ONE NIGHT IN VIENNA

How Manchester City won their first and, at the time of writing, only - European silverware: the 1970 European Cup Winners' Cup -

- Simon Curtis

April 29, 1970 dawned damp in Austria’s capital. Malcolm Allison, the Manchester City coach, undeterred by the rain, went for a run in the Viennese woods, which – thanks to following the wrong group of joggers – took him on a nine-kilometre loop instead of the three he had planned. Like the players in his charge, however – assembled alongside manager Joe Mercer – there was never any danger of him running out of energy.

The young, exuberant City team had been built in Allison’s own style: fearless, flamboyant and frisky. Already league title winners in 1968, FA Cup winners in 1969 and League Cup winners earlier in the 1969-70 season, the European Cup Winners’ Cup represented another significant hurdle for the duo. And, for “Big Malc”, the venue for the final could not have been more fitting.

“It wasn’t the first time I had been to the Prater Stadium,” said Allison many years later. “I’d done my national service in Klagenfurt and I’d seen Austria play Italy there. I’d also played on the pitch in an army game.

“It was in Austria that I first got a taste for training and coaching. I picked up things that I brought with me to England.”

Allison had also travelled to see the great Hungarian side of the age, the “Magical Magyars” that featured Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis, Nandor Hidegkuti, Zoltan Czibor, Jozsef Bozsik and Gyula Grosics, which utterly captivated the Englishman.