberg	1–5	Ajax	1–1	0–4
Manchester City	1–2	Fenerbahçe	0–0	1–2
Valur	1–8	Benfica	0–0	1–8
Floriana	1–3	Reipas Lahti	1–1	0–2
Steaua Bucureşti	3–5	Spartak Trnava	3–1	0–4
AEK Athens	5–3	Jeunesse Esch	3–0	2–3
Zürich	3–4	AB	1–3	2–1
Dynamo Kiev	(w/d)	Ruch Chorzów	–	–
Levski-Spartak	(w/d)	Ferencváros	–	–

First leg

18 September 1968	Malmö FF	2 – 1	Milan	Malmö Stadion, Malmö Attendance: 23,118 Referee: Hans Siebert (West Germany)
	Olsberg  45' Elmstedt  50'	Report Gamesheet	Rivera  58'

18 September 1968	Saint-Étienne	2 – 0	Celtic	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne Attendance: 34,403 Referee: Aníbal da Silva Oliveira (Portugal)
	Keïta  15' H. Revelli  36'	Report Gamesheet

18 September 1968	Waterford United	1 – 3	Manchester United	Lansdowne Road, Dublin Attendance: 48,886 Referee: William Joseph Mullen (Scotland)
	Matthews  65'	Report Gamesheet	Law  8', 41', 55'

18 September 1968	Anderlecht	3 – 0	Glentoran	Émile Versé Stadium, Anderlecht Attendance: 18,963 Referee: Bruno de Marchi (Italy)
	Bergholtz  18' Peeters  23' Nordahl  87'	Report Gamesheet

18 September 1968	Rosenborg	1 – 3	Rapid Vienna	Lerkendal Stadion, Trondheim Attendance: 22,321 Referee: Kevin Howley (England)
	Iversen  16'	Report Gamesheet	Bjerregaard  28' Kaltenbrunner  65' Grausam  86'

18 September 1968	Real Madrid	6 – 0	AEL	Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid Attendance: 50,000 Referee: William Gow (Wales)
	Pirri  10', 14', 63' Amancio  17' Pérez  27' Bueno  75'	Report Gamesheet

18 September 1968	Nuremberg	1 – 1	Ajax	Städtisches Stadion, Nuremberg Attendance: 45,000 Referee: Gilbert Droz (Switzerland)
	Volkert  6'	Report Gamesheet	Cruyff  80'

18 September 1968	Manchester City	0 – 0	Fenerbahçe	Maine Road, Manchester Attendance: 38,840 Referee: Laurens van Ravens (Netherlands)
		Report Gamesheet

18 September 1968	Valur	0 – 0	Benfica	Laugardalsvöllur, Reykjavík Attendance: 18,243 Referee: Patrick Graham ()
		Report Gamesheet

18 September 1968	Floriana	1 – 1	Reipas Lahti	Empire Stadium, Gżira Attendance: 10,162 Referee: James Finney (England)
	Galea  37' (pen.)	Report Gamesheet	Aalto  28'

18 September 1968	Steaua Bucureşti	3 – 1	Spartak Trnava	23 August Stadium, Bucharest Attendance: 3,000 Referee: Christos Michas (Greece)
	Creiniceanu  18' Voinea  30' Constantin  51'	Report Gamesheet	Kuna  75'

18 September 1968	AEK Athens	3 – 0	Jeunesse Esch	Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens Attendance: 16,205 Referee: Fabio Monti (Italy)
	Papaioannou  4' Papageorgiou  56' (pen.) Karafeskos  58' (pen.)	Report Gamesheet

18 September 1968	Zürich	1 – 3	AB	Letzigrund, Zurich Attendance: 17,000 Referee: Juan Gardeazábal Garay (Spain)
	Winiger  50'	Report Gamesheet	Hansen  22' Wiberg  25' Petersen  62'

Second leg

2 October 1968	Milan	4 – 1	Malmö FF	San Siro, Milan Attendance: 61,932 Referee: Roger Mâchin (France)
	Prati  32'  69' Sormani  62' Rivera  88'	Report Gamesheet	Ljungberg  16'

