Wembley has hosted six European Cup and Champions League finals, but on few occasions can the famous old stadium have held such pertinence as a venue in so many ways as it did on Wednesday 2nd June 1971. 

For Total Football to have planted its flag on the metaphorical moon for the first time in England seems appropriate. It was with Englishmen that it all started for Ajax. Jack Reynolds managed the team in three separate spells (stretching, remarkably, between 1915 and 1947), leading the club to its first Eredivisie title in 1918. He helped to set up the renowned Ajax youth system and instigate a possession-based philosophy.  Vic Buckingham famously took up the baton in 1959, inspired by the ‘push and run’ style of his former Tottenham team-mate Arthur Rowe. Rowe, nine years Buckingham’s senior, had gone on to lead Spurs to their first English championship title as manager in 1951. In his less successful second spell at the club, he gave Johan Cruyff, who was a 12-year-old Ajax youth player when he first met the former West Bromwich Albion boss on Buckingham’s initial arrival, his first-team debut in November 1964.

For another pioneer of the modern game, it was a return to the scene of one of his defining triumphs as a player. In 1953, Ferenc Puskás was the fulcrum of the ‘Mighty Magyars’, the Hungary side that famously hammered England 6-3 (having never previously been beaten at home by an non-UK team) and that Sir Bobby Robson later memorably described as “like men from Mars.” Puskás largely failed to replicate his stellar playing career - in which he scored almost 600 times at a rate of almost one-a-game for club and country – as a coach, but he led Panathinaikos into Wembley as the first Greek team to reach a European final, shortly after having sealed his own first league title as a manager. 
Rinus Michels had replaced Buckingham when he was fired in 1965, and he began to shape a dynasty. By the time Ajax arrived at Wembley, they had already won four league titles under Michels. Under the former Ajax forward’s guidance - who made his debut under Reynolds in 1946 - the germ of his predecessors’ practices was developed into Total Football, where the principle of fluid movement evolved to such an extent that the ten outfield players were able to exchange positions at will.

While such a collective understanding required collaboration and a degree of democracy too, there was no doubting Michels’ on-pitch muse. Cruyff was playmaker, winger, goalscorer, talisman and creative director all rolled into one. The 24-year-old had reached full maturity by the time 1971 arrived. If the 1969 final, which resulted in comprehensive defeat to Milan at the Bernabéu, came too soon, Cruyff and a markedly stronger XI were ready for this.

Puskás may have lacked that figure (or, indeed, a replica of himself as a player), but he had a strong, stylish passing team under his control. The route to the final had not been an easy one, with Pana overcoming Red Star Belgrade in the last four having lost the first leg 4-1, having already seen off a much-fancied Everton in the quarter-final. The dashing Antonis Antoniadis was the European Cup’s top scorer in 1970/71, with ten goals, and also finished top of the scoring charts in the Greek league five times during his career.

It was Antoniadis who had given the Greens the lead in the first leg of the quarter-final tie at Goodison Park with a deft left-foot finish, before a 19-year-old David Johnson scored a hotly-disputed leveller in the final minute. Pana eventually went through to the semi-final on away goals after a goalless draw in the home leg. The centre-forward also scored twice in the second leg comeback against Red Star at the Apostolos Nikolaidis in Athens. 

If overturning the odds against Red Star was a future fable, it was also the basis for much polemic in years to come. Georgios Papadopoulos, Greece’s ruling military dictator between 1967 and 1974, had made a strong contribution to Pana’s success via political and financial support. Papadopoulos’ widow Despina Gaspari even claimed in an April 2007 interview on Greek television (curiously only broken in Serbian newspaper Politika six months later, in October) that Red Star had been bribed to throw the return leg by her husband’s regime.

“I was worried at the end (of the first leg),” she said. Gaspari said the Yugoslavian ambassador subsequently reassured her, telling her matters were “already arranged.” There has never been any further proof of these accusations, or any official investigation. What is without doubt is that Papadopoulos – by no means a huge football fan – had fully grasped the power of the game in attempting to entrench a nation’s sense of self-worth and to quell opposition, in the same way that Argentina’s own military junta would later aim to do with the 1978 World Cup.

It should also be underlined that while suspicions of boardroom skulduggery, implied or proved, may overshadow a great team, it can never completely destroy the reality of its true worth – as the wonderful Marseille side of 1993 proved. It was not merely state patronage that allowed Panathinaikos to fire the imagination, and the public responded, with a colourful crowd buoyed by a significant number of Greek and Greek Cypriot ex-pats, many of whom had arrived in England in waves during the 1950s and 1960s. Wembley was green – and red. Earlier this year, Scott Murray dug out the description of The Guardian’s correspondent that day, Albert Barham. “Certainly a British audience for a cup final has never seen such colour,” he wrote, “been deafened by the cacophony, and been infected by the atmosphere of Wembley last night.”

