The 1991-92 UEFA Cup
We finally reach the supposed third rank of European competitions, and the one which almost always brought surprise winners, ever since its establishment in 1971, and even earlier with the Inter-cities fairs cup. Indeed, the UEFA Cup tends to be something else. This year, Inter Milan are the defending champions, while Liverpool were finally back in European competitions, following the Heysel disaster. Because of poor results the previous 5 years, Yugoslavia was forced to concede on place to Romania. Thus, the small Romanian side Inter Sibiu were making their European debut this season, along with Sirijus Klaipeda from Lithuania. Dinamo Zagreb and Partizan Belgrade were representing Yugoslavia in this competition.
All the German clubs coasted through the first round, especially Eintracht Frankfurt and Bayern since they got the easiest possible teams to beat. Gran Torino made themselves known by thrashing KR, while Inter were out almost immediately thanks to Boavista narrowly beating them. It was a huge dissapointment for
I Nerazzuri. Parma was also out early after suffering a surprise 1-1 on agg. against CSKA Sofia.
The great Bulgarian club was back in Europe now that communism fell in their home country, since they had to endure a "ban" (They were renamed as Sredets) after a very questionable game back in 1985.
(The CSKA Sofia players celebrating as they qualify for the second round of the cup)
Partizan Belgrade suffered a 2-0 loss against Sporting Gijon, but the black-whites were comfortable that a miracle could happen in the Yugoslav Army stadium. There was no miracle. Slobodan Krčmarević scored the only goal of the 2nd leg at the 88th minute, and Gijon were through without much trouble.
While Partizan had continued its poor runs in the UEFA Cup, Dinamo got the best possible opponent in Turkish side Trabzonspor. The fans, known as the "Bad Blue Boys" or "BBB" showed up in masses to cheer for the blues, but it was Trabzonspor who opened the scoring on the 20th minute, and it only got worse when Mandirali scored for 2-0 on the 35th. Davor Šuker could only score on the 43rd minute before half-time. As the second half commenced, Trabzonspor managed to score almost immediately. It was 1-3 with 30 minutes to go, and the mood was getting progressively worse as it seemed like Dinamo had no clue on how to penetrate the Turkish defense. Željko Petrović helped his team save face by being awarded two penalties, which he both managed to score. By sheer luck and determination, Dinamo managed to draw 3-3 at home, but they were only able to hear boos from the partisan crowd, as they felt that the Zagreb should have beaten Trabzonspor with ease.
The 2nd leg was nowhere near as dramatic, but it was eventful enough thanks to Dinamo constatly trying to attack in an attempt to level the things out until Petrović finally scored at the end of the first half. Trabzon replied on the 65th minute, so it seemed that it would go all the way to the penalties today... Well no, it didn't. Davor Šuker, on the 88th minute, managed to score a brilliant header that sent the crowd watching into pandemonium. Dinamo Zagreb were through to the 2nd round at literally the final moments of the 2nd leg.
(The BBB celebrated the 5th year of their existence as Dinamo played against Trabzonspor. Not one of their club's most memorable days, that's for sure)
The second round saw some of the underdogs like CSKA capitulate to their adversaries. Torino continued their fine form by beating Boavista, while Swarovski Tirol managed to beat PAOK in both games. Almost all the German clubs were out in the second round, except for HSV which dominated CSKA. Bayern suffered a shock defeat against 1903 Boldklub from Denmark, while Xamax dispatched of Celtic with an unprecedented 5-1 aggregate score. Dinamo Zagreb meanwhile were drawn against Lyon. The first leg, held in the Parc Olympique de Lyonnais saw Lyon dominate the match with a 3-1 win against the citizens. Dinamo had to score twice if they wanted to continue on to the round of 16, and the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb was packed to the brim with Dinamo fans, creating a wild and partisan atmosphere that could only be felt in Yugoslavia. The first to open the scoring was young Igor Cvitanović, with a brilliant free-kick that had the ball pass the Lyonnais players' wall and hit the net, to the joy of the Zagreb crowd. The usually loud Dinamo fans chanted through the entire game, with their cheering getting even louder as Davor Šuker scored on the 20th minute for 2-0. Lyon would find the net eventually on the 46th minute, but it was quickly answered with a header by Željko Adžić. The game went into extra time, with both teams playing what could only be described as a trench battle. In the end, the match went into penalties. Lyon managed to win 4-2 on penalties, and Dinamo were out of the tournament, to the anger of the crowd that began to chant xenophobic messages against the French team, further leading to crowd trouble, which escalated when one of the disgruntled fans threw a flare at Lyonnais player Romarin Billong.
With the 1990 Maksimir riots still fresh in everyone's minds - UEFA imposed a one-year ban on Dinamo fans coming to the Maksimir stadium for European competitions.
We now enter the third round of the competition - essentially the round of 16. By now, the big boys were practically filling in all the spots, with not much room left for the underdogs. Swarovski's great campaign was ended with a whimper against Liverpool, while Xamax and Steaua were eliminated by Real Madrid and Genoa respectively. Hamburg was completely thrashed by Czechoslovak side Olomouc, which was now the furthest that the "Hanaci" have ever come in a European competition. B1903 continued their successful campaign by surprisingly beating Lyon, to the shock of many. AEK also narrowly lost to Torino after a fine header by Casagrande in the 28th minute. The strongest team thus far, though, seemed to be Ajax. Van Gaal's boys have been unstoppable in the competition, not losing any of the games they played.
In the quarter-finals, B1903's great run was finally ended at the hands of Gran Torino. The Italian side won both legs thanks to the efforts of Casagrande and Policano, and with that, Torino were qualified for the Semi-finals of the UEFA cup for the first time in its history.
Sigma Olomouc tried their darnest to fight off Los Blancos, but Real Madrid were simply the better team that day. Gent's run was also ended by Ajax, and Liverpool were helpless against Genoa. Two Italian teams, one Dutch and one Spanish Giant - these shall be the semi-finals.
With only four teams remaining, many began to speculate that Ajax and Real Madrid could be in the finals, and surely it would have made a tasty match. But it was not to be as Torino beat the Madrid side with an incredible comeback victory that put them 2-3 on aggregate. Torino, for the first time in their history, were in the finals of a European Competition. Genoa were unlucky to lose against Ajax by such a narrow margin of 3-4 on aggregate, but it only further consolidated the might of the young Amsterdam team. And so, the finals were to be played between Ajax and Torino. Two historic sides shall battle for supremacy and to see which one is the worthiest of the trophy.
(Walter Casagrande celebrating as Torino takes a historic win against Real Madrid)
The finals would be played on two legs, with both teams playing home and away. Ajax, who had to play 200km away from Amsterdam due to hooliganism, were let go play in the Olympisch stadion for the finals, and it proved to be a grand venue that would see the "Sons of God" clench the title. Despite Casagrande's greatest efforts, Torino could only muster up two goals, while Ajax held the advantage thanks to the away goals rule. As the final dragged on, it was all over for the Italian side that just needed that one goal to win. And so, Ajax were the champions of The Uefa Cup. This particular trophy tasted especially sweet, as it made the Dutch team the only one to have ever won all three European competitions along with Juventus - Torino's bitter rivals.
And so, we are done with the European competitions of the 1991-92 season. The next post will be the 1991-92 season in the Yugoslav domestic league and the cup. The posts will take a while to make, but I will try to finish them for tomorrow. 
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