Milan won 5–3 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Celtic	4 – 0	Saint-Étienne	Celtic Park, Glasgow Attendance: 73,059 Referee: Zdeněk Valeš (Czechoslovakia)
	Gemmell  44' (pen.) Craig  59' Chalmers  66' McBride  87'	Report Gamesheet

Celtic won 4–2 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Manchester United	7 – 1	Waterford United	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 41,750 Referee: Joaquim Fernandes Campos (Portugal)
	Stiles  37' Law  41', 47', 60', 71' Burns  68' Charlton  84'	Report Gamesheet	Casey  69'

Manchester United won 10–2 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Glentoran	2 – 2	Anderlecht	The Oval, Belfast Attendance: 12,384 Referee: Jacques Colling (Luxembourg)
	Morrow  27' Johnston  55'	Report Gamesheet	Devrindt  24' Bergholtz  58'

Anderlecht won 5–2 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Rapid Vienna	3 – 3	Rosenborg	Praterstadion, Vienna Attendance: 1,570 Referee: Andreas Kouniaides (Cyprus)
	Lindman  10', 80' Kaltenbrunner  17'	Report Gamesheet	Iversen  21', 34', 87'

Rapid Vienna won 6–4 on aggregate.

26 September 1968	AEL	0 – 6	Real Madrid	Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid Attendance: 20,075 Referee: Aníbal da Silva Oliveira (Portugal)
		Report Gamesheet	Velázquez  7', 10' José Luis  9' Veloso  84' Ortega  86' Zunzunegui  87'

Real Madrid won 12–0 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Ajax	4 – 0	Nuremberg	Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam Attendance: 54,579 Referee: John Adair (Northern Ireland)
	Swart  22', 51' Groot  86' (pen.) Cruyff  89'	Report Gamesheet

Ajax won 5–1 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Fenerbahçe	2 – 1	Manchester City	Beşiktaş İnönü Stadium, Istanbul Attendance: 42,570 Referee: Ferdinand Marschall (Austria)
	Çevrim  48' Altıparmak  76'	Report Gamesheet	Coleman  11'

Fenerbahçe won 2–1 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Benfica	8 – 1	Valur	Estádio da Luz, Lisbon Attendance: 24,389 Referee: Joseph Cassar-Naudi (Malta)
	Simões  4' Jacinto  7' Torres  11', 47', 79' Eusébio  20' Coluna  27' José Augusto  48'	Report Gamesheet	Gunnarsson  68'

Benfica won 8–1 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Reipas Lahti	2 – 0	Floriana	Olympia Stadium, Helsinki Attendance: 2,212 Referee: Curt Nystrand (Sweden)
	Holtari  56' (57)	Report Gamesheet

Reipas Lahti won 3–1 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Spartak Trnava	4 – 0	Steaua Bucureşti	Spartak Stadium, Trnava Attendance: 11,879 Referee: Rudolf Scheurer (Switzerland)
	Švec  4' Adamec  58', 76', 80'	Report Gamesheet

Spartak Trnava won 5–3 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	Jeunesse Esch	3 – 2	AEK Athens	Stade Émile Mayrisch, Esch-sur-Alzette Attendance: 3,213 Referee: Joseph Hannet (Belgium)
	Hoffmann  5' Drouet  45' Langer  87'	Report Gamesheet	Ventouris  16', 35'

AEK Athens won 5–3 on aggregate.

2 October 1968	AB	1 – 2	Zürich	Københavns Idrætapark, Copenhagen Attendance: 9,557 Referee: Malcolm Wright (Northern Ireland)
	Petersen  53'	Report Gamesheet	Künzli  42', 80'

AB won 4–3 on aggregate.

Second round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Milan	Bye	–	–	–
Celtic	6–2	Red Star Belgrade	5–1	1–1
Manchester United	4–3	Anderlecht	3–0	1–3
Rapid Vienna	2–21	Real Madrid	1–0	1–2
Ajax	4–0	Fenerbahçe	2–0	2–0
Benfica	Bye	–	–	–
Reipas Lahti	2–16	Spartak Trnava	1–9	1–7
AEK Athens	2–0	AB	0–0	2–0

¹ Rapid Vienna progressed to the Quarter-finals on away goals.