Clearly keen to banish the demons of Madrid, Ajax started strongly and made the break early on, with a move of characteristic decisiveness. Barry Hulshoff swung a diagonal ball out to Piet Keizer on the left in the 5th minute. The winger dribbled Aristidis Kamaras on the outside, swung in a cross and Dick van Dijk stooped at the near post to flick a header past goalkeeper Panayotis Ekonomopoulos and into the far corner.

“At the time of the Wembley final, some considered Cruyff as only a finisher of the many assists of Keizer,” Ernst Bouwes wrote in the May edition of Champions. “They felt Keizer was the majestic heart of the Ajax game with his artistic moves and tricks.” His delicate yet decisive left-foot certainly caused Pana no end of problems at Wembley, but there was little doubt who had risen to lead his team-mates, certainly in an aesthetic sense. Even in the celebration of van Dijk’s goal, Cruyff broke off to point his team-mates into position. He spent his day at Wembley constantly directing, prompting and anticipating his colleagues’ movements even while on the ball himself.

The actual team captain was Velibor Vasovic. He arrived from Partizan Belgrade in 1966 and was a composed defender, though there was constant debate over his physical condition in the Netherlands. The asthma that had plagued his career was beginning to take its toll and while he retained considerable poise on the ball, often beginning attacks, he often looked vulnerable against the power of Antoniadis. It was Vasovic’s horribly sliced attempted clearance that almost let the Pana number 9 in to equalise, but he headed wide with goalkeeper Heinz Stuy prone and out of position.

The pace was unrelenting on the typically huge Wembley pitch. In the 17th minute Antoniadis narrowly failed to connect with captain Dimitrios Domazos’ corner, and Ajax broke apace. Less than 20 seconds after Antoniadis’ chance, a typically laconic left-wing delivery floated over Ekonomopoulos and smacked back off the crossbar. Ten seconds later, a stretching Hulshoff is on duty near his own goal, clearing from Antoniadis by the corner of the pitch.

A first view of the classic Cruyff turn – a 180° spin as he pulls the ball through his legs with his right instep – arrived midway through the first half, duly perplexing Ionnais Tomaras and taking him away, but referee Jack Taylor had already blown for a free-kick for Tomaras’ desperate shirt pull. Despite the raw thrill of such feats, it could be argued that a large part of Cruyff’s contribution was defensive in this game. Nominally starting on the right of a midfield three, his rampaging runs down the left helped relieve the pressure on Wim Suurbier, with the left-back constantly examined by the pace and trickery of Charis Grammos. Grammos was also a main supply line for Antoniadis, but was forced back by Cruyff.

Michels was certainly in no mood for mere spectacle. He made a double change at the interval, replacing Nico Rijnders and Sjaak Swart with Horst Blankenburg and Arie Haan. The idea was presumably to have sweeper Blankenburg cover the vulnerabilities of Stuy and Vasovic against Antoniadis, but the German actually gave Pana more to think about defensively. On one lusty break down the left, he crossed in, Cruyff dummied and only Haan’s wild finish saw the chance of a magnificent goal disappear.

Grammos still threatened, and started looking for opportunity by directing his runs into central areas, with Suurbier’s unceremonious flattening of the winger (which earned a rebuke from Taylor) acknowledging his prowess. Yet the sight of Domazos and Grammos constantly hitting the ball long to an increasingly isolated Antoniadis equally recognised that Michels’ tactical reshuffle had worked. Another irresistible Cruyff dribble on the edge of the Pana area took out Fragiskos Sourpis and Grammos before he released Haan, and his shot hit Kapsis and looped in to seal matters with five minutes left.

At the final whistle jubilant Ajax fans streamed onto the turf, hoisting Cruyff and Haan onto the shoulders. As the hordes helpfully carried their heroes towards the 39 steps to the Royal Box where they would collect the trophy, the Royal Scots Guards Band played on, marching on the spot in perfect 8-8 formation. 

These were moments of mixed emotions, of beginnings and ends. For Vasovic, lifting the famous trophy was a satisfying end to his career in his final professional game - and a case of third time lucky, for he had twice scored in European Cup finals and ended up on the losing side, for Partizan in 1966 and for Ajax in 1969. He swiftly returned home to Yugoslavia to manage his former club in Belgrade. Puskás retained the Greek league title in 1972, but never got another crack at the final. Pana and Ajax met again in the 1996 semi-finals, but despite the Greeks winning the first leg in Amsterdam, Louis van Gaal’s side came back strongly in the return to reach a final with Juventus.

Finally, Michels announced his departure to Barcelona soon after. Kiezer, who endured an at-best fractious relationship with the legendary coach, reputedly danced a jig of joy on a table at his local pub on hearing the news, and Ajax would go on to retain the European Cup in 1972 and 1973 under Stefan Kovacs. If the gospel of Total Football began its spread to southern Europe with Michels’ exit, its first step into the consciousness of the international game was made at Wembley, in spring 1971.