The greatest shock in the European cup

As a follow on from my previous blog post about what I thought was the biggest shock in the Champions league era I will have a look and see what I think was the biggest shock in the European cup.

Trevor Francis heads in the winner
source: getty images

Many people's vote
The obvious stand out shock in the European cup is Nottingham Forest's triumphs in the 1970s which capped off a wonderful spell under the management of Brian Clough. Forest were a second division side in 1976-77, they were promoted that season and went straight to the pinnacle of English football by winning the first division in their first season up. That allowed them the opportunity to take their place in the European cup in 1978-79 for the first time. They began by defeating Liverpool, who were in the competition as defending champions, this was the era where it was champions only that took part but defending champions were allowed to defend their title. A 2-0 aggregate victory over Liverpool saw Forest through to the last 16.
Victories over AEK Athens, Grasshopper club and Köln had set up a final against Malmö from Sweden. The Swedes reaching the final itself was another major surprise and the final itself was one that few would've predicted. In the end a Trevor Francis goal separated the sides and Forest became European champions.

The greatest shock
However my vote for the greatest shock of the European cup era came earlier in the decade. The 1970-71 season where Greek side Panathinaikos reached the final. Panathinaikos were under the management of one Ferenc Puskas in this campaign. However I doubt many will have predicted Panathinaikos getting anywhere near the final especially after sneaking a 2-1 victory away at Luxembourg side Juenesse D'Esch in the first leg of their First round tie. They won the second leg at home 5-0 but were still up against it.

Next up was Czechoslovakian champions Slovan Bratislava. The first leg in Athens put them in the driving seat when they ran out 3-0 winners. Slovan took the lead in the return game before an away goal by Antonis Antoniadis, who would end up the tournaments' top scorer that year with ten strikes in total, knocked the stuffing out of the Czechoslovakians. Slovan did win the second leg 2-1 but it wasn't enough was Panathinaikos advanced 4-2 on aggregate.

English champions Everton awaited in the quarter-finals. Many fancied Everton to advance but the Greeks had a shock on their minds and took a surprise lead with nine minutes to play when Antoniadis struck again. Despite Everton equalizing in stoppage time, Panathinaikos had that away goal to fall back on. And fall back on they would as it would turn out to be the difference between the sides. The second leg finished 0-0 and Panathinaikos were through to the European cup semi-finals.

The two legs on the semi-final against Crvena Zvezda would be despair followed by absolute joy. The first leg was painful for the Greek side. A hat-trick from Stevan Ostojić helped the Yugoslavian champions to a 4-1 win in Belgrade. The away goal coming from Aristidis Kamaras, surely it wouldn't be deciding.
Stunningly it turned out to be the difference as Panathinaikos recovered in the second leg in Athens. A 3-0 success meant that Kamaras' strike in the first leg took them to Wembley. Antoniadis added two more goals to his tally with Kamaras sealing the comeback with the third goal.

The final saw them up against Ajax. The overwhelming favorites with Johan Cruyff to call upon had to much for Panathinaikos in the end. An early strike from Dick Van Dijk had Panathinaikos on the back foot but they were still in the game until Ajax added a second late on when Arie Haan struck with the help of an Anthimos Kapsis deflection.
There was no fairy tale ending to what would've been an astonishing triumph when you factor in that Greek football wasn't anywhere near a force in the lead up to this run. In fact the best Greece managed before this was AEK Athens reaching the quarter-finals two seasons earlier. In the years after the Panathinaikos run, no Greek side would make it beyond the second round until 1984-85 when Panathinaikos ran to the semi-finals only to be beaten heavily by Liverpool.
Panathinaikos weren't splashing cash either, there was no £1 million spent on one player which is why for me this ranks above Nottingham Forest in the European cup shocks for me.

Other mentions: 
Other notable shocks from the European cup were amateur Eintracht Frankfurt reaching the final in 1959-60 but met the might of Real Madrid who beat them 7-3.
Steaua București had goalkeeper Helmuth Duckadam to thank for saving all of Barcelona's penalties in the final shootout in Seville. Steaua had won their first and to date only European cup. The first Eastern European side to win it and with the victory they won it six years before Barcelona would win their first of their current four titles. 
Crvena Zvezda winning it in 1990-91 deserves a mention as they are the only Serbian/Yugoslavian side to win it before or since.