united had a mountain to climb and with flu victims jack charlton, paul reaney and mike o’grady all missing for the return leg in budapest, while norman hunter, billy bremner, terry cooper, paul madeley and mick jones were also suffering from sore throats and flu-like symptoms, and it came as no surprise that they were well beaten 2-0. ujpest dosza proved their victory at elland road was no fluke as they became the first side to beat united in both legs in european competition. don revie was forced to play billy bremner at right back to fill in for paul reaney, while mick bates played in his midfield role although he had the no. 2 shirt on.
united began well and mick jones twice just faile to connect with attempted flying headers as the ball came to him from either wing. they were still well in contention at the interval and almost drew level on aggregate when johnny giles’ brilliant volley skimmed an upright. the killer blow came after sixty-four minutes when ujpest were awarded a penalty after paul madeley had brought down the lively ferenc bene in the box. the referee gave the decision from the centre circle with the united players protesting there had been no contact between the players. the protests led to bookings for billy bremner and johnny giles, but erno solymosi kept his cool and scored, sending gary sprake the wrong way from the spot, and that left united two behind on aggregate and little chance of pulling the tie out of the fire.
don revie’s response was to push billy bremner into midfield at the expense of peter lorimer and brought on the young welsh utility player terry yorath for his european debut in the right-back position. ferenc bene put the issue beyond doubt when, after janos gorocs had found him in the box, he cracked a low drive past gary sprake to score the second on the night with a quarter of an hour to go. that sealed the game 2-0 and ujpest were though on a 3-0 aggregate. united were out but they were already well on the way to booking their place in the major european tournament for the following season with their remorseless pursuit of the football league championship.
so, united were not too unhappy to be out of the running at the quarter final stage which left them free to concentrate on winning the league, which they duly did, and they left the fairs cup to the remaining four teams. ujpest duly disposed of goztepe ızmar 8-1 on aggregate and met newcastle united, who had beaten glasgow rangers 2-0 at home and held them 0-0 at ıbrox, in the final. newcastle took a 3-0 lead in the tie as they won on tyneside, but it seemed that the magyars were in with a chance as they pulled two goals back with only half an hour gone at the nep stadium, but newcastle weathered the storm and came back to win the leg 3-2 and the final 6-2 on aggregate.
