The final was played in West Germany over two legs, at the Bökelbergstadion., Mönchengladbach, and at the Waldstadion, Frankfurt.

It was won by Eintracht Frankfurt, who defeated title holders and fellow West German side Borussia Mönchengladbach on the away goals rule after a 3–3 aggregate draw to claim their first UEFA Cup title.

The competition was notable for the dominance of West German teams, who were only knocked out of the tournament among themselves, setting up for an all-German final, the first out of the two ever played in UEFA history.

All four semi-finalists came from West Germany, with this being the only instance in a UEFA club competition, and one of them defeated the fifth team in the quarter-finals.

This was the last edition of the UEFA Cup where the 64 spots were allocated to the respective associations by the invitation method inherited from the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.

Beginning in 1980, the newly introduced UEFA country rankings would determine the number of teams for each country, based on results from the five-year period preceding the last completed season.

The original allocation scheme was as follows: Czechoslovakia was the only association selected to have an extra third birth for this season, while Bulgaria and East Germany went back to two qualified teams.

The remaining spot went to West Germany for title holders Borussia Mönchengladbach.

With this being the last season before the introduction of the UEFA rankings, only four of the 20 two-team associations had never been chosen for the extra third birth over eight seasons of rotation: Greece, Turkey, Denmark and Norway.

1–1 on aggregate; Dundee United won on away goals.

Carl Zeiss Jena won 4–1 on aggregate.

Red Star Belgrade won 3–1 on aggregate.

Red Star Belgrade won 6–4 on aggregate.

2–2 on aggregate; Lokomotiv Sofia won on away goals.

3–3 on aggregate; Eintracht Frankfurt won on away goals.