Moments of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup – Part 1: Slovan Bratislava 1968/69

With the return of a third-tier competition in European football next season, the UEFA Europa Conference League has been met with the usual snobbery from those who see it as an unnecessary burden. However, the Conference League does bring back memories of the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. 

Lasting for 39 years between 1960-1999, the tournament was a well-respected competition that played host to several giants of European football. This series will look at six notable moments of the Cup Winners’ Cup – some well-known to many and others less so. This opening article goes back to the late 1960s when the Eastern Bloc first made their real impact in European club football.

Prior to the 1968-69 season, Slovan Bratislava had finished second in back-to-back seasons of the Czechoslovak First League. However, despite lifting the Czechoslovak Cup in 1967-68, manager Ján Hucko jumped ship to rivals Spartak Trnava. Slovan Bratislava decided to replace Hucko with Michal Vičan. The 43-year-old had made a name for himself at the club, his 12-year spell as a defender yielding four league titles in the late 1940s and early to mid-1950s. But that was not the sole reason why he was picked as manager.

Vičan had done wonders at Jednota Trenčín since taking over as manager in 1965, building up the provincial minnows to two top-six finishes in his first two seasons before finishing third in the 1967-68 season behind Slovan Bratislava and then champions Spartak Trnava.  Slovan’s victory in the Czechoslovak Cup did mean qualification to the 1968-69 Cup Winners’ Cup – their first time in the competition for five years, where they fell at the quarter-final stage against Celtic. The club also had ambitions to try and win the league for the first time since 1955.