Müller scores one of the goals in the final of Euro 1972 against the USSR.
The qualifying phase for the 1972 Eurocup was played in eight groups of four teams. The champions went to the quarterfinals. We played with Cyprus, Northern Ireland and the USSR, so it was clear that we would play it in the games with the Soviets. In fact, Spain and the USSR did the same against Cyprus and Ireland: beat them at home and draw away. By then we were already saying the USSR and not Russia, the Regime was loosening according to what things and the party there, on May 30, 1971, caused the first massive trip by Spaniards to Moscow. Between the interest of the game itself and the curiosity to visit the mysterious Moscow, up to 5,000 fans and onlookers traveled. Never seen. Even for the first time there was a direct flight from Iberia to Moscow, which was where the national team traveled.He made a stopover in Paris to board a Russian navigator to advise on the landing.
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The match was played three days after the farewell tribute to Yashin, and on the same stage, the Lenin Stadium in Moscow, with a capacity for 103,000 spectators.
Groups of noisy and cheerful Spaniards colored the eve in the Soviet capital.
Red Square, Lenin's Mausoleum, cathedrals… There was a rush to visit everything and to comment on everything.
Only three journalists had already been there, with Real Madrid basketball who visited TSKA six years earlier, the trip of just 20 people.
Ramón Mendoza, later president of Madrid, negotiated with the USSR and acted as the staff of the official legation.
It moved there like a fish in water.
Of course, the final of '64, won by Spain, came out a lot, but time had shaken both teams. Iribar and Amancio survived for ours; for the USSR, the central Shesternev. The game was televised live in Spain (a window to the unknown Moscow in our homes) and we lost 2-1 with all the law. The goal of the honor was made by Rexach very late. They were much better. Kubala blamed it on the lack of Pirri, the pillar of the team, and Gárate, who was sweet. That defeat forced us to beat them when they visited us in Seville, which would happen on October 27.
Barbaric atmosphere, great enthusiasm and an anecdote: the day before Iribar was injured, with which the number two, Reina, became the starter.
Kubala asked that Rodri, the Atlético goalkeeper, who was on the list, be called urgently.
But at that time Sevilla had a good goalkeeper also named Rodri, who had alternated precisely with Reina in the youth team, and when Kubala said "call Rodri" a misunderstanding was created and the Sevilla player was called, who took the bench.
If he ever had to leave, we would have had a problem.
The television hook
We tied at zero because of Rudakov, a huge goalkeeper with the agility of a cat.
Quini and Quino occupied the center of the attack and were fed up to finish, but there was no way.
With much less we had scored two goals against Yashin in the final of '64. That draw knocked us out of the Eurocup.
But not without Euro on TV.
On April 29, 1972, Germany visited Wembley, the first leg of the quarterfinals.
At the time, the Regime always tried to have a strong sports or bullfighting hook on TV on the eve of May 1 (not May 1 itself, as they say), to keep workers at home, away from meetings clandestine.
So that visit from Germany to Wembley came right out of the box.
It had echoes of revenge from the 1966 final, won by the English with a phantom goal, and the quarterfinal clash at Mexico 70, defeated in overtime by the Germans.
The Wembley game was an epiphany.
Germany swept and won 1-3.
Netzer dazzled.
When the following year foreigners could be hired again, Madrid went for him while Barça took over Cruyff.
Netzer conducted an orchestra in which the figures of Bayern, the Maiers, Schwarzenbeck, Beckenbauer, Breitner, Hoeness and Müller dazzled.
Bayern had not yet won the European Cup, but would soon chain three and become the figurehead of the new German football, which spread terror for years on European fields.
After leaving England behind, Germany defeated Belgium in the semi-finals (away, the final phase was in Brussels) and the USSR in the final, 3-0.
For them Rudakov was no problem.
Müller was the top scorer of that European Championship with 11 goals, followed by four players with five.
Netzer was voted best player in the competition.
That team would also win the 1974 World Cup. Germany had become the great power.
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