The 1971–72 European Cup was the 17th season of the European Cup, UEFA's premier club football tournament. The competition was won by Ajax, who beat Inter Milan in the final at De Kuip in Rotterdam, on 31 May 1972. It was the second consecutive win for Ajax, as well as third for Netherlands. It was also the first European Cup final where both finalists had previously won and lost competition finals.
Teams Partizani Tirana Wacker Innsbruck Standard Liège CSKA September Flag Olympiakos Nicosia Spartak Trnava Boldklubben 1903 Arsenal Reipas Lahti Marseille Dynamo Dresden Borussia M.Gladbach AEK Athens Újpesti Dózsa ÍA Cork Hibernians Inter Milan Union Luxembourg Sliema Wanderers Feyenoord Ajax TH Linfield Strømsgodset Górnik Zabrze Benfica Dinamo București Celtic Valencia Malmö FF Grasshopper Galatasaray CSKA Moscow Hajduk Split
Preliminary round
First leg
Second leg
Valencia won 4–1 on aggregate.
Bracket
First round
First leg
Second leg
Marseille won 3–2 on aggregate.
Ajax won 2–0 on aggregate.
Grasshopper won 9–1 on aggregate.
Arsenal won 7–1 on aggregate.
2–2 on aggregate; Dinamo București won on away goals.
Feyenoord won 17–0 on aggregate.
Benfica won 7–1 on aggregate.
CSKA September Flag won 4–0 on aggregate.
1–1 on aggregate; Valencia won on away goals.
Újpesti Dózsa won 4–1 on aggregate.
Celtic won 4–2 on aggregate.
Sliema Wanderers won 4–0 on aggregate.
Inter Milan won 6–4 on aggregate.
Borussia Mönchengladbach won 7–1 on aggregate.
CSKA Moscow won 4–1 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 5–2 on aggregate.
Second round
First leg
This game was annulled as Inter player Roberto Boninsegna was hit by a Coca-Cola can in the 29th minute. The first leg game was replayed after the game that was originally scheduled to be the second leg was played, thus the order of legs was switched.
Second leg
Ajax won 6–2 on aggregate.
Arsenal won 5–0 on aggregate.
Feyenoord won 5–0 on aggregate.
Benfica won 2–1 on aggregate.
Újpesti Dózsa won 3–1 on aggregate.
Celtic won 7–1 on aggregate.
Inter Milan won 4–2 on aggregate.
Standard Liège won 2–1 on aggregate.
Quarter-finals
First leg
Second leg
Ajax won 3–1 on aggregate.
Benfica won 5–2 on aggregate.
Celtic won 3–2 on aggregate.
2–2 on aggregate; Inter Milan won on away goals.
Semi-finals
First leg
Second leg
Ajax won 1–0 on aggregate.
0–0 on aggregate; Inter Milan won 5–4 on penalties.
During the shoot-out, teams had to take all five penalties even if they could no longer win (the shoot-out would otherwise have ended with a score of 5–3 as Inter went first).
Final
Top scorers
RankNameTeamGoals1 Johan Cruyff Ajax5 Antal Dunai Újpesti Dózsa5 Lou Macari Celtic5 Silvester Takač Standard Liège55 Ronnie Cocks Sliema Wanderers4 Willem van Hanegem Feyenoord4 Rinus Israël Feyenoord4 Artur Jorge Benfica4 Ray Kennedy Arsenal4 Kurt Müller Grasshopper4 Lex Schoenmaker Feyenoord4
References
External links 1971–72 All matches – season at UEFA website European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation All scorers 1971–72 European Cup (excluding preliminary round) according to protocols UEFA 1971-72 European Cup European Cup 1971-72 – results, protocols, players statistics website eurocups-uefa.ru European Cup 1971-72 – results, protocols website Football Archive