Champions of Europe: Leeds United in Paris, 1975

The defiant way Leeds fans sing about being the Champions of Europe is as powerful as a curse on anyone who disbelieves them. Everyone else has to reckon with the fact that Leeds fans believe their team won that night. Bayern Munich can't reflect on 1974/75 without knowing that, in West Yorkshire, they didn't win. People can't talk about United's European record without adding that, of course, in Leeds, they see the 1975 final a certain way. Players and managers over the years have come to Leeds and read the 1970s record books they thought they knew, re-written, and learned something significant about the club they'd joined. If curses can be true and superstitions can mean something, and if nobody can answer Don Revie and 'reconcile these two thoughts — what the team should have won and what they have won' — then Leeds United can be winners of the 1975 European Cup final.


One chip in a swamp: Billy Bremner beats Anderlecht

Leeds wanted to win the European Cup. Anderlecht wanted to prove themselves beyond Belgium. Brian Moore wanted the band to go away and everybody wanted to get dry.

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No team of pet dogs: when Barcelona came to Leeds

The world's best footballer was coming to Leeds, after getting lost in Bradford. United's one chance, everyone thought, was to fight flair with flair, Cruyff with McKenzie.

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"Last night, we won the European Cup": Leeds in Barcelona

Bremner said this wasn't their last chance at glory, that the pressure wasn't on Leeds. But their long European history had to continue for money, for trophies, and to put Barcelona in their place.

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Leeds, Bayern, sport, money, glory, power: building up to the European Cup final, May 1975

The final at Parc des Princes was to be the greatest Leeds United team's last chance of glory. Bayern's players had that glory already, but their club couldn't let them quit the money.

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One hand raised: Leeds United against Bayern Munich in the European Cup final, 28th May 1975

Leeds had to turn their dominance into chances. They did. They had to get the ball past Sepp Maier. They did. They had to win the European Cup. They did enough.

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Cynicism is never one-sided: the aftermath of Leeds vs Bayern

"The lads played well, they played their hearts out," said Jimmy Armfield. "And I think that makes it worse."

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Champions of Europe, or nothing at all: how Paris 1975 echoes through Leeds United

If Paris in May 1975 was a funeral for the club's greatest era, this epitaph from its architect, Don Revie, was defining.

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