Background
Bayern Munich were appearing in what would be their second of three consecutive European Cup finals, all of which they would win, and the team contained many great players such as Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller and Uli Hoeneß who had featured heavily in Germany's 1974 World Cup victory the previous season, and as such were heavy favourites. In the Bundesliga season 1974–75 Bayern had a serious slump after winning the previous three German championships. This was said to be caused by motivational deficits, especially as six of the Bayern players also won the 1972 European championship and the 1974 World Cup. To boot, at the start of the season Paul Breitner moved to Real Madrid.
Bayern became the domestically worst winner of the European Champions Cup up to then, finishing only 10th in the Bundesliga, with even points and a negative goal difference. Only Aston Villa would do domestically worse in the year of their European title win. In 1982, when they defeated Bayern 1–0 in the final, the team from Birmingham finished 12th in the then First Division, also with even points, but a positive goal difference. For Bayern coach Dettmar Cramer, who took over from Udo Lattek early in the season, this was the first of three international club titles. He remained without domestic silverware. Franz Roth scored for the second time in a European final, after the Cup Winners' Cup final in 1967, putting Bayern ahead 1–0 in this final, and drew level with Sandro Mazzola from Italy's Internazionale, who achieved this in the champions' finals 1964 and 1967.
For Leeds United, only the second English club to reach the final after Manchester United in 1968 and the second team in history to reach the finals of all three European cup competitions after FC Barcelona, the game was the climax of the 'Glory Years' of the team built by former manager Don Revie. Amongst the stars of the team featured the Scottish internationals Billy Bremner and Peter Lorimer. Leeds United, incidentally also had a poor season domestically. The experienced, but now ageing team had finished only 9th in the 1974–75 Football League. This would be the club's last appearance in a major cup final until the League Cup in 1996. Thus, only the winner of the final between Bayern and Leeds would be entitled to participate in the European Cup competition the following season.
Read more about this topic: 1975 European Cup Final
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