1968–69 European Cup

1968–69 European Cup

Tournament details
Dates	18 September 1968 – 28 May 1969
Teams	32
Final positions
Champions	Milan (2nd title)
Runners-up	Ajax
Tournament statistics
Matches played	52
Goals scored	176 (3.38 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Denis Law (9 goals)

The 1968–69 season of the European Cup football club tournament was won by Milan, who beat Ajax 4–1 in the final, giving Milan its first European Cup title since 1963, and its second overall. A number of Eastern European clubs withdrew from the first two rounds when UEFA paired up all of the Eastern European clubs against one another.

Substitutions of two players at any game time were allowed; obligatory match dates were introduced (two weeks between the legs) and fixed on Wednesdays; the away goal rule was extended to the whole competition.

Manchester United, the defending champions, were eliminated by Milan in the semi-finals.

First round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Malmö FF	3–5	Milan	2–1	1–4
Saint-Étienne	2–4	Celtic	2–0	0–4
Red Star Belgrade	(w/o)	Carl Zeiss Jena	–	–
Waterford United	2–10	Manchester United	1–3	1–7
Anderlecht	5–2	Glentoran	3–0	2–2
Rosenborg	4–6	Rapid Wien	1–3	3–3
Real Madrid	12–0	AEL	6–0	6–0
Nuremberg	1–5	Ajax	1–1	0–4
Manchester City	1–2	Fenerbahçe	0–0	1–2
Valur	1–8	Benfica	0–0	1–8
Floriana	1–3	Reipas Lahti	1–1	0–2
Steaua Bucureşti	3–5	Spartak Trnava	3–1	0–4
AEK Athens	5–3	Jeunesse Esch	3–0	2–3
Zürich	3–4	AB	1–3	2–1
Dynamo Kiev	(w/o)	Ruch Chorzów	–	–
Levski-Spartak	(w/o)	Ferencváros	–	–

First leg

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Second leg

Milan won 5–3 on aggregate.

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Celtic won 4–2 on aggregate.

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Manchester United won 10–2 on aggregate.

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Anderlecht won 5–2 on aggregate.

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Rapid Wien won 6–4 on aggregate.

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Real Madrid won 12–0 on aggregate.

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Ajax won 5–1 on aggregate.

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Fenerbahçe won 2–1 on aggregate.

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Benfica won 8–1 on aggregate.

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Reipas Lahti won 3–1 on aggregate.

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Spartak Trnava won 5–3 on aggregate.

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AEK Athens won 5–3 on aggregate.

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AB won 4–3 on aggregate.

Second round

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Milan	Bye	–	–	–
Celtic	6–2	Red Star Belgrade	5–1	1–1
Manchester United	4–3	Anderlecht	3–0	1–3
Rapid Wien	2–2 (a)	Real Madrid	1–0	1–2
Ajax	4–0	Fenerbahçe	2–0	2–0
Benfica	Bye	–	–	–
Reipas Lahti	2–16	Spartak Trnava	1–9	1–7
AEK Athens	2–0	AB	0–0	2–0

First leg

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Second leg

Celtic won 6–2 on aggregate.

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Manchester United won 4–3 on aggregate.

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Rapid Wien won 2–2 on away goals.

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Ajax won 4–0 on aggregate.

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Spartak Trnava won 16–2 on aggregate.

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AEK Athens won 2–0 on aggregate.

Quarter-finals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Milan	1–0	Celtic	0–0	1–0
Manchester United	3–0	Rapid Wien	3–0	0–0
Ajax	4–41	Benfica	1–3	3–1
Spartak Trnava	3–2	AEK Athens	2–1	1–1

¹ Ajax beat Benfica 3–0 in a play-off to reach the semi-finals.

First leg

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Second leg

Milan won 1–0 on aggregate.

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Manchester United won 3–0 on aggregate.

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Ajax 4–4 Benfica on aggregate. Ajax won 3–0 the tie-breaking match.

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Spartak Trnava won 3–2 on aggregate.

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Milan	2–1	Manchester United	2–0	0–1
Ajax	3–2	Spartak Trnava	3–0	0–2

First leg

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Second leg

Milan won 2–1 on aggregate.

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Ajax won 3–2 on aggregate.

Final

Top scorers

The top scorers from the 1968–69 European Cup are as follows:

Rank	Name	Team	Goals
1	Denis Law	Manchester United	9
2	Johan Cruyff	Ajax	6
	Pierino Prati	Milan	6
4	Jozef Adamec	Spartak Trnava	5
	Valér Švec	Spartak Trnava	5
	José Augusto Torres	Benfica	4
7	Gerard Bergholtz	Anderlecht	4
	Inge Danielsson	Ajax	4
	Odd Iversen	Rosenborg	4
	Ladislav Kuna	Spartak Trnava	4
	Pirri	Real Madrid	4

External links

• 1968–69 All matches – season at UEFA website
• European Cup results at Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation
• All scorers 1968–69 European Cup according to protocols UEFA
• 1968-69 European Cup - results and line-ups (archive)