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I think CL is far harder to win now than when it was the European Cup. I mean it should tell you something when the 1979 final was between Nottingham Forest and Malmo. I think you only had to play four possibly five rounds also. You probably had a handful of real contenders each season, and if they got drawn together in early rounds (there was no seeding back then) then you had scenarios where the likes of Malmo, Steaua Bucharest etc could go on and win the thing. Having multiple teams from the strong leagues makes it a much tougher competition
Agree with that. There's more teams enter it now and the standard of the European leagues has gone up considerably since those days. Argentina and Brazil were probably the strongest international teams back then and most of their players still played in South America. It was a revelation when Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa signed for Spurs. There weren't many Europeans who played outside their own countries let alone Africans and South Koreans.
We shouldn't undervalue that Notts Forest achievement though. People forget that they beat holders Liverpool in the early rounds of the 1978-79 European Cup. Then they went on to retain win it again the next season. Cloughy was a genius.