1981–82 Aston Villa F.C. season

The 1981–82 season was Aston Villa's 82nd season in the Football League.

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, following by a second round clash with Dynamo Berlin 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
— GK  ENG Jimmy Rimmer
— GK  ENG Nigel Spink
— DF  ENG Kenny Swain
— DF  ENG Colin Gibson
— DF  ENG Brendan Ormsby
— DF  ENG Mark Jones
— DF  ENG Pat Heard
— DF  ENG Gary Williams
— DF  SCO Ken McNaught
— DF  SCO Allan Evans
— DF  IRL Eamon Deacy
No. Pos. Nation Player
— MF  ENG Ivor Linton
— MF  ENG Tony Morley
— MF  ENG Dennis Mortimer
— MF  ENG Mark Walters
— MF  ENG Gordon Cowans
— MF  ENG Paul Birch
— MF  ENG Andy Blair
— MF  SCO Des Bremner
— FW  ENG Peter Withe
— FW  ENG Gary Shaw
— FW  ENG David Geddis
— FW  IRL Terry Donovan[1]

First round

First leg
Aston Villa 5–0 Valur
Morley  6'
Withe  37', 68'
Donovan  40', 69'
Attendance: 20,481
Referee:

Second leg
Valur 0–2 Aston Villa
Shaw  25', 70'
Attendance: 3,500
Referee:

Villa won 7–0 on aggregate.

Second round

First leg
Dynamo Berlin 1–2 Aston Villa
Riediger  50' Morley  5', 85'
Attendance: 25,000
Referee:

Second leg
Aston Villa 0–1 Dynamo Berlin
Terletzki  15'
Attendance: 28,175
Referee:

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

Quarter final

First leg
Dynamo Kiev 0–0 Aston Villa
Attendance: 20,000
Referee:

Second leg
Aston Villa 2–0 Dynamo Kiev
Shaw  4'
McNaught  44'
Attendance: 38,579
Referee:

Villa won 2–0 on aggregate.

Semi-final

First leg
Aston Villa 1–0 Anderlecht
Morley  27'
Referee:

Second leg
Anderlecht 0–0 Aston Villa
,
Referee:

Villa won 1–0 on aggregate.

Final
Main article: 1982 European Cup Final
Aston Villa 1–0 Bayern Munich
Withe  67'
Feijenoord Stadion, Rotterdam
Attendance: 39,776
Referee: Georges Konrath
gollark: How many people are going to appreciate and stick to your Perfectly Logical Langauge™?
gollark: People would probably, without some mechanism to stop that, drop down to a simpler or easier to say/learn version.
gollark: English works... fairly like German and French.
gollark: Lignum is kind of right, though. Languages in the same local area are generally pretty similar gramatically.
gollark: Besides, you could probably have some organisation or other direct its development.

References
  1. Donovan was born in Liverpool, England, but qualified to represent the Republic of Ireland internationally and made his international debut for the Republic of Ireland in 1979.
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