Köln and the English - what a load of driss: English opposition repeatedly denied the club the very biggest European success. Against clubs from “that island lying somewhere off Holland in the North Sea”, as FC fan Wolfgang Niedecken once put it, Köln managed only three wins in fifteen matches. Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town stopped them in the semis of the European Cup in 1979 and the UEFA Cup in 1981. With all due respect, Malmö FF and AZ Alkmaar would have been eminently manageable final opponents for that Köln side.