their second East German championship, the club could celebrate the biggest success in club history when they won the Cup Winners' Cup against title holders AC Milan, beating them 2–0 in De Kuip in Rotterdam. 1. FC Magdeburg would be the only East German football club to triumph in a European competition. In the next season, 1. FC Magdeburg defended their Oberliga title successfully and topped their record attendance once more, averaging 22,923 spectators. The European Super Cup that usually pitted the Cup Winners' Cup and European Cup winners against each other was not played, supposedly because the two clubs involved could not fit it into their schedules, but a political motivation has since been suggested, as West German powerhouse FC Bayern Munich would have been the opposition. However, the two teams were drawn against each other in the first round of the European Cup, and Bayern won both matches. In 1976, Heinz Krügel was relieved of his duties as manager of 1. FC Magdeburg, as he had fallen into disgrace with the SED cadres. They considered him politically unreliable. His successor was Klaus Urbanczyk. 1. FC Magdeburg would not win any more championships, but always finished in the top four for the rest of the 1970s. In the FGDB-Pokal, 1. FC Magdeburg was more successful, winning the competition in 1978 and 1979, against Dynamo Dresden (1–0) and BFC Dynamo (1–0 a.e.t.). The late 1970s saw 1. FC Magdeburg play against a number of famous teams in the European competitions. In the 1976–77 UEFA Cup, 1. FC Magdeburg went out in the quarter-finals against eventual winners Juventus, in the 1977–78 UEFA Cup Magdeburg met FC Schalke 04 and beat them 4–2 and 3–1, making 1. FC Magdeburg the only team to beat Schalke 04 in a European competition at their home Parkstadion. But 1. FC Magdeburg went out in the quarter-finals again, eventual winners PSV Eindhoven scoring the deciding goal with just 90 seconds left on the clock. The 1980s From the end of the 1970s, 1. FC Magdeburg did not have much more success in the league, aside from a third-placed finish in 1981. This had a profound effect on attendances: While until the 1976–77 season the club had averaged 18,000 spectators or more – with attendances of up to 45,000 against Dynamo Dresden or FC Carl Zeiss Jena, the season average had now dropped to a mere 13,000