CITY 0 FENERBAHCE 0
European Cup 1st Round 1st Leg
18th September 1968
attendance 38,787
Ref L van Ravens
City Mulhearn, Kennedy, Pardoe, Doyle, Heslop, Oakes, Lee, Bell, Summerbee, Young, Coleman
Fenerbahce Yavuz, Sukru, Ercan, Nunweiller, Levent, Selim, Yilhaz, Ogun, Abdullah, Nedim, Can – sub Fuat
lt was September 18th when Fenerbahce came to Maine Road with the reputation. of a side of no higher standard than our mid-Second Division. They were Turkey’s Cup and League double champs and had also won the Balkans Cup, but still remained very much dark horses. Yet it did not take the Blues long to realise the task confronting them.
Colin Bell and Mike Summerbee missed chances galore and wingers Francis Lee and Tony Coleman, men with a reputation to play in the good old orthodox way by getting the ball into the middle hard and often, rarely stamped their personalities on the game.
The outcome was glorious acclaim for ·Fenerbahce’s stern defensive battle and they returned East after gaining the shock result of the round by holding the English League champions to a goalless draw on their own ground. Even so, pessimistic Turkish critics still believed City would win in Istanbul, maintaining that Fenerbahce were incapable of coming out of their defensive shell to make a match of it.
FROM AN ARTICLE BY PETER GARDNER, PUBLISHED IN THE CITY PROGRAMME 15TH SEPTEMBER 1976
