A passport to glory

A passport to glory By Neil Leigh On 29 April 1970, City won the European Cup Winners Cup by defeating Gornik Zabrze 2–1 thanks to goals by Neil Young and Francis Lee. We are resurfacing a feature we originally published in 2020 as we spoke to Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison's Lions of Vienna.. .

. “You’ve proved yourself in England – but if you want to be classed as a top team, you’ve now got to win in Europe. ” That was the audacious gauntlet thrown down to Manchester City by visionary coach Malcolm Allison in the autumn of 1969.

And 50 years ago, today, the players answered Big Mal’s challenge in unforgettable fashion as we lifted the European Cup Winners’ Cup with a memorable 2-1 win over Gornik Zabrze in Vienna. It was to be an eventful journey that took the swashbuckling side assembled by manager Joe Mercer and Allison on a kaleidoscopic journey through many of the heartlands of European football before culminating on a rain-lashed late April night in Austria. This, through the eyes of the remarkable boys of 1970, is the story of how that wonderful squad assembled by Mercer and Allison lived up to the coach’s quest and went on to conquer Europe.

Of course, by the time we launched our Cup Winners' Cup campaign, the gifted, gilded City side astutely assembled by Mercer and Allison had become a by-word for success. Back-to-back successes which saw us lift the Division One crown and FA Cup in 1968 and ’69 respectively, had been followed in the spring of 1970 by yet more silverware in the shape of League Cup glory. It meant all the individual components were firmly in place for a successful assault on the European mainland.