as seemed to have happened on so many occasions in the short history of the european cup, the two favourites within the last four were drawn against each other in the semi-finals as hamburg now found themselves up against barcelona – whose poor league form had seen their coach brocic replaced by his assistant enrique orizaola - for a place in the final. this meant that either a team from portugal or austria would reach the final for the first time as benfica and rapid vienna met in the other semi-final. ıt was benfica who seemed to have sewn up their place in the final when they won the first leg in lisbon by 3-0, and when they scored the opening goal just after the hour in the return match, the tie was as good as over. the most controversial moment, however, was still to come. rapid had equalised soon after benfica’s goal, but they still trailed 4-1 on aggregate when, with less than five minutes remaining, they were denied what they thought should have been a penalty. when the referee refused to award the spot kick, the austrian players and spectators ran riot and forced the game to be abandoned. uefa reacted by sentencing rapid to a three year ban on european ties being played in their stadium and awarded the match to benfica. sadly, however, it was not to be the last time that the european cup would be affected by hooliganism.
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