1. Manchester United (1956/57)
In life, certain visionaries foresee the future before everyone else. Immediately, Sir Matt Busby grasped the potential of the European Cup and recognised the importance of winning it. So when, against the FA’s wishes, he pitted his Manchester United side against the continent’s best, the Scot was blazing a trail.
United were England’s first representatives in the tournament, and they faced Belgian champions Anderlecht in the first round. They won the first leg 2-0, before recording a 10-0 win at Maine Road to wrap up the tie. Yes, United played their first home European game at their rivals’ ground as Old Trafford didn’t have sufficient floodlighting.
Borussia Dortmund and Athletic Bilbao were dispatched in the following two rounds, before Real Madrid awaited in the semi-finals. United lost 3-1 to the Alfredo Di Stefano-inspired champions at the Bernabeu, before rallying for a 2-2 draw in Manchester. The devastating Munich air crash a year later would deprive Busby’s talented squad the glory they craved, but 11 years later he would fulfil his dream with another generation of ‘Busby Babes’.
2. Wolverhampton Wanderers (1959/60)
The late editor of L’Equipe, Gabriel Hanot, is widely credited as the man who dreamt up the concept of a European Cup. The idea came to him after watching a glamorous friendly between legendary Hungarian team Honved and Wolves in the early '50s. The West Midlanders won, which led the Daily Mail to christen them ‘Champions of the World’. In 1960, they were the second English team to participate in the European Cup and reached the quarter-finals, losing to Barcelona 9-2 on aggregate.
3. Burnley (1960/61)
Burnley in the late 1950s, under the chairmanship of Bob Lord, were arguably the most innovative club in English football. They were the first to build a training ground, which resulted in a successful academy structure. Many of their 1960 league title-winning team were local and the Clarets entered the European Cup the following season, being edged out 5-4 in the quarter-finals by Hamburg.
4. Tottenham Hotspur (1961/62)
Most Tottenham supporters remember their Champions League campaign of 2010/11 with huge fondness, but for White Hart Lane regulars of a different vintage, that pales into insignificance when placed alongside memories of their first taste of Europe’s elite in 1962. Bill Nicholson led Spurs to the first league and cup double of the 20th century, and almost added the European Cup the following year. Captain Danny Blanchflower once said that “the game is about the glory”, and Spurs were agonisingly denied the chance to achieve it when a Jimmy Greaves goal was wrongly disallowed in their semi-final defeat to Benfica.
5. Ipswich Town (1962/63)
Sir Alf Ramsey is immortalised as the man who helped deliver England’s only World Cup, but fewer people are aware of his achievements with Ipswich. Winning the First Division title at the first attempt in 1962, the Tractor Boys earned their place at Europe’s top table. After crushing Maltese side Floriana 14-1 on aggregate in the preliminary round, they were soundly beaten 4-2 over two legs by the mighty Milan in the first round of a straight knockout competition. The Italians would go on to win their first of seven European Cups.
6. Everton (1963/64)
For the second year in a row, first-time English representatives drew Italian opposition in the opening round. Everton squared off with Helenio Herrera’s Inter Milan side in the preliminary round and gave them quite the scare.
Herrera was infamously confrontational, but the Toffees had their own unique character in the dugout; Harry Catterick refused to play the PR game and once described himself as a “miserable-looking fellow”. At the height of Catenaccio, though, Inter were just slightly more cunning and calculated, sneaking a 1-0 second-leg victory at the San Siro. History also repeated itself, as the Nerazzurri went on to lift the trophy.
7. Liverpool (1964/65)
Liverpool’s European triumphs of the 1970s and ‘80s are still revered by supporters, but the Reds could have easily etched their name onto the trophy a decade earlier.
The Merseysiders made their way to the semi-final and faced defending champions Inter, and on a night when the visitors made the grave mistake of warming up in front of the Kop (much to the amusement of supporters in that end), Bill Shankly’s men thrashed them 3-1. Sadly for Shanks, a combination of naivety and suspect refereeing resulted in a 3-0 Inter victory in the San Siro. Liverpool would have their days, though.
