Chapter 4: fervor and power run into De Kuip

The Feyenoord was impassable. Before, Espanyol had taken the leader of France and the second placed in Germany.

Espanyol had remained, and especially José Emilio Santamaría and his pupils, with the thorn nailed of the 1973-74 UEFA Cup, in which he had not passed the parakeet of the first round, and three years later he would find the chance of a rematch . After finishing the League in fourth position, Santamaría and his team returned to Europe.

And they did it, in the first place, against an opponent much stronger than that Molenbeek of 1973. The 1976-77 UEFA began for Espanyol at home against the leader of French Ligue 1, Nice. And, despite the entity, the blue and white were sublime, with a 3-1 and goals from Cuesta, Marañón and Caszely in what is remembered as a spectacular performance of the 'Manager'. The return was also matched at the Stade Municipal de Ray, with a 2-1 (Ortiz Aquino penalty), which gave the pass to the parrots to the second round.

And the leader of France, who had reached that meeting with internal problems, passed Espanyol to face the second in the Bundesliga, an Eintracht Brunswick that defeated him in the first leg, with a 2-1 (goal of Marañón for the parrots ), but that arrived at Sarrià with only 14 summoned, because of the injuries, and that went away with a 2-0 (Jeremías and Ortiz, of penalty), enough to be dismounted.

And he played the Feyenoord, a hard nut to crack, that left Sarrià with a 0-1 (Nico Jansen, with the collaboration of De Felipe) and finished in De Kuip, with a 2-0 that as positive had the return of Solsona after seven months of sick leave due to hepatitis.