[Sport] Manchester City conquer Europe - 53 years on from their first European trophy

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A version of this article first appeared on the BBC Sport website in April 2020.

It turns out Erling Haaland is not Manchester City's first star striker to be famous for marking important wins by strutting around in his underpants afterwards.

If City beat Inter Milan on Saturday to win the Champions League for the first time, the aftermath could witness echoes of their first and - so far - only European triumph, 53 years ago.

Haaland might need to up his game, too. According to po[CENSORED]r legend, City's celebrations after lifting the European Cup Winners' Cup in April 1970 involved the matchwinner, England forward Francis Lee, dancing on a piano wearing only his briefs.

After talking to Lee, it turns out that particular tale is only partially true but there were plenty of unusual elements to City's success that were completely factual.

They include why the game was watched by a record number of travelling fans from England, but by absolutely no-one back home - although it still gave commentary legend Barry Davies his big break at the BBC.

A torrential downpour ruined the night in Vienna for City's WAGS but did not prevent the players from partying and, three decades before City were banned then readmitted to Europe, the victorious Blues threatened to stage their own boycott afterwards.

What is also undisputed is that a club so often derided by rival fans for having "no history", let alone any track record in Europe, were ahead of some now established Champions League giants when it came to pioneering success on foreign fields.

City's 2-1 triumph in Austria against crack Polish side Gornik Zabrze meant they brought home a continental trophy to go with their domestic silverware before the likes of Liverpool (1973 Uefa Cup) and Juventus (1977 Uefa Cup).

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Even the mighty Barcelona (1979 Cup Winners' Cup) had to wait another nine years for a Uefa-sanctioned title to go with their wins in the Inter City Fairs Cup, which would evolve into the Uefa Cup but was an independent invitational competition, initially only open to cities hosting international trade fairs, for many of the years when Barca dominated it in the 1950s and 60s.

Franny's Grand Slam

City skipper Tony Book won the League Championship trophy (left) in 1968, collected the Charity Shield and FA Cup the following season while it was still in their trophy cabinet, then made it five major trophies in three seasons when he lifted the League Cup and European Cup Winners' Cup in 1970, becoming the first English side to win a continental and domestic cup in the same campaign
Pep Guardiola's current City side are well known for collecting trophies, with two already this season following 11 others in the previous five campaigns - but in Lee's day they also had a ferocious appetite for silverware.

Under the genial Joe Mercer and his innovative assistant Malcolm Allison, an all-English City side with an exciting attack-minded style had won every domestic competition going in the previous 24 months, and they were far from finished.

"In that 1969-70 campaign, I used to talk to the other players about 'Franny's Grand Slam'," Lee explained in 2020, on the 50th anniversary of their victory in Vienna. "I had the attitude that we should try to win everything we took part in.

"We were going down to London on the train for a league game near the start of the season and in the middle of playing cards when Glyn Pardoe said 'look, there's Wembley!'

"I said 'get used to the view, because that is where we are going to do the Grand Slam this year'."

Lee was half right. He had wanted the quadruple but had to settle for a unique double instead.

While City lost against neighbours Manchester United in the fourth round of the FA Cup and slid down the league table after Christmas, they made it to Wembley in March and beat West Brom in the League Cup final.

Not many people would get to see them add the Cup Winners' Cup to their haul a few weeks later, however.

link: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/52455182