‘From Berlin to Belgrade and Barcelona: The story of Wolves in Europe’ by club historian, Pete Crump
As a founder member of English league football, Wolves are also pioneers of the European game, with the club having played a vital part in the formation of competitive continental football.
Floodlit friendly fixtures at Molineux ensured the Wolves name was known across the world as well as being the catalyst for the creation of the European Cup.
This is part 2 of the series on Wolves in Europe. To read part 1, focusing on the Old Gold’s early European Cup impact, please click here.
UEFA Cup 1971/72
The UEFA Cup began in 1971, replacing the defunct Inter-Cities Fairs Cup which ran from 1955 to 1971. The UEFA Cup was bigger and had a different qualification process, while the Fairs Cup was to promote international trade fairs, and this is how you qualified if your city hosted a trade fair.
UEFA Cup qualification was more aimed at success on the football field, for example, finishing in a certain position in the league or winning a cup.
Wolves played in the first ever UEFA Cup in 1971/72, having qualified by finishing fourth in the First Division, and saw the Old Gold travel to overseas destinations such as Portugal, Netherlands, East Germany, Italy and Hungary.
Our first assignment in the UEFA Cup was against Portuguese outfit Academica Coimbra. Making a good start to proceedings at home in September 1971 with a 3-0 victory, Wolves hammered Academica over the two legs in style.
We travelled to Portugal and were even more impressive with another win, thrashing Academica 4-1 at the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra – this was despite losing Danny Hegan to a red card in the 51st minute. There was also an impressive treble from ‘the Doog’ in the second leg.
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | First round, first leg
Wednesday 15th September 1971
Wolves 3 (McAlle 29, Richards 62, Dougan 80)
Academica Coimbra 0
Attendance | 23,349
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | First round, second leg
Wednesday 29th September 1971
Academica Coimbra 1 (Antonio 15)
Wolves 4 (Dougan 23, 72, 89, McAlle 61)
Attendance | 11,466
Wolves win 7-1 on aggregate
In the second round it was a slightly shorter trip to the south of Holland. Wolves’ first leg was away, and it was another impressive win overseas, this time at the Zuiderpark Stadion.
Wolves beat Den Haag 3-1 in the Netherlands, at a stadium we have played at since, interestingly. This was in a pre-season friendly in the summer of 2005, but Wolves lost this game 3-0.
Back to 1971, Wolves went on to cause more damage to the Dutch in the second leg at Molineux. Although Den Haag scored a hat-trick, it was a trio of own goals, and the hosts ran out 4-0 winners.
There was one interesting name on the Den Haag team sheet that day, namely Dick Advocaat. Advocaat was born in The Hague, and he has managed a host of clubs such as PSV, Feyenoord, Rangers, Sunderland and the Netherlands national team.
He has also managed his home club too from 2022 to 2023 while currently managing the Curacao national team, who recently played in the World Cup.
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Second round, first leg
Wednesday 20th October 1971
Den Haag 1 (Hestad 83 pen)
Wolves 3 (Dougan 61, McCalliog 76, Hibbitt 81)
Attendance | 16, 466
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Second round, second leg
Wednesday 3rd November 1971
Wolves 4 (Dougan 7, Weimar 49og, Mansveld 54og, Van Den Burch 86og)
Den Haag 0
Attendance | 20,299
Wolves win 7-1 on aggregate
Round three saw another interesting tie and another trip for Wolves to East Germany, which saw Bill McGarry’s side play in a well-remembered tie against Carl Zeiss Jena.
Wolves came away with an impressive 1-0 victory behind the Iron Curtain in very difficult conditions. Three inches of snow had to be cleared from the pitch at Ernst-Abbe-Sportfield in Jena, although Wolves returned to the Black Country with a very handy 1-0 advantage courtesy of John Richards, who scored the only goal of the game in the 12th minute.
Another hugely impressive away performance in this run was rounded off by another big win at Molineux, as the East Germans were seen off with a 3-0 victory on the night and progression to the next round.
The Doog was also keeping up his impressive tally of Wolves goals in this tournament as he scored a brace, with Kenny Hibbitt also scoring.
This round saw the final appearance for now in the famous UEFA Cup run of Mike Bailey, apart from right at the end of this run, as we will see. The late Bailey is one of our finest ever skippers, but his injury meant Jim McCalliog took over captain duties.
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Third round, first leg
Wednesday 24th November 1971
Carl Zeiss Jena 0
Wolves 1 (Richards 12)
Attendance | 9,764
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Third round, second leg
Wednesday 8th December 1971
Wolves 3 (Hibbitt 8, Dougan 35, 59)
Carl Zeiss Jena 0
Attendance | 24,131
Wolves win 4-0 on aggregate
The win over the East Germans set up one of the most iconic European ties we have ever played in our history, as next up for Wolves was Italian giants, Juventus. Despite the gravitas of the opponents, the impressive form and results both home and away for the team continued.
Wolves travelled to the Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino in Turin in March 1972, and we were joined on the trip by Juventus, Leeds United and Wales legend John Charles.
Charles travelled with the Wolves side as an ambassador and sat on the bench alongside Bill McGarry and Sammy Chung. Charles is regarded as a god by Juve supporters, and there are so many stories told by our ex-players about the influence he had on this tie and also socialising with him in and around Turin. His presence was really a masterstroke by Mr McGarry.
It was the first away game in this run where we did not return with a win. We did, however, come back with a hugely impressive draw, and, as this was against the mighty Juventus, it was in many ways the most impressive away performance of the lot.
Juventus went 1-0 up, but stand-in skipper Jim McCalliog scored the vital equaliser in the 66th minute. One interesting name on the Juventus team sheet was that of Fabio Capello. There was an incident, as many will know, involving Capello and the late, great Phil ‘Lofty’ Parkes in Turin, but the future England manager only played the first game of this tie and was not present at Molineux.