8. Manchester City (1968/69)
Manchester City took a few years to get acclimatised to the Champions League, and they had an equally auspicious awakening in the old version of the competition.
Manchester United had broken the English duck by claiming the trophy at Wembley the previous May, but their city rivals saw dreams dashed in the first round this time. Back during a time when the draw was unseeded, City received the misfortune of facing Fenerbahce. The Turks won 2-1, while red rivals United crushed Irish side Waterford United 10-2.
9. Leeds United (1969/1970)
Towards the end of the ‘60s, the balance of power in English football had shifted to Yorkshire and Don Revie’s snarling Leeds. Equipped with notorious hard men like Billy Bremner and John Giles, they made it to the semi-finals in their first European Cup season, where they met Jock Stein’s Celtic in a match billed as ‘the battle of Britain’.
Having lost the first leg by a single goal at Elland Road, Leeds cancelled that out in the second when Bremner netted with a rasping 25-yard drive. In front of a record 136,000 crowd at Hampden Park, though, Celtic pulled ahead and won with goals either side of the break from John Hughes and Bobby Murdoch.
10. Arsenal (1971/72)
Arsenal made the quarter-finals in their first European Cup outing under the tutelage of former physio Bertie Mee. Eventually, they were thwarted by Ajax’s Total Football and the genius of Johan Cruyff in both legs, but there was little shame – the Dutch giants went on to win their second of three consecutive titles.
11. Derby County (1972/73)
Brian Clough claimed two European Cups as Nottingham Forest manager, but reflecting years later while puffing agitatedly on a Navy Cut cigarette, he still felt the sense of injustice which cost him the trophy during his Derby days.
After the Rams locked horns with Juventus in that year’s semi-final, Clough scornfully pointed to what he perceived as rigged decisions that cost his team. “The lousy stench still fills my nostrils when I think of the attempts at corruption,” he fumed. “UEFA later carried out some kind of inquiry, but the truth has remained somewhere swept beneath the carpets in the corridors of power.”
12. Nottingham Forest (1978/79)
Clough would have his redemption when he took Second Division Forest to promotion, top-flight title glory and back-to-back European Cups in the space of four remarkable years. The story is so good it has spawned books and a critically acclaimed movie.
13. Aston Villa (1981/82)
“Oh, it must be! And it is!” Brian Moore’s commentary is so iconic that it’s now emblazoned on a banner on the Holte End at Villa Park. Moreover, the man who inspired those words, Peter Withe, retains similar levels of affection among Aston Villa fans. Withe’s goal against Bayern Munich gave the Birmingham club the European Cup at the first time of asking.
14. Blackburn Rovers (1995/96)
Jack Walker fulfilled his dream of leading Blackburn to the Premier League title in 1995, but reality bit the following season. Key figures left, results went awry and the Lancastrians struggled to recapture the essence of what worked before.
It was best encapsulated in their debut Champions League outing: Rovers lost four games, finished bottom of their group and supporters had to suffer the ignominy of watching Graeme Le Saux and David Batty trying to punch the daylights out of each other in Moscow.
15. Newcastle United (1997/98)
Newcastle were the first English side to qualify for the Champions League via a second-placed league finish as part of the newly expanded format. They failed to progress from a group including Dynamo Kiev, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona, though, despite a memorable 3-2 victory over the Catalans at St. James’ Park thanks to Faustino Asprilla’s hat-trick.
16. Chelsea (1999/2000)
By rights, Chelsea should have been England’s first participants in the European Cup, after winning the league title in 1955. They were denied entry by the FA, however, who frowned upon the idea of a continent-wide tournament. Almost 50 years later, the Blues finally got their chance at the big table. Gianluca Vialli’s entertaining and enterprising side made the quarter-finals, scoring victories over Marseille, Lazio and Feyenoord as well as a famous draw in the San Siro against Milan. They eventually fell to the Barcelona of Luis Figo and Rivaldo in the quarter-finals, winning the first leg 3-1 before being pummeled 5-1 in the second (after extra-time).
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