The 1972–73 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won for the third consecutive time by Ajax in the final against Juventus at Red Star Stadium in Belgrade. The win by Ajax resulted in the fourth consecutive championship by a Dutch team. Since Ajax had won the cup for a third time, they got to keep the full size copy of the cup. Because the reigning European champions were also champions of their own league, and neither Albania nor Northern Ireland sent their champions, the number of participating clubs dropped from 33 to 30.
Teams Wacker Innsbruck Anderlecht CSKA Sofia Omonia Spartak Trnava Vejle Derby County TPS Marseille Magdeburg Bayern Munich Panathinaikos Újpesti Dózsa Keflavík Waterford Juventus Aris Sliema Wanderers Ajax TH Rosenborg Górnik Zabrze Benfica Argeș Pitești Celtic Real Madrid Malmö FF Basel Galatasaray Dynamo Kyiv Željezničar
Bracket
First round
First leg
Second leg
The game was annulled because the referee ended the shoot-out prematurely after Panathinaikos fourth penalty was saved by Bulgarian goalkeeper. Panathinaikos complained to UEFA and the match was annulled and replayed the following month.
CSKA Sofia won 4–1 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich won 7–1 on aggregate.
Omonia won 3–2 on aggregate.
Dynamo Kyiv won 3–0 on aggregate.
Górnik Zabrze won 10–0 on aggregate.
Argeș Pitești won 6–0 on aggregate.
Real Madrid won 4–0 on aggregate.
Juventus won 3–1 on aggregate.
Magdeburg won 9–1 on aggregate.
Celtic won 5–2 on aggregate.
Újpesti Dózsa won 4–3 on aggregate.
Anderlecht won 7–2 on aggregate.
Derby County won 4–1 on aggregate.
Benfica won 4–2 on aggregate.
Second round
First leg
Second leg
Ajax won 6–1 on aggregate.
Bayern Munich won 13–0 on aggregate.
Dynamo Kyiv won 3–2 on aggregate.
Real Madrid won 4–3 on aggregate.
Juventus won 2–0 on aggregate.
Újpesti Dózsa won 4–2 on aggregate.
Spartak Trnava won 2–0 on aggregate.
Derby County won 3–0 on aggregate.
Quarter-finals
First leg
Second leg
Ajax won 5–2 on aggregate.
Real Madrid won 3–0 on aggregate.
2–2 on aggregate; Juventus won on away goals.
Derby County won 2–1 on aggregate.
Semi-finals
First leg
Second leg
Ajax won 3–1 on aggregate.
Juventus won 3–1 on aggregate.
Final
Top scorers RankNameTeamGoals1 Gerd Müller Bayern Munich112 Ferenc Bene Újpesti Dózsa63 Włodzimierz Lubański Górnik Zabrze5 Santillana Real Madrid55 Nicolae Dobrin Argeș Pitești4 Kevin Hector Derby County4 Rob Rensenbrink Anderlecht4 Jürgen Sparwasser Magdeburg49 José Altafini Juventus3 Arie Haan Ajax3 Johan Cruyff Ajax3 Lou Macari Celtic3 Anatoliy Puzach Dynamo Kyiv3 Constantin Radu Argeș Pitești3 Franz Roth Bayern Munich3 Edgar Schneider Bayern Munich3
Notes
References
External links 1972–73 All matches – season at UEFA website European Cup results; at rsssf All scorers 1972–73 European Cup according to protocols UEFA All attendances 1972–73 European Cup according to protocols UEFA through UEFA match database - results and line-ups (archive)