First leg

13 November 1968	Celtic	5 – 1	Red Star Belgrade	Celtic Park, Glasgow Attendance: 65,248 Referee: Alfred Ott (West Germany)
	Murdoch  3' Johnstone  46', 81' Lennox  48' Wallace  74'	Report Gamesheet	Lazarević  39'

13 November 1968	Manchester United	3 – 0	Anderlecht	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 50,000 Referee: Aníbal da Silva Oliveira (Portugal)
	Kidd  52' Law  70', 78'	Report Gamesheet

20 November 1968	Rapid Vienna	1 – 0	Real Madrid	Praterstadion, Vienna Attendance: 44,800 Referee: Josip Drago Horvat (Yugoslavia)
	Kaltenbrunner  55'	Report Gamesheet

13 November 1968	Ajax	2 – 0	Fenerbahçe	Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam Attendance: 54,812 Referee: Eric Jennings (England)
	Nuninga  14' Muller  74'	Report Gamesheet

20 November 1968	Reipas Lahti	1 – 9	Spartak Trnava	Praterstadion, Vienna Attendance: 6,000 Referee: Paul Schiller (Austria)
	Hyvärinen  88'	Report Gamesheet	Hagara  14' Kabát  20', 80' Švec  23', 61', 83' Martinkovič  46' Hrušecký  54' Adamec  64'

13 November 1968	AEK Athens	0 – 0	AB	Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens Attendance: 8,161 Referee: Ferdinand Marschall (Austria)
		Report Gamesheet

Second leg

27 November 1968	Red Star Belgrade	1 – 1	Celtic	Red Star Stadium, Belgrade Attendance: 17,625 Referee: Francesco Francescon (Italy)
	Ostojić  90'	Report Gamesheet	Wallace  72'

Celtic won 6–2 on aggregate.

27 November 1968	Anderlecht	3 – 1	Manchester United	Émile Versé Stadium, Brussels Attendance: 32,572 Referee: José María Ortiz de Mendíbil (Spain)
	Mulder  18' Bergholtz  38', 78'	Report Gamesheet	Sartori  8'

Manchester United won 4–3 on aggregate.

4 December 1968	Real Madrid	2 – 1	Rapid Vienna	Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid Attendance: 90,000 Referee: Gilbert Droz (Switzerland)
	Velázquez  41' Pirri  83'	Report Gamesheet	Bjerregaard  48'

Rapid Vienna won 2–2 on away goals.

27 November 1968	Fenerbahçe	0 – 2	Ajax	Beşiktaş İnönü Stadium, Istanbul Attendance: 33,863 Referee: Iosif Ritter (Romania)
		Report Gamesheet	Keizer  55' Nuninga  88'

Ajax won 4–0 on aggregate.

27 November 1968	Spartak Trnava	7 – 1	Reipas Lahti	Spartak Stadium, Trnava Attendance: 5,766 Referee: Laurens van Ravens (Netherlands)
	Hagara  15' Dobiaš  20', 49' (pen.), 64' Kuna  27' Adamec  37' Hrušecký  53'	Report Gamesheet	Niskakoski  75'

Spartak Trnava won 16–2 on aggregate.

27 November 1968	AB	0 – 2	AEK Athens	Københavns Idrætspark, Copenhagen Attendance: 11,471 Referee: Robert Holley Davidson (Scotland)
		Report Gamesheet	Stamatiadis  26' Papaioannou  80'

AEK Athens won 2–0 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Milan	1–0	Celtic	0–0	1–0
Manchester United	3–0	Rapid Vienna	3–0	0–0
Ajax	4–41	Benfica	1–3	3–1
Spartak Trnava	3–2	AEK Athens	2–1	1–1

¹ Ajax progressed to the Semi-finals over Benfica by winning a third, tie-breaking match, 3–0.

First leg

19 February 1969	Milan	0 – 0	Celtic	San Siro, Milan Attendance: 63,538 Referee: Kurt Waldemar Tschenscher (West Germany)
		Report Gamesheet

26 February 1969	Manchester United	3 – 0	Rapid Vienna	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 62,726 Referee: Božidar Botić (Yugoslavia)
	Best  44', 70' Morgan  70'	Report Gamesheet

12 February 1969	Ajax	1 – 3	Benfica	Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam Attendance: 55,150 Referee: Robert Holley Davidson (Scotland)
	Danielsson  48'	Report Gamesheet	Santos  31' (pen.) Torres  36' José Augusto  61'

26 February 1969	Spartak Trnava	2 – 1	AEK Athens	Spartak Stadium, Trnava Attendance: 10,747 Referee: Gilbert Droz (Switzerland)
	Jarábek  25' Kabát  44'	Report Gamesheet	Sevastopoulos  60'

Second leg

12 March 1969	Celtic	0 – 1	Milan	Celtic Park, Glasgow Attendance: 76,415 Referee: José María Ortiz de Mendibil (Spain)
		Report Gamesheet	Prati  12'

Milan won 1–0 on aggregate.

