as the 1969-70 season reached its climax, united had captured the football public’s imagination, as they fought to keep their dream of an unprecedented treble alive. european cup, the football league championship and the fa cup were still firmly in their sights. as a result united’s season was starting to get congested and after getting a goalless draw at anfield on the saturday after their first leg game in liege, they had fought another highly competitive goalless draw with manchester united in the semi-final of the fa cup on the saturday before this second leg game. the tiredness was apparent as they managed a single goal victory in a hard fought match at elland road to take them through to the semi-final of the european cup where a clash with scottish giants celtic awaited them.
for their part standard had beaten brugge 2-0 the previous week to virtually ensure the retention of their belgian championship trophy. the return game, which attracted 48,775 to elland road, was just as exciting as the first leg, with standard liege determined to pull back their single goal deficit. they almost succeeded in the early part of the game when paul madeley and jack charlton collided, but winger sandor takac’s wasted the opportunity his shot hit the side netting. standard’s confidence lifted in the bitterly cold cross-wind and a quarter of the match had blown away before united began to play with some purpose.
terry cooper’s seering thrusts from left back started to create gaps in the liege defence and goalkeeper christian piot needed to be at his acrobatic best to keep out headers from allan clarke and mick jones. united clearly needed the cushion of a second goal on aggregate but the only goal of the game did not come until the eightieth minute. ıt came from the spot after mick jones had been brought down in the penalty area by a combination of leon jeck and jean thissen. johnny giles was entrusted with the spot-kick and he made no mistake, slotting home his ninth penalty of the season to give united a 2-0 aggregate victory.
ıt was the only goal of the game and, once again, leeds had come through without conceding a goal. they had now played five hundred and forty minutes of european competition, scored twenty-four goals, and conceded none. don revie was jubilant, saying, “ı don’t mind who we meet in the semi-final.”
as fate turned out, the next opponents were celtic, who had won the competition in 1967, to become the first british team ever to win the european cup.
leeds hadn’t come out of their famous victory unscathed as norman hunter picked up a knee injury which was to rob leeds of his services in several key games and when he was fit again leeds’ hopes of a league, european cup and fa cup treble had gone out of the window.
