In this series, Finnish football journalist Juhavaltteri Salminen recalls occasions when Nordic teams proved to be a match – and sometimes more than that – for some of the most famous clubs in Europe. Just three years after Malmö FF's unlikely European Cup success, the Swedes were at it again…
 

UEFA Cup final 1981/82: IFK Göteborg 4-0 Hamburger SV (4–0 on aggregate)
 

Ask a regular match-goer to name a Nordic football club and chances are they will say IFK Göteborg, who set Europe alight in the 1980s. But just some years earlier, total tranquility reigned in the traditional working-class club in Sweden's second city. "Blåvitt" (The Blue-Whites) had suffered relegation in 1970, only a year after winning the domestic title.

What was supposed to be a short visit to the wilderness became a long struggle. In the mid-70's, IFK Göteborg's attendance figures struggled to reach four digits. But in 1974, chairman Bertil Westblad recruited a gentleman named Anders Bernmar as board member. Bernmar was given the responsibility to run IFK's first team operations. It marked the dawn of a new, immensely succesful era.

It did not take Bernmar long to start building what was to become arguably Sweden's best club team of all time. Soon enough, IFK Göteborg were again drawing attendances north of 10,000 on a regular basis. Finally, in 1976, IFK ran home the Second Division and returned to the top flight. By the end of the decade, most of the players who would reach European glory had joined or risen through the ranks, such as defender Glenn Hysén and star striker Torbjörn Nilsson. But to really shift gears, the "Änglarna" (Angels) needed a head coach who was on the cutting edge of modern football.

Arch rivals Malmö FF had dominated Swedish football through the 1970s. Their visionary coach Bob Houghton (together with his good friend Roy Hodgson, coach of Halmstads BK) had revolutionized Swedish football. IFK Göteborg came to the inevitable conclusion: if you can't beat them, join them.

When the club announced their new head coach in January 1979, it was a huge shock. It was unthinkable for such a big club to hire an unknown lower league manager whose greatest achievement was guiding Degerfors IF to promotion in the third tier of Swedish football. But the 32-year-old Sven-Göran Eriksson had read his Houghton and Hodgson. Discipline, zonal marking and pressing were the order of the day.

"I had a young, hungry team. Bob Houghton and Roy Hodgson were already in Sweden, and they were doing very well with a 4-4-2", Eriksson recalled years later in an article on The Coaches' Voice. "In the beginning, I was walking with the players: 'You stand there, and you stand there.'”

What happened in Gothenburg was exactly what had happened a few years earlier about 170 miles to the south. The debate between the so called English school and the more traditional Swedish philosophy, based on a less disciplined brand of football, was raging. Just like in Malmö, the upheaval at IFK Göteborg was met with a wave of criticism. The football was considered boring and primitive.

A young Sven managing IFK Göteborg in the 1982 UEFA Cup final vs Hamburger SV. pic.twitter.com/i3la5YqwEf

— Pyro On The Pitch (@PyroOnThePitch) December 27, 2019

And just like in Malmö, success followed. In May 1979, just months into Eriksson's tenure, IFK won their first ever Swedish Cup title. Later that year they finished runners-up in the Allsvenskan. In 1980 they earned a third-place finish and another entry into European competition: the UEFA Cup of 1981/82. In late 1981, IFK beat Finnish Haka as well as Sturm Graz and Dinamo Bucharest, setting up a quarter-final tie with Valencia for March 1982.

Their journey very nearly ended there. Not because Valencia were too good, but because the club was absolutely penniless. It had taken more than holy spirit to put together a squad of IFK's calibre. Some years earlier the club had followed Malmö's lead and turned semi-professional. The squad was anything but cheap. Despite the relative success and healthy attendances, the finances were a mess.

Hefty disagreements broke out in the board room. The board resigned right before the quarter-finals. There was nothing in the bank, let alone the kind of money that could get the team to Spain. Leaving a walkover was a distinct possibility. IFK had to go out hat in hand. They got local manufacturing company SKF to cover travel costs to Valencia. It is not an overstatement to say it saved the entire club.

After IFK stunned their hosts with a 2–2 draw in Valencia, ticket sales for the second leg exploded and Gothenburg happened to have a huge stadium. 50,108 came to see IFK shock the Spaniards with a 2–0-win. Next up were 1. FC Kaiserslautern, who had beaten none other than Real Madrid in the quarters. Two 1–1 draws and an extra-time penalty shooutout later, a bunch of Swedish part-timers had shocked everybody by making it to the UEFA Cup final.

