football

Nottingham Forest 1-0 Malmo (European Cup Final)

By Michael Lynch
June 1 2004

Nottingham Forest have won the European Cup! Trevor Francis, the world's first million-pound-man with the header that was the Reds' most important ever goal. Well done Brian Clough. We are the world's finest team.

25 years ago.	29th May 2004
This weekend marks the 25th anniversary of Nottingham Forest's first European Cup triumph. In order to commemorate this we have put together this article in which we look at how we got there and the people that made it possible. It was 25 years ago this weekend when Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest walked out of the player's tunnel at the Olympiastadion as favourites to win the European Cup against FC Malmo (Sweden). We might have been favourites for that particular game, but if you'd have said "The Reds will win the European Cup in 2 seasons time" two seasons previous you'd have been laughed at. It was the kind of thing you'd read in a Christmas cracker according to Cloughie! In order to reach the final we had to fight our way through some of the strongest teams in Europe. Including Liverpool, whom many had tipped to win the tournament. Many had been disappointed to see us knock them out as they believed that they had a better chance of bring the trophy home than us. Oh how wrong they were. Extracts from Brian Clough's Program Notes 30th May 1979... "It was the sort of funny item one used to read on a bit of paper that came out of a Christmas cracker.. Reading it would have nearly brought the house down! Forest in the European Cup final... it was enough to put Eric Morcambe's jokes about Luton Town out of business! But, joking apart, we are in the European Cup final against Malmo and it's rather special." Nottingham Forest 1:0 FC Malmo It was a dream of Roy of the Rovers proportions. Only the incredibly stupid or downright idiotic could forsee. Still, it was happening, and Nottingham Forest fans realised this. On the day we had a 2:1 advantage of support over our Swedish counterparts. With the fans firmly behind their respective teams and cheering on their heroes, the game kicked off. Both sides were even for the first eight minutes of the game although soon the Reds were on the attack. Gary Birtles hitting the roof of the net. Malmo then hit us on the counter attack as Kenny Burns let Jan Olof Kindvall though. Fortunately he was rather intimidated by the site of England's finest keeper Peter Shilton and tried a weak lob which was easily tamed. It all carried on in rather the same way with both teams counter attacks either ending in either a weak shot at the keeper or a blast wide or over. As armchair fans were about to put the kettle on and the game seemed destined for extra time, the Reds struck, however. John Robertson crossing the ball in and Trevor Francis running in to smash the ball right back were it came from and into the back of the net. That was probably the most important goal in Forest history. Although the match was rather boring. And although it didn't live up to the hype, not many Forest fans will care and all they will tell you is: We won the European Cup. Albeit in a poor fasion against Malmo. We won the EUROPEAN CUP!!! FOREST: Shilton, Anderson, Clark, McGovern, Lloyd, Burns, Francis, Bowyer, Birtles, Woodcock, Robertson Malmo: Moller, R Andersson,Jonsson, M Andersson, Erlandsson,Tapper (Malmberg), Ljungberg, Prytz, Kindvall, Hansson (T Andersson), Cervin Referee: E Linemayr (Austria)
Source: Various.