1990–91 European Cup

Stadio San Nicola in Bari hosted the final.
Tournament details
Dates	19 September 1990 – 29 May 1991
Teams	31
Final positions
Champions	Red Star Belgrade (1st title)
Runners-up	Marseille
Tournament statistics
Matches played	59
Goals scored	190 (3.22 per match)
Attendance	1,614,372 (27,362 per match)
Top scorer(s)	Peter Pacult (Swarovski Tirol) Jean-Pierre Papin (Marseille) 6 goals each
← 1989–90 1991–92 →

The 1990–91 European Cup was the 36th season of the European Cup, a tournament for men's football clubs in nations affiliated to the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). It was won for the first time by Red Star Belgrade on penalties in the final against Marseille; both were first-time finalists. This was only the second time that an Eastern European side had won the competition, after Steaua București of Romania in 1986. It was also the last tournament to be solely knock-out based, with a group stage added for the next season. Red Star won the tournament as the only Yugoslav club shortly before the breakup of Yugoslavia. This was also the last season to feature a team from East Germany, since the East and its West counterpart reunified in October 1990.

Although 1990–91 marked the return of English clubs to the Cup Winners' Cup and UEFA Cup, after a five-year ban resulting from the Heysel Stadium disaster, Liverpool had been banned for an additional year, so could not participate in the European Cup as English champions.

Ajax, the Dutch champions, were not allowed to participate in a European Cup competition because of the poor behaviour of their fans during a game the previous season, so their spot in the qualification was simply vacated, giving the two-time defending champions Milan a first-round bye.

Milan were eliminated by Marseille in the quarter-finals after the second leg had been awarded as a 3–0 win for Marseille when the eventual runners-up were leading 1–0, and 2–1 on aggregate, in injury time, when the floodlights failed. Milan refused to play on when floodlights were fixed and were banned, giving Marseille a 3–0 automatic win.

Teams

A total of 31 teams participated in the competition.

Qualified teams for 1990–91 European Cup

Second round
Milan (2nd)TH
First round
Napoli (1st)	Bayern Munich (1st)	Real Madrid (1st)	Spartak Moscow (1st)
Club Brugge (1st)	Porto (1st)	Dinamo București (1st)	Rangers (1st)
Malmö FF (1st)	Marseille (1st)	Red Star Belgrade (1st)	Swarovski Tirol (1st)
Dynamo Dresden (1st)	Sparta Prague (1st)	Újpesti Dózsa (1st)	Panathinaikos (1st)
Grasshopper (1st)	OB (1st)	Kuusysi (1st)	Lech Poznań (1st)
CSKA Sofia (1st)	Beşiktaş (1st)	Dinamo Tirana (1st)	Lillestrøm (1st)
Portadown (1st)	APOEL (1st)	KA (1st)	St Patrick's Athletic (1st)
Valletta (1st)	Union Luxembourg (1st)

Notes

Bracket

	Round of 32						Round of 16						Quarter-finals						Semi-finals						Final
	APOEL	2	0	2
	Bayern Munich	3	4	7			Bayern Munich	4	3	7
	KA	1	0	1			CSKA Sofia	0	0	0
	CSKA Sofia	0	3	3									Bayern Munich	1	2	3
	Dinamo București	4	1	5									Porto	1	0	1
	St Patrick's Athletic	0	1	1			Dinamo București	0	0	0
	Porto	5	8	13			Porto	0	4	4
	Portadown	0	1	1															Bayern Munich	1	2	3
	Red Star Belgrade	1	4	5															Red Star Belgrade	2	2	4
	Grasshoper	1	1	2			Red Star Belgrade	3	1	4
	Valletta	0	0	0			Rangers	0	1	1
	Rangers	4	6	10									Red Star Belgrade	3	3	6
	Union Luxembourg	1	0	1									Dynamo Dresden	0	0	0
	Dynamo Dresden	3	3	6			Dynamo Dresden (p.)	1	1	1(5)
	Malmö FF	3	2	5			Malmö FF	1	1	1(4)
	Beşiktaş	2	2	4																					Red Star Belgrade (p.)	0(5)
	Napoli	3	2	5																					Marseille	0(3)
	Újpesti Dózsa	0	0	0			Napoli	0	0	0(3)
	Sparta Prague	0	0	0			Spartak Moscow (p.)	0	0	0(5)
	Spartak Moscow	2	2	4									Spartak Moscow	0	3	3
	OB	1	0	1									Real Madrid	0	1	1
	Real Madrid	4	6	10			Real Madrid	9	2	11
	Swarovski Tirol	5	2	7			Swarovski Tirol	1	2	3
	Kuusysi	0	1	1															Spartak Moscow	1	1	2
																			Marseille	3	2	5
							Milan	0	1	1
	Lillestrøm	1	0	1			Club Brugge	0	0	0
	Club Brugge	1	2	3									Milan	1	0	1
	Lech Poznań	3	2	5									Marseille	1	3	4
	Panathinaikos	0	1	1			Lech Poznań	3	1	4
	Marseille	5	0	5			Marseille	2	6	8
	Dinamo Tirana	1	0	1

First round

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
APOEL	2–7	Bayern Munich	2–3	0–4
KA	1–3	CSKA Sofia	1–0	0–3
Dinamo București	5–1	St Patrick's Athletic	4–0	1–1
Porto	13–1	Portadown	5–0	8–1
Red Star Belgrade	5–2	Grasshopper	1–1	4–1
Valletta	0–10	Rangers	0–4	0–6
Union Luxembourg	1–6	Dynamo Dresden	1–3	0–3
Malmö FF	5–4	Beşiktaş	3–2	2–2
Napoli	5–0	Újpesti Dózsa	3–0	2–0
Sparta Prague	0–4	Spartak Moscow	0–2	0–2
OB	1–10	Real Madrid	1–4	0–6
Swarovski Tirol	7–1	Kuusysi	5–0	2–1
Milan	Bye		–	–
Lillestrøm	1–3	Club Brugge	1–1	0–2
Lech Poznań	5–1	Panathinaikos	3–0	2–1
Marseille	5–1	Dinamo Tirana	5–1	0–0

First leg

18 September 1990

20:00 CEST

OB	1–4	Real Madrid
Pedersen 22'	Report	Aldana 18' Sánchez 26' Villarroya 83' Maqueda 87'

Odense Atletikstadion, Odense

Attendance: 8,284

Referee: Wieland Ziller (East Germany)

19 September 1990

19:00 CEST

APOEL	2–3	Bayern Munich
Gogić 5' Pantziaras 78'	Report	Reuter 71' McInally 87' Strunz 89'

Makario Stadium, Nicosia

Attendance: 11,000

Referee: Ștefan Petrescu (Romania)