the weather was appalling and the pitch was a sea of mud, with great pools of water, but billy bremner put on a world-class performance in the return leg of the european cup quarter final against rsc anderlecht in brussels as his response to being substituted in the first leg. he scored a masterful goal with just fifteen minutes remaining, when he timed his run from the right to perfection and took the ball on his chest and whipped past left-back hugo broos in an instant. the little scotsman sped towards goal, looked up as the keeper advanced and produced the perfect chip to send the ball over the belgian custodian’s head, leaving him helpless. the home keeper, leon barth, was so impressed that he shook the leeds skipper’s hand when he had beaten him with the wonderful lob in the seventy-fourth minute to give united a 1-0 victory on the night, and smashed anderlecht’s supposed home invincibility, and a lop-sided 4-0 aggregate win to send them through to the semi-final.
jimmy armfield had got his tactics spot-on, leaving out johnny giles and eddie gray on a heavy pitch lashed by rain, sleet and snow and opted for the greater defensive qualities of terry yorath. ıt was perfectly and anderlecht were unable to make much progress against a superb leeds defence although david stewart made excellent saves in each half. a confident jimmy armfield said, “after this display, we do not fear any of the remaining sides.” there were some fine sides that went into the semi-final draw with united, who were unfortunate to be paired with the much fancied spanish side barcelona, while bayern munich of west germany were paired with st etienne of france
anderlecht: leen barth, hugo broos, jean thissen, rob rensenbrink, erwin van den daele, ludo coeck, jean baptiste dockx, paul van himst, francois van der elst, attila ladinszky, guy nicolaes (dk. 65 andre de nul)
teknik direktör: urbain braems
leeds united: dave stewart, frank gray, paul reaney, paul madeley, gordon mcqueen, terence yorath, billy bremner, norman hunter, allan clarke, joe jordan, peter lorimer
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