Wolves would return to Molineux a couple of weeks later and would navigate their way past the Italian giants. Danny Hegan and Derek Dougan put Wolves into a 2-0 lead, but there were a few nerves near the end as Helmut Haller scored a penalty for Juve in the 85th minute after Frank Munro was penalised for handball.
Haller had played for and scored for West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final, but thankfully, on both occasions, he was on the losing side again as Wolves held on to beat the mighty Italian giants and were on their way to Hungary.
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Quarter-final, first leg
Wednesday 7th March 1972
Juventus 1 (Anastasi 38)
Wolves 1 (McCalliog 66)
Attendance | 35,000
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Quarter-final, first leg
Wednesday 22nd March 1972
Wolves 2 (Hegan 34, Dougan 53)
Juventus 1 (Haller 85 pen)
Attendance | 40,421
Wolves win 3-2 on aggregate
Into the semi-finals and Wolves would face another hard opponent, as well as another very tricky trip to the Eastern Bloc.
In early April 1972, Wolves travelled to Budapest to face Ferencvaros at Nepstadion. Wolves supporters were advised not to travel to this game due to a smallpox outbreak in the Hungarian capital, but despite this, the team delivered another hugely impressive away display.
Similarly to the previous round, Wolves returned with a very handy 2-2 draw, having gone 1-0 up on the night through Richards. The game also saw Parkes deny Ferencvaros from the penalty spot, with the save coming at a crucial moment. If Lofty had not saved the penalty kick from Istvan Szoke, Wolves would have been 3-1 down with 16 minutes to go.
That is because Szoke had also already converted a penalty in the first half to equalise for the Hungarians before Florian put the hosts 2-1 ahead, but Frank Munro equalised for Wolves in the 79th minute.
Wolves returned to Molineux for the second leg and also navigated a very difficult game. The game started in blockbuster fashion for Wolves as a young Steve Daley put Wolves 1-0 to the good with barely 20 seconds on the clock. Munro made it 2-0, but Wolves were pegged back a minute later, however we hung on again for the victory.
Crucially in this game, Parkes once again saved a penalty from Szoke. This meant it was Lofty 2, Szoke 1 in the mini penalty shootout that went on in this tie. Lofty had been impressive throughout the whole UEFA Cup run, but his heroics in the semi-final were crucial.
This tie was arguably as tough as the Juve assignment, while some may say it was even harder.
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Semi-final, first leg
Wednesday 5th April 1972
Ferencvaros 2 (Szoke 29 pen, Albert 33)
Wolves 2 (Richards 19, Munro 79)
Attendance | 44,763
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Semi-final, second leg
Wednesday 19th April 1972
Wolves 2 (Daley 20 seconds, Munro 45)
Ferencvaros 1(Ku 46)
Attendance | 28,662
Wolves win 4-3 on aggregate
Wolves not only made history by playing in the inaugural UEFA Cup, but by beating Ferencvaros, we would therefore be in the first ever UEFA Cup final. So where would Wolves be travelling for the final?
Sadly, it was no overseas trip for us, but a trip instead to north London to face Tottenham Hotspur, who had beaten AC Milan in their semi-final.
We believe McGarry did make attempts to try to play the tie over one leg, potentially at Wembley, however, UEFA refused any requests.
Spurs visited Molineux on 3rd May 1972, and the game was interestingly refereed by Russian referee Tofiq Bakhramov, who was the infamous linesman in the World Cup Final of 1966.
Wolves went down 2-1 to Spurs, with Martin Chivers scoring a brace either side of skipper Jim McCalliog’s equaliser in the 72nd minute.
May 1972 for Wolves saw three competitive games that were all huge and none of them were end of season dead rubbers. Sandwiched in between the two UEFA Cup final legs was the famous Monday evening game against Leeds United where Wolves prevented Leeds from winning the double – this is a game that is remembered for so many reasons.
But back to the UEFA Cup. Wolves were impressive at White Hart Lane in the final second leg. Despite going 1-0 down, with Alan Mullery scoring for Spurs in the 29th minute, the visitors pulled a goal back in the 41st minute via a superb strike from legend Dave Wagstaffe. It was a brilliant goal by Waggy. Sadly, it was not enough, as Wolves lost the final 3-2 on aggregate.
We also did all of this without one of our greatest ever skippers, the late Mike Bailey. The midfielder did appear in the final as a 61st minute substitute for Kenny Hibbitt in the second leg at the lane. Bailey had missed both legs of the quarter-final, the semi-final and the first leg of the final, but stand-in skipper McCalliog did a marvellous job in his absence.
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Final, first leg
Wednesday 3rd May 1972
Wolves 1 (McCalliog 72)
Tottenham Hotspur 2 (Chivers 56, 88)
Attendance | 38,362
UEFA Cup 1971/72 | Final, second leg
Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Mullery 29)
Wolves 1 (Wagstaffe 41)
Attendance | 52,891
Wolves lose 3-2 on aggregate
It was a frustrating end to the famous UEFA Cup run. Even Spurs manager Bill Nicholson felt Wolves were the better side over the two legs, and impressively, Wolves did not lose at all away from home in the whole tournament.
Despite the loss, this still goes down in history as the only time Wolves have ever featured in a European club final. There would be no European football at Wolves in 1972/73, but we would not have to wait as long for it to return.
More on Wolves’ other UEFA Cup journeys as well as the team’s past in the Anglo-Italian Cup and Europa League will be coming up in a few weeks’ time.
Wolves historian Pete Crump’s weekly articles reflecting on a range of topics from the club’s proud past will be available throughout the 150th anniversary season on wolves.co.uk.
