The 1991–92 European Cup was the 37th season of the European Cup football club tournament. It was the first European Cup to have a group stage, from which the winning clubs progressed to the final. 1991–92 was the tournament's last edition before it was re-branded as the UEFA Champions League.
The group stage involved the eight winning clubs from round 2. The clubs were split into two groups of four, playing each other home and away, and the winning club from each group met in the 1992 European Cup Final.
The competition was won for the first time by Barcelona after extra time in the final against Sampdoria, the first victory in the tournament by a team from Spain since 1966. This would mark the first of a total of five European Cup trophies for Barcelona. The winning goal was scored by Ronald Koeman with a free kick.
The defending champions, Red Star Belgrade, did not have an opportunity to play at their own ground because of the Yugoslav Wars, thereby reducing their chances of defending their title. Red Star were eliminated in the group stage. It was also the final season in which the clubs from that country were able to participate in the primary European football competition since the summer of 1991 Slovenia and Croatia announced their independence.
In addition, it was the last time an East German team competed in the European Cup, Hansa Rostock.
English clubs returned to the European Cup, after their five-year ban from European competitions following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985. The 1990 Football League champions Liverpool had been unable to participate in the 1990–91 European Cup because they had been banned for an additional sixth year. Arsenal represented England in 1991–92, and reached the second round.
Teams A total of 32 teams participated in the competition, all entering into the first round. Teams are ordered below by the 1990 UEFA association coefficients.
+ Qualified teams for 1991–92 European Cup Red Star Belgrade TH 1. FC Kaiserslautern Sampdoria Barcelona Anderlecht Benfica Marseille Dynamo Kyiv PSV Eindhoven Universitatea Craiova Rangers IFK Göteborg Austria Wien Hansa Rostock Grasshopper Sparta Prague HJK Brøndby Etar Veliko Tarnovo Panathinaikos Kispest Honvéd Zagłębie Lubin Beşiktaş Flamurtari Rosenborg Apollon Limassol Portadown Fram Hamrun Spartans Union Luxembourg Dundalk Arsenal
+Associations without a participating team
Notes
Round and draw dates All draws for the competition were held in Geneva, Switzerland.
+Schedule for 1991–92 European CupPhaseRoundDraw dateFirst legSecond legFirst round11 July 199117–18 September 19912 October 1991Second round4 October 199123 October 19916 November 1991Group stageMatchday 18 November 199127 November 1991Matchday 211–12 December 1991Matchday 34 March 1992Matchday 418 March 1992Matchday 51 April 1992Matchday 615 April 1992Final20 May 1992 at Wembley Stadium, London
First round
Second round
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Final
The final was played on 20 May 1992 at Wembley Stadium in London, England.
Top scorers
The top scorers from the 1991–92 European Cup are as follows:
RankNameTeamGoals1 Sergei Yuran Benfica7 Jean-Pierre Papin Marseille73 Luc Nilis Anderlecht6 Darko Pančev Red Star Belgrade6 Gianluca Vialli Sampdoria66 Isaías Benfica57 Hristo Stoichkov Barcelona4 César Brito Benfica4 Marc Degryse Anderlecht4 Attilio Lombardo Sampdoria4 Roberto Mancini Sampdoria4 Siniša Mihajlović Red Star Belgrade4 Alan Smith Arsenal4
See also 1991–92 European Cup Winners' Cup 1991–92 UEFA Cup
References
External links 1991–92 All matches – season at UEFA website European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation All scorers 1991–92 European Cup according to protocols UEFA - results and line-ups (archive)