1974/75: Dynamo burst on to the scene

Ferencvárosi TC 0-3 FC Dynamo Kyiv
St-Jakob Park, Basle

A second consecutive win for Eastern Europe allowed fans to discover FC Dynamo Kyiv, the Ukrainian side which carried the Soviet Union banner with great panache and romped away with the trophy. The team ably coached by Valeriy Lobanovskiy never looked in trouble and, after serving notice to Europe by beating Eintracht Frankfurt home and away in the second round, lost only one match, a 2-1 defeat by PSV in Eindhoven after they had won the first leg of the semi-final 3-0.

Surprise finalists
Their opponents in the final, Ferencvárosi TC, had also impressed the critics during a run to the final which included victories against Liverpool FC and FK Crvena Zvezda, who had eliminated Real Madrid CF in the quarter-finals. But the side coached by Florian Albert was without key figures for the final in Basle. László Balint was suspended; László Branikovitz and László Pusztai were injured.

Dynamic finale
Only 10,000 were in the St. Jakob Stadium, as the teams brought few supporters as a result of the political situation in Eastern Europe. The stay-aways missed a splendid display of attacking football by Dynamo. The Hungarians could find no antidote for the attacking pace and skill of Oleg Blokhin and Vladimir Onischenko, ably launched by midfielders Vladimir Muntian and Viktor Kolotov. Onischenko scored twice in the 18th and 39th minutes and Blokhin added a third in the 67th. The USSR had won a title and the Ukrainian club had put itself on the footballing map.