1976 UEFA Cup Final

The 1976 UEFA Cup Final were association football matches played over two-legs between Liverpool of England and Club Brugge of Belgium on 28 April 1976 and 19 May 1976 at Anfield, Liverpool and the Olympiastadion, Brugge. It was the final of the 1975–76 season of Europe's secondary cup competition, the UEFA Cup. Liverpool were appearing in their second final; they had won the competition in 1973. Brugge were appearing in their first European final and were the first Belgian team to reach the final of a European competition.

Each club needed to progress through five rounds to reach the final. Matches were contested over two legs, with one at each team's home ground. Liverpool's ties varied from comfortable victories to close affairs. They beat Spanish team Real Sociedad 9–1 on aggregate in the second round, while they beat Spanish team Barcelona 2–1 in the semi-finals. The majority of Brugge's ties were close. Their biggest margin of victory was by two goals, which occurred in both the first and third round against Lyon of France and Italian team Roma, respectively.

Watched by a crowd of 49,981 at Anfield, Brugge took a two-goal lead in the first half of the first leg when Raoul Lambert and Julien Cools scored. Liverpool recovered in the second half; three goals in seven minutes from Ray Kennedy, Jimmy Case, and Kevin Keegan secured a 3–2 victory in the first leg for Liverpool. A crowd of 29,423 at the Olympiastadion saw Brugge take the lead in the 11th minute of the second leg. Liverpool equalised four minutes later when Keegan scored. The scores remained the same throughout the remainder of the match, resulting in a 1–1 draw. Thus, Liverpool won the final 4–3 on aggregate to secure their second UEFA Cup.

Read more about 1976 UEFA Cup Final:  Background

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