To celebrate the launch of Connecting the Continent, here's a ranking of all the finals in the period covered in the book, from 1956 to 1969.
The first fifteen years of Europe’s elite club competition Featured some of the best ever European Cup or Champions League finals ever. Legends were cemented, reputations burnished and clubs clinched their spots in the European football walk of fame. Part One: Spots 14 - 8.
7. Real Madrid 4 v Reims 3 (1956)
The first ever final was a classic and remains the only time a final has ended 4-3 and it was a true ding-dong affair. Reims, playing in close by Paris and led by Raymond Kopa stormed into a 2-0 lead inside 10 minutes. Midfielder Michel Leblond scoring the first ever European Cup final goal.
But Madrid were not about to roll over and goals from their Argentines Hector Rial and Alfredo Di Stefano brought the match level at half-time. In the second half Reims would retake the lead but strikes from Marquitos and Rial again, would see Real etch their name in history. It wouldn't be the first time.
The trophy had been donated by L’Equipe who had commissioned master goldsmith Léon Maeght to create it and the journalists presented the medals to both teams. Following the match, Di Stéfano entered the Reims dressing room with the trophy full of champagne (presumably from Reims). Both teams drank from the cup in celebration of a terrific final and the dawn of a new era. Real also left Paris with another shiny piece of silver, the signature of Raymond Kopa.
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6. Milan 2 v Real Madrid 3 (AET) (1958)
Two years after their triumph in Paris, Madrid met Milan in Brussels. It would be the first final held at a neutral venue and the first to go to extra-time.It was also a perfect illustration of the influence of South America on the early years of the competition.
After a goalless first half Milan started the second half brighter and went one ahead through Juan Schiaffino. After neat passing between Liedholm and Grillo the ball fell to the Uruguyan on the edge of the box and he swivelled to hit a half-volley on his left foot past the despairing Madrid Captain Juan Alonso.
Madrid would level with 15 minutes remaining through Di Stéfano but back came the Rossoneri, Grillo putting them ahead on 77 minutes with a long range strike but their lead would last for only a minute. Joseito, a threat down the right wing chipped a cross back for Rial who cushioned a volley over Soldan and under the cross bar.
Four goals, all made in South America. Sadly, none of the wonderful Argentinians would represent their country in the World Cup that summer, as the AFA decided to select only players playing in the Argentine league.
In extra-time, yet another Argentine, Tito Cucchiaroni, almost won it for Milan, hitting the bar but it was left to a European to get the winner, the irrepressible Paco Gento. His initial shot bounced back to him and he smashed the rebound home.
It was harsh on Milan who had been the better team for the majority of the game and it was probably the closest Madrid came to slipping up during their five-in-a-row.
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5. Inter 3 Real Madrid 1 (1964)
After a two-year hiatus, Real, Di Stefano and Puskas were back in the final for one last dance against Helenio Herrera's Inter. The Nerazzuri's defensive solidity was in full-view in their first final with tight-marking limiting opportunities for Real who had enjoyed altogether more innocent and expansive affairs in previous years.
Inter took a 1-0 lead into half-time, courtesy of Sandro Mazzola’s 20-yard shot. Facchetti played him a pass in the inside left channel and made a run for a return pass, dragging two Real defenders with him. Mazzola exploited the space and by the time pressure was put on the ball, he released a dipping shot which flew past Vicente.
Madrid’s ageing defence was exposed for the second and third goals. A bouncing clearance was recovered by Mazzola and he laid it into Milani, whose 25 yard shot was parried into the net by Vicente. After Felo had pulled one back for Real with 20 minutes remaining, Mazzola killed the game off. Jose Santamaria Madrid's long-time colossus at the back attempted to overhead kick the ball clear, but it bounced back off the chasing Mazzola, putting him through on goal and he coolly poked the ball into the far corner.
Puskás gave his shirt to the opposition’s best player telling Mazzola: ‘I played against your father. You did him proud, and I want to give you my shirt.’ Puskás had indeed played against Valentino Mazzola, for Hungary against Italy in Turin in 1947.
But it would be the end of the tournaments icon - Di Stefano. He had fallen out with Madrid manager Miguel Muñoz during the match and on the cusp of 38, Madrid decided it was time for fresh blood. Bernabéu offered him a role at the club in a position of his choosing but, crucially, not a position on the field. Offended and still confident he could do a job, Di Stéfano joined Espanyol.
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4. Celtic 2 Inter 1 (1967)
Celtic became the first team from the British Isles to reach the final doing so in their first appearance in the competition. It was a remarkable story and it would only get more astounding.
Ahead of the match at his Press Conference, Jock Stein promised that ‘we are going to attack as we have never attacked before.’ He was true to his word.
The Hoops did not get off to their best start, conceding a penalty after 7 minutes. Sandro Mazzola stepped up in the stadium in which his father had played his final match. His calmness betrayed any emotions as he put Simpson in the Celtic goal the wrong way.
Inter had their lead and now could sit back and challenge Celtic to break them down. It became a virtual game of attack versus defence. Inter dropping further and firther back, Celtic's intensity creating wave after wave of attack.
Eventually the dam broke and full back Tommy Gemmell met a cutback on the edge of the box and sent an unstoppable shot past Sarti. With their resistance now broken, Inter had nothing to give. They held on as long as they could before another long-range shot, this time from Murdoch, was diverted past Sarti via the slightest of touches by Chalmers.
The stats told the story as much as well as any match report. Celtic had 42 shots to Inter’s 3. 10 Corners to their 0. Inter had become the bogeyman of European football and their pragmatism had won few admirers across the continent. Celtic's victory ushered in a new era of Northern European dominance and a victory for attacking football.
