The 1981 UEFA Cup Final was an association football match played over two legs between AZ '67 of the Netherlands and Ipswich Town of England.

The first leg, at Ipswich's home ground Portman Road, was an ill-disciplined match which saw Aris' Giorgos Foiros sent off after a second yellow card towards the end of the first half.

[16] Two weeks later, Aris won 3–1 in the return leg, taking an early 2–0 lead with goals from Thalis Tsirimokos and Konstantinos Drampis, before Eric Gates pulled one back for Ipswich.

[22][23] Three weeks later, Ipswich faced Widzew Łódź from Poland, who had defeated Manchester United and Juventus in previous rounds, at Portman Road.

[26] On a frozen pitch which many observers considered to be dangerous,[27] Widzew Łódź won the away leg 1–0 with Marek Pięta [pl] scoring for them but went out 5–1 on aggregate.

[34][35] The 2–0 aggregate victory ensured that Ipswich qualified for their first (and, as of 2023[update], their only) European cup final,[36] where they would face Dutch team AZ '67.

This time, the first leg ended 6–0 with goals from Hugo Hovenkamp, Kristen Nygaard, Jan Peters (2), Kurt Welzl and Pier Tol.

[37] The second leg, played in front of 1,500 spectators at the Stade du Thillenberg, Differdange, ended in a 4–0 victory to the Dutch team, which included a Kees Kist hat-trick.

[38] In the second round, AZ faced the Bulgarian side Levski Spartak with the first leg held at the Georgi Asparuhov Stadium in Sofia.

Radnički Niš equalised early in the second half with a penalty from Dragan Pantelić before AZ regained the lead with a goal from Kist.

[41] At home, AZ once again dominated their opposition, with another Kist hat-trick and goals from Nygaard and Welzl ending the game 5–0 and the tie 7–2 on aggregate to the Dutch club.

[43] The second leg saw AZ's only defeat on their route to the final, losing 1–0 to a first-half René Verheyen goal, but the Dutch side still progressed to the semi-final, winning 2–1 on aggregate.

Thierry Meyer [fr] scored a late consolation goal for the French club but the game ended 3–2 to AZ, and the Dutch team qualified for their first European cup final.

[48] AZ '67, who had defeated Feyenoord in the Eredivisie to win the Dutch league title with six games to spare in their previous match, were able to play their full-strength side, Kist replacing Welzl in the starting eleven.

[48] During the first third of the match, Ipswich won several corners without capitalising but were caught offside numerous times by a disciplined AZ defensive line.

[49][52] A third goal for Ipswich, this time from Mariner after Brazil had beaten his opposition player and put in a low pass to the near post,[49] saw the English team win the game and take a 3–0 lead into the second leg at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam.

"[54] Robson's future at Ipswich was subject to debate as he had been linked to other clubs including Sunderland, who had offered him a then-British record of £1 million over ten years.

[58] Thijssen scored four minutes into the game following a poor clearance of a Gates corner by AZ's Peter Arntz,[59] giving Ipswich a 4–0 aggregate lead.

[24][60] Cooper made two saves late in the second half which were described by Mike Green writing in the Aberdeen Press and Journal as "superb", including one to deny a Welzl header from 6 yards (5.5 m).

[60] Despite most of the later action taking place in the Ipswich penalty area, the English club held on to win 5–4 on aggregate,[60] and Cooper was named man of the match.

[66] At the event, Robson announced that he would remain with Ipswich for the following season, having turned down Sunderland and opting not to apply for the Manchester United manager's position.

The second leg at Pittodrie saw both Gordon Strachan and John Wark score from the penalty spot before Peter Weir settled the tie with two goals.

[72] Subsequently, AZ '67's most successful European football campaign was when they reached the semi-final of the 2004–05 UEFA Cup where they lost 4–3 on aggregate to the Portuguese club Sporting Lisbon.