Eintracht and Leipzig hoping to go back to the future in Europa League

Leipzig and Eintracht still have plenty of work to do as they seek to reach the 18 May final at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan stadium in Seville. Domenico Tedesco's men hold a 1-0 advantage over Scottish side Rangers ahead of Thursday's return leg at Ibrox, while Frankfurt defend a 2-1 lead against West Ham United at Deutsche Bank Park on the same night.

Fascination surrounds both ties, as it did ahead of the 1980 UEFA Cup final, when Gladbach and the Eagles played out a two-legged affair that produced plenty of intrigue.

Daily newspaper Die Welt then jokingly christened the 1979/80 UEFA Cup "the Bundesliga Cup" on account of four teams from Germany reaching the tournament's semi-finals. Indeed, add Kaiserslautern to the mix, and there were five teams from the German top-flight among the last eight. Joining the eventual finalists at the semi-final stage, both Bayern Munich and Stuttgart were ousted despite enjoying first-leg leads.

Having edged Eintracht 2-0 at the Olympiastadion, Bayern lost the second leg 5-1, with Eintracht scoring twice in normal time to level the tie before a Harald Karger double and Werner Lorant's penalty secured victory in extra time.

Gladbach were the defending UEFA Cup champions after winning the 1979 edition when a total of three German teams reached the last four. Die Fohlen went down to Stuttgart 2-1 at the Neckarstadion, but a 2-0 victory by Jupp Heynckes's men in the return leg in Gladbach, with a certain Lothar Matthäus on the scoresheet, powered the Foals into a second successive final.

With the finals being contested over two legs back then, Gladbach hosted the showpiece's meeting between the domestic foes on 7 May, and the hosts looked to be up against it, trailing as they were by 2-1 with just 19 minutes remaining. But late goals from Matthäus and Christian Kulik - with his second of the game - put Borussia back in the driving seat ahead of the return in Frankfurt two weeks later.

In front of 60,000 fans at the Waldstadion, Eintracht went in search of the all-important goal that would have put Friedel Rausch's team ahead on away goals. The game was a tense, nervy affair with both teams largely cancelling each other out.

The game's decisive moment eventually arrived in the 81st minute as Frankfurt substitute Fred Schaub struck. Just four minutes after entering the game, Schaub wriggled his way through and poked a finish past Wolfgang Kneib, to send the crowd inside the stadium into raptures. The UEFA Cup had a new winner and it remains Eintracht's only major continental silverware to this day.

"When I won the UEFA Cup with Frankfurt, I couldn't really assess it at the time," Eintracht's Cha Bum-kun later told bundesliga.com. "I had only been in Germany for a few months and didn't realise the significance of this success," the now 68-year-old added.

"This competition was not even known in South Korea. Only the World Cup counted and no European club titles. I thought we could win the UEFA Cup every year!

"My teammates were very happy. I got pats on the back all over town and as I lifted the trophy on the Römer, the crowds cheered me on. That's when I realised that we must have done something special."

Eintracht midfielder Werner Lorant, added: "There was a real party in Frankfurt. When we arrived in the city, when we took the bus... the streets were full. There were people everywhere who welcomed us. Football is so fast-moving these days, but the image of that game is always in my head."

"That was one of the most important victories for Eintracht Frankfurt and one of the biggest titles in the club's history," defender Charly Körbel explained. "We put everything into [those] games."

Tragically, Eintracht's second-leg winner, Schaub, died in a car accident in 2003 at the age of 42. However, the striker's name, and the entire Frankfurt team of 1980, have become immortalised following their magnificent feats. In the city's Bockenheim district, a huge mural commemorates the achievement.

Oliver Glasner's current crop of Eintracht stars are just one step away from reaching another final. The UEFA Cup has since become the Europa League, but the magnificent trophy remains the same as that lifted by the club's former captain Bernd Hölzenbein.

And who knows, with Leipzig also on course to reach their first-ever European final this season, both teams could be set recreate one more night of footballing history when the 2021/22 Bundesliga Cup is up for grabs!

About the clubs Eintracht Frankfurt

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Borussia M'gladbach

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