Aston Villa
1981–82 season
Aston Villa celebrating their historic European Cup victory
ChairmanEngland Ron Bendall
Manager(1) England Ron Saunders
(2) England Tony Barton
StadiumVilla Park
First Division11th
FA CupFifth round
League CupFifth round
European CupWinners
Top goalscorerLeague:
Peter Withe (10 goals)
All:
Peter Withe (13 goals)
Second City Derby
38--28--25

The 1981–82 English football season was Aston Villa's 82nd season in the Football League. In May 1982, just three months after being appointed manager, Tony Barton guided Villa to a 1–0 victory over Bayern Munich in the European Cup final in Rotterdam. As of December 2023, Villa remain one of only six English teams to have won the European Cup, along with Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest. They were the underdogs in the final and were expected to lose.[1]

As defending First Division champions for the first time in 71 years, they qualified for the European Cup for the first time in their history. Their first game in the competition was against Valur of Iceland,[2] following by a second round clash with BFC Dynamo of East Germany, Dynamo Kiev of the Soviet Union in the quarter-finals and then Anderlecht of Belgium in the semi-finals before beating Bayern Munich of West Germany 1–0 in the Final in Rotterdam, with Peter Withe scoring the winning goal.

The season began with Ron Saunders, who had been the club's manager since 1974, still in charge, but he resigned on 9 February 1982 following a disagreement with the board over his contract. He had been in charge for nearly eight years, winning a league title and two League Cups in the process. His successor was his assistant manager Tony Barton, who had been in charge for three months by the time Villa won the European Cup.

First-team squad

Squad at end of season

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player
1 GK England ENG Jimmy Rimmer
16 GK England ENG Nigel Spink
2 DF England ENG Kenny Swain
— DF England ENG Colin Gibson
— DF England ENG Brendan Ormsby
— DF England ENG Mark Jones
— DF England ENG Pat Heard
3 DF England ENG Gary Williams
5 DF Scotland SCO Ken McNaught
4 DF Scotland SCO Allan Evans
— DF Republic of Ireland IRL Eamon Deacy
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF England ENG Ivor Linton
11 MF England ENG Tony Morley
— MF England ENG Dennis Mortimer
— MF England ENG Mark Walters
10 MF England ENG Gordon Cowans
— MF England ENG Paul Birch
— MF England ENG Andy Blair
7 MF Scotland SCO Des Bremner
9 FW England ENG Peter Withe
8 FW England ENG Gary Shaw
— FW England ENG David Geddis
— FW Republic of Ireland IRL Terry Donovan[3]

First Division

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
9 West Ham United 42 14 16 12 66 57 +9 58
10 Manchester City 42 15 13 14 49 50 −1 58
11 Aston Villa 42 15 12 15 55 53 +2 57 Qualification for the European Cup first round[lower-alpha 1]
12 Nottingham Forest 42 15 12 15 42 48 −6 57
13 Brighton & Hove Albion 42 13 13 16 43 52 −9 52
Source: World Football
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
Notes:
  1. ↑ Aston Villa qualified for the European Cup first round as the 1981–82 European Cup winners.

European Cup

First round

First leg

Aston Villa England5–0Iceland Valur
Morley 6'
Withe 37', 68'
Donovan 40', 69'
Attendance: 20,481
Referee:

Second leg

Valur Iceland0–2England Aston Villa
Shaw 25', 70'
Attendance: 3,500
Referee:

Villa won 7–0 on aggregate.

Second round

First leg

BFC Dynamo East Germany1–2England Aston Villa
Riediger 50' Morley 5', 85'
Attendance: 25,000
Referee:

Second leg

Aston Villa England0–1East Germany BFC Dynamo
Terletzki 15'
Attendance: 28,175
Referee:

2–2 on aggregate. Villa won on away goals rule.

Quarter final

First leg

Dynamo Kiev Soviet Union0–0England Aston Villa
Attendance: 20,000
Referee:

Second leg

Aston Villa England2–0Soviet Union Dynamo Kiev
Shaw 4'
McNaught 44'
Attendance: 38,579
Referee:

Villa won 2–0 on aggregate.

Semi-final

First leg

Aston Villa England1–0Belgium Anderlecht
Morley 27'
Referee:

Second leg

Anderlecht Belgium0–0England Aston Villa
Referee:

Villa won 1–0 on aggregate.

Final

Aston Villa England1–0West Germany Bayern Munich
Withe 67'
Attendance: 39,776
Referee: Georges Konrath France

See also

References

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