The story of the 1976 Anderlecht team that won the Cup Winners Cup

RSC Anderlecht is Belgium’s biggest and most well-known team.

Right now they don’t mean so much in the European competitions but in the 70’s they were a powerhouse team that a lot of club sides were afraid of.

The Europacup II (Cup Winners Cup) could be considered a predecessor of the Europa League but the terms to participate were a bit different, the teams in the Europacup II all won their domestic cups the season before.

This also meant the tournament was constructed differently as it was a knockout only tournament with 2 legs per round.

The First Round

In the first round, Anderlecht had to face Rapid Bucarest.

Bucarest was a tough team at home so Anderlecht struggled in the first match which they lost 1-0 because of an own-goal from Thissen.

In the second leg in Anderlecht Bucarest tried to put up a strong defence but the offensive pressure from Anderlecht led to a goal from Van Binst and in the fiftieth minute Rensenbrink scored a penalty which put Anderlecht up 2-0 to advance in the tournament by 2-1 on aggregate.

The Second Round

Anderlecht made sure to not put themselves in the same sketchy position as in the first round.

They dominated the Yugoslavian cup winner FK Borac Banja Luka 3-0 in the first leg with 1 goal from Ludo Coeck and 2 from Rob Rensenbrink.

Anderlecht travelled to Banja Luka in Bosnia-Herzegovina (then Yugoslavia) without too much pressure.

They just controlled the match without doing anything crazy. Muhamed Ibrahimbegovic scored the only goal of the match which FK Borac Banja Luka won 1-0.

The Quarter-Finals

After a comfortable second-round Anderlecht faced Welsh cup winners Wrexham F.C.

Anderlecht played their first match at home in Brussels and in a strong defensive match from both sides the only player to score was Anderlecht’s defender Van Binst.

For the second leg, Anderlecht travelled to Wales with the smallest lead possible.

The match was very close and it looked like Wrexham could pull off the upset when Stuart Lee scored the first goal in the 60th minute but Rob Rensenbrink, who else, struck back in the 76th minute.

The match finished 1-1 so Anderlecht advanced to the semi-finals by 2-1 on aggregate.

The Semi-finals

The semi-finals against BSG Sachsenring Zwickau, East-Germany’s cup winner, was surprisingly easy for Anderlecht.

Zwickau wasn’t even a bad team as they had beaten some strong sides such as Panathinaikos in the first round, the Italian powerhouse Fiorentina in the second and the legendary Celtic F.C. in the quarter-finals.

After this very good run from Zwickau they were no match for Anderlecht in the semi-finals.

The first match in East Germany was dominated by Anderlecht as Leo Van Der Elst scored twice and Rensenbrink once. Anderlecht won 0-3 and travelled home with a comfortable lead.

At home, Anderlecht controlled the match as attackers Van Der Elst and Rensenbrink added insult to injury by both scoring one apiece.

Anderlecht gained momentum going into the finals by beating Zwickau 5-0 on aggregate.

Anderlecht Vs West Ham - 1976 Cup Winners Cup Final

The European Cup Winners Cup Final 1976

The Final was played in Brussels so even though it wasn’t in their own arena, it was still a home match for Anderlecht as they faced West-Ham in the finals.

It was very interesting to see these two teams in the finals as they had complete opposite paths in the Europacup in 1975-76.

Anderlecht struggled a bit at the beginning of the tournament but started to gain more and more momentum in the later stages.

West Ham, on the other hand, started off very strongly by beating Lahden Reipas 2-5 in the first round and Ararat Yerevan 2-4 in the second round but had some more trouble in the latter part as they had to beat Den Haag 5-5 on aggregate, West Ham scored more in Den Haag, and they won by the smallest margin against Eintracht Frankfurt who they beat 3-4.

In the final itself, Pat Holland scored the first goal after 28 minutes and on top of that central midfielder and a key piece of Anderlecht’s starting 11, Ludo Coeck got injured a few minutes later which meant the 19-year-old Vercauteren had to play at on one of highest stages at a very young age.

Luckily Rensebrink evened the score right before half-time.

Anderlecht started off the second half on the front foot as Van Der Elst almost immediately scored.

West Ham answered in the 68th minute with a goal from Keith Robson but Pat Holland became the anti-hero when he tackled Rensenbrink recklessly which led to a penalty that Rensenbrink himself converted.

Van Der Elst scored another goal after a fast counter-attack which meant Anderlecht won the Europacup II 4-2.

Fun fact

Because of his superstition, Anderlecht’s manager Hans Croon sometimes didn’t start his best starting 11.

This meant that captain Erwin Vandendaele couldn’t play in the Europacup II final. This has to be one of the craziest moves a manager ever made with so much on the line but it seems like it worked out after all!