Estudiantes would face Dutch side Feyenoord the following season, which saw the Europeans victorious. Oscar Malbernat ripped off Joop van Daele's glasses and trampled on them claiming that he was "not allowed to play with glasses". Dutch side Ajax, European champions of 1971, would decline to face Uruguay's Nacional due to violence in previous editions, which resulted in European Cup runners-up, Greek side Panathinaikos, participating. Ajax fears about Nacional's brutal game were confirmed. In the first game in Athens, Uruguayian striker Julio Morales broke the leg of Yiannis Tomaras with a brutal blow. According to the Greek press of the time, the sound of the fracture was heard up to the stands. The Greek defender collapsed on the ground and was transported unconscious out of the field. The medical diagnosis was a fracture of the tibia and fibula, an injury that effectively ended his career. Nacional won the series 3–2 on aggregate.