5 March 1969	Rapid Vienna	0 – 0	Manchester United	Praterstadion, Vienna Attendance: 50,234 Referee: Laurens van Ravens (Netherlands)
		Report Gamesheet

Manchester United won 3–0 on aggregate.

19 February 1969	Benfica	1 – 3	Ajax	Estádio da Luz, Lisbon Attendance: 60,000 Referee: Antonio Sbardella (Italy)
	Torres  70'	Report Gamesheet	Danielsson  9' Cruyff  12', 32'

5 March 1969	Ajax	3 – 0 (a.e.t.)	Benfica	Stade Olympique Yves-du-Manoir, Paris Attendance: 63,638 Referee: Roger Mâchin (France)
	Cruyff  93' Danielsson  105', 108'

Ajax 4–4 Benfica on aggregate. Ajax won 3–0 the tie-breaking match.

12 March 1969	AEK Athens	1 – 1	Spartak Trnava	Nikos Goumas Stadium, Athens Attendance: 29,842 Referee: Concetto Lo Bello (Italy)
	Papaioannou  77'	Report Gamesheet	Švec  23'

Spartak Trnava won 3–2 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Milan	2–1	Manchester United	2–0	0–1
Ajax	3–2	Spartak Trnava	3–0	0–2

First leg

23 April 1969	Milan	2 – 0	Manchester United	San Siro, Milan Attendance: 80,050 Referee: Josef Krnávek (Czechoslovakia)
	Sormani  33' Hamrin  49'	Report Gamesheet

13 April 1969	Ajax	3 – 0	Spartak Trnava	Olympisch Stadion, Amsterdam Attendance: 55,490 Referee: Eric Jennings (England)
	Cruyff  27' Swart  52' Keizer  60'	Report Gamesheet

Second leg

15 May 1969	Manchester United	1 – 0	Milan	Old Trafford, Manchester Attendance: 63,103 Referee: Roger Mâchin (France)
	Charlton  70'	Report Gamesheet

Milan won 2–1 on aggregate.

24 April 1969	Spartak Trnava	2 – 0	Ajax	Spartak Stadium, Trnava Attendance: 22,938 Referee: Ferdinand Marschall (Austria)
	Kuna  27', 49'	Report Gamesheet

Ajax won 3–2 on aggregate.

Final

28 May 1969	Milan	4 – 1	Ajax	Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, Madrid Attendance: 31,782 Referee: José María Ortiz de Mendibil (Spain)
	Prati  7'  40'  75' Sormani  67'	Report Gamesheet	Vasović  60' (pen.)

Top scorers

The top scorers from the 1968-69 European Cup are as follows:

Rank	Name	Team	Goals
1	Denis Law	Manchester United	9
2	Johan Cruyff	Ajax	6
	Pierino Prati	Milan	6
4	Jozef Adamec	Spartak Trnava	5
	Valér Švec	Spartak Trnava	5
	José Augusto Torres	Benfica	4
7	Gerard Bergholtz	Anderlecht	4
	Inge Danielsson	Ajax	4
	Odd Iversen	Rosenborg	4
	Ladislav Kuna	Spartak Trnava	4
	Pirri	Real Madrid	4
12	Karol Dobiaš	Spartak Trnava	3
	Dušan Kabát	Spartak Trnava	3
	Günter Kaltenbrunner	Rapid Vienna	3
	Mimis Papaioannou	AEK Athens	3
	Angelo Sormani	Milan	3
	Sjaak Swart	Ajax	3
	Manuel Velázquez	Real Madrid	3

External links

• 1968-69 All matches - season at UEFA website
• European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
• All scorers 1968–69 European Cup according to protocols UEFA

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