Istanbul to Istanbul

When City coach Malcolm Allison predicted the team that had won the top flight title in England would go on to dominate European football, he couldn’t have realised what an albatross he had inadvertently placed around the Club’s neck.

Not long after that brash statement by Big Mal, the Blues would see their first European Cup campaign end in Istanbul.

Some 45 years later, City will return to Istanbul for the first time since being beaten by Fenerbahce in 1968 - looking to win the title so many thought was a strong possibility all those years ago - and attempt to be crowned champions of Europe for the first time.

From our first unsuccessful attempt in 1968, to facing Inter in 2023, it has been a long, eventful journey, full of drama, controversy, exhilarating highs and occasionally, devastating lows.

Pep Guardiola’s side are on the precipice of footballing immortality, not only by attempting to secure our first Champions League triumph, but by completing the holy grail of a Treble that has only been achieved once before by an English side.

It’s hard to think of a bigger game in Manchester City’s long, proud history.

But before we focus on the upcoming game at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium, to we have to chart our journey in European football, which began in Turkey’s largest city.

City had been crowned Division One champions for 1967/68 and entered the European Cup for the first time since the competition’s inception in 1955.

Back then, the only sides that qualified for the European Cup were the champions of their respective nations – plus the current holders who on this occasion were Manchester United.

United’s success polarised the need for City to respond as quickly as possible and when the draw pitted Joe Mercer’s men with Fenerbahce, it was a leap into the unknown on so many levels.

City captain Tony Book recalls the trip to Turkey vividly – though an Achilles injury meant he couldn’t take part in this historic occasion.

“It had been my dream to play in the European Cup and I count not being able to as one of my biggest disappointment from my playing days,” says Book.

“Joe and Malcolm included me in the party to travel to Fenerbahce, our opponents in the First Round.

“We were expected to win comfortably but they were well organised in the first leg at Maine Road and despite us being all over them and missing a host of good chances, they took a 0-0 draw back to Istanbul.

“Malcolm’s pre-match comments looked likely to come back and haunt him unless the lads could turn things around in the second leg.

“It was scorching hot when we arrived and after a night’s rest at the hotel we were staying in, I opened the curtains and could see the stadium below in the valley. It was about 8.30am and there were already huge queues to get in!

“I watched the training session and later travelled to the game with the lads. On the short coach trip to the ground, we passed armed police, and it was a bit unnerving to think they were there to protect us as much as anything.

“There was a good turnout of City fans in the ground, but it was a very hostile atmosphere, all the same.

“Though we scored first though Tony Coleman, Fenerbahce built up a head of steam and stormed back to win 2-1 on the night to dump us out at the first hurdle.

"It was a major shock at the time that the English champions should be out so early, especially with Manchester United’s recent triumph in the competition. The way things were going in the league that season and being aged 34, I had to resign myself to probably never playing in the European Cup as a player.”

But was Allison actually that wrong?

The 1968/69 campaign saw City limply defend their title, but as winning back-to-back First Division crowns became obviously impossible, focus shifted on to the FA Cup and the side that had swept all before them in the league the year before, resurfaced to win the FA Cup instead and qualify for the European Cup Winners’ Cup as a result.

Lessons had been learned from our Istanbul exit and there would be no brash statements or over-confidence as Mercer and Allison’s side focused on righting what they perceived as a disappointing failure.

“I was now 36 but had the chance to finally play against some of the top continental clubs and we progressed well through the early rounds,” recalls Book.

“We drew Spanish side Atletico Bilbao in the first round, who were, ironically managed by an Englishman, Ronnie Allen. We flew out to play them and were soon wondering whether we were actually cut out for European competition as we quickly went 2-0 down.

“It was one of the hardest matches I’d ever played in as the Spaniards ripped us apart in the first half. They were outstanding, but we came back in the second half and pulled a vital goal back. They came back at us again and went 3-1 up but by the final whistle, we had pulled level at 3-3 – a wonderful result for us and psychologically, a moral victory.

“If they could play so well and still only end up drawing, they must have realised we were more than decent, too.

“I remember Tommy Booth had been ill with a stomach upset as we flew out and was still unwell on the day of the game, but he played magnificently and scored a goal, too - Tommy Steel, I always thought of him as.”

City completed the job with a 3-0 win at Maine Road to progress 6-3 on aggregate and dispatched Belgian side SK Lierse 8-0 over two legs in the next round.

On a Viennese night of torrential rain, City won 2-1 to claim a first European trophy with goals from Neil Young and Francis Lee enough to see the off Polish side.

“We returned home on to a hero's welcome, drunk on success and paraded the trophy in front of thousands of City fans in Albert Square,” said Book.

City’s 1970/71 defence of the trophy was eventful, but ultimately frustrating.

“One game that sticks from that season was game the with Linfield from Northern Ireland,” said Book.

“They may have been a part-time outfit, but they gave us a real fright and it was also played at the height of the ‘Troubles’ in Belfast.

“We were expected to beat them easily but only won 1-0 at Maine Road and – as sides like that often did - they lifted their game significantly to win 2-1 in Belfast and we scraped through on away goals.

“We then saw off Honved before facing our old adversaries Gornik again. We lost the first leg 2-0 in Poland and took a bit of a beating if truth be told.

"But Mike Doyle and a few of the other lads had come up with the idea of celebrating like mad at the end as though we'd got a result we were happy with!