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3. Barcelona 2 Benfica 3 (1961)
The Stadion Wankdorf in Berne was the setting in which the first team other than Real Madrid would become Champions of Europe. Only 26,000 the lowest ever attendance for a European Cup Final, would witness one of the greatest finals in the tournament's history.
Benfica led by Bela Guttmann were the underdogs against Helenio Herrera's Barca who had knocked out Real Madrid. With their trio of Magical Magyars Czibor Kocsis and Kubala supported by the European Footballer of the Year Luis Suarez.
Kocsis again, who put the Catalans in front after 20 minutes but the game would turn in two mad minutes on the half hour. First Jose Águas equalized for Benfica with his eleventh of the tournament, sliding home after Cavem had run onto a fine through ball from Coluna. Then an innocuous ball into the box saw Gensana mistime his header and as the ball came down below the crossbar, Barca keeper Rammalets lost it in the sun, palming the ball off the post and into the net. 10 minutes after half-time Coluna, made it 3-1, with a trademark volley from outside the box. Benfica were 3-1 up.
Czibor scored a magnificent goal to bring Barca back into it. Smashing a bouncing ball on the half-volley into the top corner with shades of Zidane in 2002, minus the hanging cross but there was not to be an equalizer. He and Kocsis, left the field in tears, haunted by their failure seven years earlier with Hungary in the same venue.
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2. Benfica 5 Real Madrid 3 (1962)
Benfica had to defend their crown against the ultimate champions, as Real returned to the final after a one-year hiatus. Thankfully they now had Eusébio in their ranks. The match
Real Madrid stormed into a 2-0 lead, both goals coming from Puskás. but within 10 minutes Benfica were level. First, Águas reacted quickest to get the rebound after a Eusébio free-kick cannoned off the post, then in the 33rd minute, Eusébio layed off a cross to Cavem waiting at the edge of the box and another left-footed half volley, put Benfica level.
In a breathless first half, there was still time for Puskás to grab his hat-trick. A Real counter-attack was broken up but the loose ball fell to ‘Little Bam Bam’ and he fired it home with that trusty left foot from the edge of the area. It was his second hat-trick in a final, actually his second in a row, a remarkable record. Only two other others have scored one (Di Stéfano and Pierino Prati).
Despite being behind, at half-time, Guttmann played on Real’s age, telling his team ‘they cannot win, Real Madrid cannot run, Di Stéfano is dead’, instructing Domiciano Cavém to man mark Di Stéfano. This change forced Puskás, deprived of service, to come deeper for the ball and it was in such a moment that Benfica equalised. Di Stéfano’s hurried ball forward found the Hungarian well inside his own half and a mis-control was seized on by Coluna. He unleashed a 30 yard shot that Araquistáin could not save, his second long-range goal in as many finals, to draw Benfica level.
Eusébio then put the ball in the same place on 64 minutes and 69 minutes. The first a penalty after he was brought down, the second a deflected free-kick from just outside the area. At 5-3 down the ageing legs of Puskás and Di Stefano did not have the energy to mount a comeback.
Eusébio asked for Puskás’ shirt at the end of the match, passing the torch to Europe’s brightest star. Ironically, the man for whom Eusébio would hand the mantle to, at the end of decade, was in attendance that night. Ajax youth player Johan Cruyff, was one of the ballboys.
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1. Eintracht Frankfurt 3 v Real Madrid 7
The 1960 European Cup final has defined a team, a player and an era and remains, over sixty years later, one of the most famous games in the history of club football. For Bernabéu, it was the culmination of his dream. For Di Stéfano, it was his finest hour, his equivalent to Pele (1970) and Maradona (1986) in the Mexican sunshine. For Puskás it served as the high point in his redemption arc, six years after the tragedy of Berne.
Whilst Real were well known across Europe and favored to win, in Glasgow, fresh from seeing Eintracht humble Rangers 12-4 across the two legs in the semi-finals, expectations of a close encounter were significantly higher. Eintracht gave it a real go and struck first on 18 minutes. Kress, unmarked in the box connected with a cross and clipped a volley past Domínguez.
It was at this point Di Stéfano, showcased the full breadth of his abilities, sprinting back to his own box to deal with counter attacks, picking the ball up from the defenders to start attacks and the deadly poacher in front of goal. He would score twice in three minutes to turn the game around.
And then it was time for Puskás. He would score four unanswered, one on the stroke of half-time and then a 15 minute hat-trick as the second half began. Real were 6-1 up in the European Cup final. Di Stéfano would add a seventh in between consolations from Eintracht and the match ended up 7-3.
But the game was so much more than the scoreline as Real treated the record Glasgow crowd (still the highest ever attended European Cup or Champions League Final) to a full exhibition of their flicks and tricks, an ‘hypnotic exhibition of footwork' according to the great Scottish Football writer Hugh McIlvanney. Both teams were given an ovation by the crowd at the end with 40,000 fans staying for over an hour to applaud them and many more cheering the team as they were paraded through the city the next day. It was a seminal game in the UK, broadcast as it was across the country.
The defining game is the cherry on top of the cake for a dynastic period in sport. In the European Cup it has been achieved on only a few occasions and rarely in finals. Milan in 1994 and Barcelona in 2011 are the two that spring to mind. A complete demonstration of their own superiority. ‘As the game went on, we weren’t really aware of the level we had reached; we only thought about winning,’ said the centre back Santamaría in an interview with the Guardian to mark the 60th anniversary. ‘Afterwards we realised that we had marked an era in football, that we had done something that would be very hard to equal.’