But the final is going to be another matter, it was said. Such was the reputation of their opponents. Millennials might view Hamburger SV as a perennial crisis club, but in 1982, football teams did not come much better than them. HSV were on course for a second Bundesliga title in three years and a fourth consecutive top two finish. Horst Hrubesch was topping the Bundesliga's goalscoring charts. Just months later, three HSV players would finish runners-up in the World Cup.

On May 5th, Gothenburg was its usual self: very rainy. The Ullevi pitch was a mud field. That may have been the reason why HSV showed little interest in entertaining the 42,548-strong crowd.

HSV played defensively – and physically. The competition's leading scorer Nilsson had to be substituted in the 19th minute. Tommy Holmgren limped until half-time before succumbing to the same fate. The loss of two key players may have worried IFK fans, but certainly not the team.

IFK created pretty much all of the goalmouth action in the game. Hamburg's apparent attempt to go for a draw proved ill-advised in the 87th minute, as Glenn Strömberg teed up Tord Holmgren with a header. Holmgren coolly scored the only goal of the game. The surprise defeat did not do much to unsettle the Germans. The defeat was merely an occupational accident. It would be a whole different story at Hamburg's Volksparkstadion.

The physical nature of the first leg sowed animosity between the teams. Two weeks later, when IFK arrived in Northern Germany, somebody in the entourage got hold of a pennant with an ominous text: Hamburger SV, UEFA Cup-sieger 1982. It only added fuel to an already raging fire. And there still is no love lost.

"They were arrogant c****", exclaimed Glenn Hysén in an interview with Norwegian magazine Josimar in 2017. Team-mate Nilsson took a more minimalistic approach. "Pigs", he said.

Nilsson and Tommy Holmgren had recovered from their injuries and were fit to play. "Great. Now there will be no room for excuses afterwards", proclaimed HSV coach Ernst Happel.

19th May 1982. UEFA Cup Final 2nd Leg. Hamburger SV – IFK Göteborg.
Horst Hrubesch, referee George Courtney (Spennymoor) and Conny Karlsson.
Linesmen – Derek Owen (Wirral) and David Richardson (Clayton-le-Dale). pic.twitter.com/BYY9fLXZub

— stepan (@stepan49154460) April 21, 2020

Happel was absolutely right. There were no excuses. There was only one team on the pitch, and it was definitely not his side. On 25 minutes, Tommy Holmgren whipped in a cross and Dan Corneliusson finished. 1–0. Göteborg had little trouble taking that lead to the break.

Second half. Germans on the pitch and in the stands growing increasingly frustrated. The crowd starts booing their own players – and eventually leaving their seats as Nilsson capitalises on a silly HSV mistake to double IFK's lead on 62 minutes. Three minutes later Bernd Wehmayer brings Nilsson down in the area and Stig Fredriksson converts the penalty.

IFK Göteborg had not just won the game. They had comprehensively humiliated their illustrious opponents. It was only a matter of whether the margin of victory should have been even greater, given the dominance.

The atmosphere was surreal. HSV–IFK Göteborg 0–3, said the massive scoreboard. This was a time when the UEFA Cup was not a competition where the also-rans of the English league would give their youngsters a game. If you finished runner-up in England or Italy, you would compete in the UEFA Cup, and you would take it seriously.

#TweetYourFavouriteFootballPhoto

IFK Göteborg 1982 UEFA Cup Winners pic.twitter.com/w2xNH2SElG

— Karl_Nylund (@Karl_Nylund) April 25, 2014

"We could not even dream about winning the UEFA Cup. It was a major surprise and the beginning of a new life for many of the players. Many of them became professional", Eriksson reminisced years later.

1982 was a glorious year for IFK Göteborg. They went on to win their domestic league and cup that same year. Soon enough, Eriksson headed for Benfica and took Glenn Strömberg with him. Glenn Hysén and top scorer Nilsson moved to PSV Eindhoven and Kaiserslautern respectively.

Given the losses, you would think IFK would have been an overnight sensation. They were anything but. The victory was only the dawn of a golden era in the club.

Sources:  IFK Göteborg 1904–2004 – en hundraårig blåvit historia genom elva epoker, Expressen, Josimar, The Coaches' Voice, Jonathan Wilson: Inverting the Pyramid

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