"It worked! We won the second by the same score leading to a play-off in Copenhagen of all places. They must have been sick of the sight of us, and we beat them again, this time 3-1 to go through to the semi-final where we faced Chelsea, probably the last team we wanted out of the hat.

“We had a lot of players missing through injury – key players such as Colin Bell, Mike Doyle, Glyn Pardoe and both Tommy Booth and Mike Summerbee missed at least one of the games.

“We lost both legs 1-0 and were resigned to not winning anything that season, but considering the previous years, maybe that was to be expected. The team was ageing, and it was hard to maintain the kind of performance levels we had set for ourselves.”

There would be no European football again until 1976, when City’s ‘reward’ for winning the League Cup seven months before, was drawing the pre-tournament favourites Juventus in the opening round.

The general feeling prior to this match was that the Blues would need a minimum two-goal lead to take to Turin because anything else against a team renowned for getting the job done on their own patch, would likely see Tony Book’s side exit stage left.

The Blues had done their homework, but everything would hinge on the ability to take their chances – likely to be few and far between - when presented.

Juventus allowed City plenty of possession on the night and were quite happy to try and hit the Blues on the break. On the occasions City did penetrate the Italians’ back four, the brilliant Dino Zoff showed why he was perhaps the best in the world at the time by producing two world class saves – one in particular, from Brian Kidd, was not dissimilar to Gordon Banks’ wondrous one-handed stop against Pele in 1970.

Zoff also somehow tipped a Dennis Tueart effort onto the crossbar as City gave their all. 

Joe Corrigan recalled: “The first leg at Maine Road was a tight, mean match. They had some tough characters and played hard, controlled football. They were one of the great Italian sides of that era.

“Our fans were magnificent and it was a great European football night in Manchester – the sort I believed the club should have been having far more often than we were.”

In an epic tussle, finally, on 44 minutes, Brian Kidd sent a firm header past Zoff following Tueart’s corner and Royle’s flick-on.

The Italians’ disciplined approach seemed to slip thereafter, with some cynical challenges flying in and no small amount of ‘dark arts’ going on when the officials’ attention was elsewhere.

Peter Barnes, always a threat, limped out of the game on the hour after several crunching tackles that probably would have earned red cards each time in today’s game. Asa Hartford was outstanding and had the injured Colin Bell been available, City might have put the game out of Juventus’ reach.

After the game, Book said: “I don’t say we will win in Italy, but we will do enough to qualify for the next round.” As it turned out, the initial fears that one goal wasn’t going to be enough was confirmed when Juventus went 2-0 ahead in the return and promptly shut up shop until the final whistle.

“There was no disgrace in being put out by Juventus and they went on to win the competition as if further proof was needed that we’d faced the best side,” said Book.

“It was just bad luck on our part because I feel we could have gone all the way had we avoided them.”

Domestically, City would push a fantastic Liverpool side all the way in the league that season, finishing just a point behind the Merseysiders and qualifying again for the UEFA Cup.

But the 1977/78 European campaign was over before it had begun, despite drawing the relatively unknown Polish side Widzew Lodz in the first round.

Goals from Peter Barnes and Mike Channon gave City a commanding 2-0 lead with 50 minutes played, but the visitors scored on 70 and 74 minutes through brilliant winger Zbigniew Boniek to take a 2-2 draw back to Poland – and those goals were enough to knock the Blues out on the away goals rule after a goalless second leg.

Book’s men would qualify again for the UEFA Cup that season meaning a third consecutive campaign in Europe.

The Blues progressed past FC Twente, Standard Liege and AC Milan to face German giants Borussia Monchengladbach in the quarter-finals.

“Kevin Keegan, the English jewel in the crown of West German football is backing Manchester City to topple Borussia Monchengladbach in the UEFA Cup quarter final...” announced the Daily Express on Friday January 19, the day of the draw for the last eight was made.

But there was three months between the Milan win and the quarter-final and during that time Malcolm Allison had returned to the Club as Tony Book’s assistant - and it didn’t go well.

Typical of Allison’s approach in this period, faced with the dilemma of who was to replace the suspended Gary Owen (Owen had kung-fu kicked his way into a red card in Liege in the second round the previous November), the maverick Allison opted to give Nicky Reid a debut at the age of 18 and ask him to mark the then Footballer of the Year Alan Simonsen.

This despite having Colin Bell and Kaziu Deyna, European veterans both, ready to come in for Owen and shore up the middle of the park. Allison was a gambler, however, and Reid was chosen.

City were held 1-1 at Maine Road and Allison, though, later commented that “I would not say they were defensive, let’s just say they got all eleven players behind the ball every time we came within 40 yards of their goal!”

The second leg, played in front of a Bokelberg Stadium packed to its 35,000 capacity saw a gutsy City performance undone by sheer bad luck just before the interval. With the game ebbing and flowing and little to choose between the sides, Tony Henry sent a screaming shot against the Borussia post in the 44th minute. Picking up the loose ball, the Germans swept straight up field and Kulik buried a shot to send his side in at the interval one-up.

Borussia went on to win 3-1, winning the tie 4-2 on aggregate on their way to winning the competition, just as Juventus and Chelsea had done after previous European exits.

What nobody knew at the time is that City would not play European football again for 24 long years…

Tomorrow: Part 2: Total Network Solutions to Inter