RULING EUROPE IS FINAL FRONTIER Legend Lee sees similarities to Sky Blues’ 1970 winners
IT is 50 years since Francis Lee scored the goal that won Manchester City their only European trophy.
And the former England striker reckons it is about time his old club had some new heroes.
Lee, now 76, was at the peak of his powers when his penalty against Gornik Zabrze claimed the European Cup Winners’ Cup for City in Vienna’s rain-lashed Praterstadion.
It was the crowning glory of what was the most glorious period in the club’s history – until Sheikh Mansour’s takeover in 2008 gave City a team good enough to qualify for the Champions League in 10 successive seasons.
And Lee believes Pep Guardiola’s side can eclipse Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison’s great team by making City European champions.
“I certainly think City have got a team good enough to win the European Cup, but I thought the same thing about the side I played in,” said Lee.
“Our team had won the league, the FA Cup and then the League Cup, so winning a European trophy was the final challenge for us.
“When we won the title in 1968, Big Mal said we were going to terrify Europe – and we were immediately knocked out of the European Cup by Fenerbahce!
“We had the quality, but we lacked experience – and that is huge in European football.
“By 1970, we had the lot. When we hammered Schalke 5-1 at Maine Road in the semi-final, Helmut Schoen, the Germany manager, said we were the best British team he had ever seen. City are in the same place we were. They’ve won the Premier League and lots of domestic cups in the last 10 years – but the one they want now is the Champions League.
“They’ve got the best coach the world has ever seen in Pep.
“And while the team I played in had great players like Mike Summerbee and Colin Bell, I’d have loved to have played with six or seven of the current side.”
City were a Second Division team when Mercer took charge in 1965 and immediately brought in the charismatic Allison as his assistant.
Promotion followed immediately and when City paid Bolton a club-record £60,000 for barrel-chested centre-forward Lee in September 1967, it was the catalyst for a period of success that is still cherished by the Etihad fans.
In April 1970, City became the first English club to win a domestic and European trophy in the same season.
Lee recalled: “The final against Gornik was really strange because there were only about 6,000 fans in the stadium – and every single one of them was a City fan.”